No.290 : Where to Invade Next (2015)

Where to Invade Next at the IMDb

In part two of our documentary double bill we take a look at this offering from Michael Moore. I wasn’t looking forward to it much as he has gotten a bit preachy of late, but it was good fun and interesting, albeit lacking some balance.

Moore opens the film by claiming he’d been summoned to the Pentagon by the joint chiefs of staff so he could advise them. From this point you realise that we are in the realms of fantasy and you may need to order in a truckload of salt to accept what follows. The military ask for Moore’s advice as they haven’t won a war since WW2. Where are they going wrong and what can they do to improve matters?

Moore agrees to ‘invade’ various countries and to take bits from them to improve America. This is clearly a flimsy premise, but it does help Moore showcase some good socio-economic policies that could benefit the United States.

He starts in Italy and is agog at the holiday entitlement of the workers. One couple share their holiday snaps which includes the knockout wife in a variety of skimpy bikinis. Italians get 35 days of paid holidays a year whereas Americans are guaranteed zero. Moore, who presumably had done his research before he set off, stands open mouthed at the revelation. He’s also amazed by the two hour lunches and numerous other worker benefits. He says Italians are as productive as Americans but doesn’t show his working. He also skips over the fact that the Italians are an economic basket case who are constantly needing bailouts. He qualifies this by saying he’s there to pick the flowers and not the weeds. This, to me, is a bit of a cop out. It’s like saying Auschwitz has excellent parking facilities and forgetting everything else that went on there.

Each segment ends with Moore planting an American flag and saying he’s claiming whatever good stuff he finds for America.

I enjoyed the fun and breezy outlook and, if you can overlook the agenda, there was a lot to like and to learn. The French, for example, have four course, free school meals including a cheese offering. It was fun seeing the French kids laugh at the sloppy Joes and fish sticks consumed by their American cousins. Again Moore came up with slightly questionable data when he said the French meal cost the same as the American. I’m guessing that’s because the American has a corporate mark up, but no details were given.

The tour included German health care - with a rather gratuitous nude couple in a spa - Finnish education and liberal Portuguese drug laws. In isolation each of these policies were a good idea, but they were all shown out of context. Free college education for all is great but what is the health service like? Are they kind to wildlife? Are they mortgaging their children’s futures for benefits now?

This was of course an entertainment and not designed as official economic policy. It was a shame the UK didn’t rate a visit and to be honest we’re probably more aligned with the Americans than the Europeans these days. Of course he did praise the NHS in ‘Sicko’ so maybe we had our turn then.

Moore looked a lot older than his 60 odd years and was pretty infirm on his feet at times. He did however retain his sharp wit and talent for showing the absurd. I could see Americans reacting badly to this, as he basically says that every aspect of their society and culture is done better elsewhere. A lot of the points would be hard to argue, although I think I’d have the fish sticks ahead of that fennel and aubergine number any day!

Best Bit : Spa Day! 'W' Rating 20/23

No.289 : Which Way Home (2009)

Which Way Home at the IMDb

It’s time for a documentary double bill here at the ‘W’ Movie Blog. Our regular reader will attest that we cover all genres here, except perhaps porno, with the odd documentary feature a nice change of pace from the usual westerns and people being hit in the balls in frat movies.

‘Which Way Home’ (No question mark) is an Oscar Nominated documentary from 2009 which follows several children as they try to illegally enter the United States. I thought most illegals were Mexicans, but most of the people we follow are from further afield in Central America - Honduras, El Salvador and the like. These people are dirt poor and the idealised images of the US they see on TV are a persuading force in making them take the perilous journey of hundreds of miles on the back of freight trains.

The main children we follow are Kevin and Fito who are both barely teenagers. We get a bit of background of their plight as well, with cutaways back to the family home where their families are interviewed. The first stage is to get into Mexico and that seems relatively easy. The Mexicans seem nice with locals offering the kids food and a government body helping with advice and medical aid.

The train companies don’t want them however, but are unable to do much as the freight wagons are festooned with dozens of riders. We meet several other travellers and hear horrific tales of rape and murder. The kids are pretty streetwise but clearly vulnerable and prone to tears.

