Roger & Me (1989)

People are voting emotionally.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Saw this documentary at a college English class. It is about the closure of a General Motors (GM) plant at Flint, Michigan, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 jobs. Therefore, filmmaker Michael Moore tries to get an interview with and confront GM CEO Roger Smith.The film takes a look at the aftermath of the layoffs and the many lives it effects, and the quest in holding employers accountable. I remember one such scene where a lady had to resort to go about other means in getting food, like skinning a rabbit, which startled just about the class watching.Some eyeopening and educational stuff here.Grade B

I first heard of this documentary when it was praised by Chicago legendary film critics, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel on their television show. This documentary shows how General Motors built and destroyed Flint, Michigan. The factories closed and unemployment soared as thousands became jobless. Michael Moore is a rebel with a cause. He wants justice and fairness. The fat cats like Roger Smith, Chairman of General Motors, is the Roger in the film. Moore has watched his hometown of Flint, Michigan into a ghost town with abandoned houses and closed businesses. Moore wanted answers from Roger about how he could allow this happen to Flint. It is obvious that Roger Smith and the other fat cats have no conscience about closing factories and laying off thousands of employees.

Before the success of films like Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, documentary director Michael Moore started small with this "one- off" which was considered great viewing by the critics, and being in the book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die I was definitely going to watch. This film documents the regional negative economic impact of car manufacturing company General Motors to the town of Flint, Michigan, with several of the auto plants closing and causing the loss of over 30,000 jobs (80,000 to date). The numerous actions of company CEO Roger Smith also cause negative results, so it follows Moore trying to find and talk to Smith himself in the various places he is meant to turn up, for leisure or business. The various people and businesses affected by the loss of work, capital, funding and finances are interviewed, bankruptcy and bad spending is focused, and archive footage is used well to show all this stuff as well. I did like the attention to detail put into it, and it was certainly interesting to see a town self implode and become "the worst state in America", but I maybe did not find this as engaging as Moore's later works, but overall it is a most watchable documentary. Very good!

Flint is small town that was for many years a extension to General Motors factory. One morning boss of Genergal Motor – Roger Smith woke up and discover the fact that closing the factory and fire of 30,000 people can make better business than carry on with production, despite the fact that factory didn't bring any losses."Roger and Me" is document where Michael Moore report the slow but systematic fall of his hometown because of Roger Smith decision. Moore just want one thing – bring Roger Smith to the town, so he can see with his own eyes the fallout. I wont spoiler, let me just say the one of last scene of this movie is very eerie and surreal.This is very interesting document, when every reported thing is scary, curious and funny. My favorite moment is interview with women breeding rabbits (for pets, and for meat), but all of this encounters with Flint's peasants are at least informative. Yeah, it's a manipulation by Moore like always (I hate his Fahrenheit because of that), but here he selected and arranged the moment in very powerful way. The situation is real, and the horror of it its more then real, when we see this hopeless, not very bright people who where just because of one man decision put on the highway to hell.And of course this movie is all about Moore. He is everywhere, non stop commenting, but the god-crusader from last scene of "Bowling for columbine" (Heston) is no where near here, and that's a good thing. This movie is just a well aimed shot, a punk-rock scream for a social injustice. This is art for document with power to stir up emotion and show people ugly things just the way they are: evictions, parades, idiotic city decision – ignorance, foolishness, powerlessness – its all powerful evil, and the last scene with very sad Christmas Carol its surreal.