Starring: James Bond (IV), Pat Boone, Anita Bryant, Karen Edgely, Bob Eubanks Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: August 19, 2003 Running Time: 91 minutes Theatrical Release Date: December 20, 1989
Product Description: Follow the microphone trail of a man who tries to get an interview with general motors chairman orger smith to talk about the problems of the modern automotive industry in this scathingly funny docu-comedy. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 08/19/2003 Run time: 90 minutes Rating: R Director: Michael Moore
Amazon.com essential video: Roger and Me is a loose, smart-alecky documentary directed and narrated by Michael Moore, an everyman host with a devastating wit and a working-class pose. When his hometown is devastated by the plant closure of an American corporate giant (making record profits, one should note), the hell-raising political commentator with a prankster streak tries to turn his camera on General Motors Chairman Roger B. Smith, the elusive Roger of the title, and the film is loosely structured around Moore's odyssey to track down the corporate giant for an interview.
While Moore ambushes his corporate subjects like a blue-collar Geraldo Rivera, a guerrilla interviewer who treasures his comic rebuffs as much as his interviews, his portraits of the colorful characters he meets along the way can be patronizing. The famous come off as absurdly out of touch (Anita Bryant appears for some can-do cheerleading, and hometown celebrity Bob Eubanks tells some boorish jokes), and the disenfranchised poor (notably an unemployed woman who sells rabbit meat to make ends meet) all too often appear as buffoons or hicks. But behind his loose play with the facts and snarky attitude is a devastating look at the victims of downsizing in the midst of the 1980s economic boom. This portrait of Reagan's America and the tarnish on the American dream comes down to a simple question: what is corporate America's responsibility to the country's citizens? That's a question no one at GM wants to answer. --Sean Axmaker
Movie for Bob This movie was purchased as a backup to the VHS version for my Economics Instructor at college.
very good despite a minor flaw here and there Roger & Me is a somewhat humorous documentary by Michael Moore about the devastating economic effects of Flint, Michigan when General Motors chairman Roger B. Smith chooses to close eleven car manufacturing plants there. The town is financially reeling from the 30,000 lost jobs and Flint slumps into a semi-depression.
Moore also attempts many, many times in this film to track Roger Smith (who is the Roger referred to in the title of the film) and interview him. Not surprisingly, Smith and his cronies have Moore all figured out and Moore is never able to catch Smith off-guard--except once, and I'll let that be a surprise to you because I don't want to give too many spoilers here!
As the film progresses, we meet the desperately poor people of Flint who are being evicted from their homes practically every day--in one day the sheriff's deputy evicts people from 24 homes! We also see the very rich people playing golf and having theme parties ("The Great Gatsby" theme party, for example) and these wealthy people do in fact appear to be ridiculously out of touch with the real, painful problems of the poor. Just as one woman playing golf is hitting her golf ball, she is caught on camera saying that the poor are taking "the easy way out." What on earth was SHE doing when she was playing golf instead of maybe doing some charity work with the less fortunate? I never had the feeling that the rich people in their highly insulated communities around Flint ever truly understood the plight of the poor people.
Unfortunately, it is equally true that General Motors never signed a contract with the people of Flint to provide them with jobs and health insurance from cradle to grave. That's the way things go in our society--you or your employer can end the employment at any time, with or even without notice. I believe that's the case in most if not all fifty states. Naturally, this does not mean I don't feel great, great empathy and sympathy for those who were laid off; it's just that when GM closed those eleven plants we got an ugly reminder of just how rough this type of non-contracted employment can be.
I suppose Moore could have made his film a bit more balanced; to produce a solid documentary you really need to show both sides of the story. Moore tries to accomplish this by interviewing a friend of Roger Smith; but the footage Moore chooses to give us is that of a man who couldn't possibly care less about the General Motors employees.
The DVD is light on extras although we do get an optional commentary by Michael Moore.
Overall, Roger & Me is at times sad and at other times entertaining; we see a portrait of just how harsh "free enterprise" can be to the common man who depends on their weekly paycheck for survival. The humor we do get is not bad but Moore could have been a bit more even handed in his presentation of the issue. I nevertheless recommend this film for Michael Moore fans and people who study politics, political science and work related issues. People who are truly concerned with the plight of everyday human beings and the working poor will also appreciate this movie.
Roger and Me DVD Michael Moore tends to be a bit skewed in his perspective, however, when there is enough evidence to support his skewed perspective it makes for a more frigthening picture. My having lived in Flint, MI for nine years may not have ever happened had I seen the movie before the move there because I may never have moved- too much of it is (still) true!
Roger & Me DVD Overall, Roger & Me was a great movie. The DVD cover had some scratches on it, but the DVD itself plays perfectly.
The DVD arrived rather quickly.
Roger is worse than Evel "Roger and Me' is a riveting, fast-paced, fascinating and scitillating tale of Michael Moore's efforts to get the evil Roger to face him in front of his noble movie crew. I was at the edge my seat from the first to last second of this truly superb, academy award quality, film. We learn about how the hard working proletariat of the quaint village of Flint, Michigan have been foully betrayed by that behemoth of Capitalism--dare I say it--General Motors.
General Motors is outsourcing jobs to Mexico [?] and millions of people are being laid off. Most of the unemployed people turn to lives of crime, basketball, alcoholism and rabbit killing. It's absolutely disgusting--delicate women skinning rabbits to make fur coats for fat cat Capitalist women who never did a lick of real work.
Well, the General Motor Capitalists are doing right well for themselves in the midst of poverty and starvation. They are eating carved food, drinking martinis, playing old ladies golf and forcing pitiful jackasses to jump into pools of water. Did I say it was disgusting? Fortunately, a film which had the potential to be truly crummy, is saved by Michael Moore's monotone.
Thank God for Michael Morre. Thank God for the masses. Thank God for the noble workers who make the United Auto Workers great. And let General Motors, its fat cat executives and all Capitalists and Capitalism in general...eat strawberry cake...Nah!! It's the guillotine, instead.
Of course, now in the day of antigas and anti-big car sentiment, this movie looks kinda stupid.
Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico
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