We’d assumed that Michael Moore made his new documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, for the Little People. You know, as, like, a public service, to bring those who were too busy or lazy or mentally disadvantaged to pick up a newspaper or take in any information in the myriad ways available over the past year up to speed on how this whole fi-cri thing went down. To help those who weren’t clever enough to form an opinion for themselves to feel the proper amount of outrage over how they got screwed by the Man. But no. Apparently Moore could care less about educating the populace. Capitalism: A Love Story was made, it seems, to send messages to a select number of important people.
One is the president, according to Moore’s interview with the Times, which asks him about a scene in the film that mentions that Goldman Sachs employees were a big source of President Obama’s contributions during the last election cycle.
“I really see an audience of one for that scene (President Obama),” Moore says. “I want him to know that we know that Goldman was his single-largest contributor and what he does with that is his choice — he can choose to side with them or with us.”
Consider yourself On Notice, Mr. President. Another is Bernie Madoff. Moore told the Daily News that it was “important to him” that the film be seen by the Ponzi-schemer, and to that end he’s trying to set up a screening at Bernie Madoff’s prison in Butner, North Carolina.
“If we can’t, we’ve discussed doing an outdoor screening in the field, so at least he can watch through the bars of the window,” Moore told the paper. “Bernie is representative of the scheme of capitalism itself. [Capitalism] is a pyramid where the richest 1% have as much financial wealth as the combined 95%. It’s a pyramid only a few people can be at the top of, and everyone else is made to believe that they can get to the top,” he explains. “It’s a bit of a ruse, and a ruse that’s not unsimilar to Mr. Madoff’s.”
Kind of seems like he went to a lot of trouble to reach these folks. Couldn’t he have just sent them an e-mail?
Bernie Madoff’s prison a target venue for Michael Moore and ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ [NYDN]
DealBook’s Interview With Michael Moore [DealBook/NYT]
Related: David Edelstein reviews Capitalism: A Love Story