We also follows some migrants who end up in detention or even dead. People smugglers are happy to abandon their charges and there is one terrible sequence where a poor family have to go bureaucratic hoops to get their son’s body back from the Arizona desert where he perished.

The film was pretty unflinching, but the spirit of the children and their desire to pursue a desperate dream was enough to make it a positive experience rather than a depressing one. The filmmaker did well to keep track of her subjects over a 2000 mile journey that must have taken weeks. The camera work was excellent too, with a lot of shots taken from between and on top of the freight cars.

They didn’t follow the ‘show don’t tell’ rule  as there were regular captions giving additional information about what we were seeing - usually horrific statistics. I liked  this and felt that I came out of the film having learned something rather than having just watched some poverty porn.

Captions at the end let us know how most of those followed fared and it largely wasn’t as how they would have wanted. No doubt things will be worse now, a decade later, and it would be interesting to see the same documentary today.

The film didn’t attempt to offer solutions, merely presenting a snapshot of a humanitarian crisis that has to be addressed. Clearly if their home lives were better there wouldn’t be any reason to leave but I doubt economics would ever allow that to happen.

This was an excellent documentary that offered a lot of food for thought. Next time you moan about your train being five minutes late, spare a thought for these guys.

Best Bit : The 9 year old girl was adorable, hope she made it.  20/23

No. 114 : Who Killed The Electric Car? (2006)

Who Killed the Electric Car at the IMDb

Together with entertaining, the point of a documentary has to be informing and educating its audience. If you asked any person the question posed in the film’s title they’d no doubt reply ‘oil companies?’ - and guess what - you’d be right! As an exercise in the bleedin’ obvious the film does well, but less so when the criteria is to be enlightening and informative.

When the credits show that Martin Sheen is doing the narration and that Ed Begley Jnr. is a contributor you have a good idea where the film’s leanings lie and your instinct would be correct. It’s well enough made and it keeps its sound bites short while peppering the film with interesting facts and graphics. What is also does however is give you the sense that you’re being lectured and that the conclusions were drawn long before the first camera rolled.

The arguments presented are pretty damning with the electric car seemingly killed off despite its magical abilities. Of course the oil companies and the car manufacturers are interested in making money and it is hardly surprising that they did what they could to throw a spanner in the works. With the technology more or less proven the oil industry lost interest as they still have 30 years of supplies to flog. The car makers lose out on the lucrative servicing of the dirty gas guzzlers so they have an obvious interest in the status quo.

So that fair enough then, we are in a capitalist economy and the corporations should be free to do as they please as long as it’s legal. Not so, as this film gleefully shows with endless small groups of hippy types blockading car storage facilities and boo-hooing over the crushing of their beloved, but short range cars. All the usual suspects are trotted out with the self righteousness of some of the output strong enough to power a small nation.

There were a few interesting snippets and I was at least glad to see that technology exists that will serve us when the oil goes. For now the government is in the pocket of the oil companies and the wars in the gulf keep industry turning and the backhanders rolling in. It’s clearly not right but that’s how it is and nothing short of a revolution will stop that. Well a revolution or staging a tacky mock funeral for an ugly car at a cemetery.

The film is OK as a naive distraction but if they think anything will be changed by stating the obvious or staging cheap stunts they have to be as mental as the chap who clearly enjoys sticking more than his charger into his boxy car!

Best Bit : Mel Gibson’s beard
‘W’ Rating 11/23

No.39 : When We Were Kings (1996)

When We Were Kings at the IMDb

‘When We Were Kings’ is a 1997 documentary focusing on the famous ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in Zaire in 1974. The fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman has attained legendary status and this documentary features footage unseen until now owing to copyright issues.

The fight itself is something of a footnote with the action not starting until an hour into the film and lasting barely ten minutes of its running time. That’s fair enough as the boxing is only one aspect of a ground breaking event that captivated the world.

The film opens with a then youthful Don King announcing a $10 million purse and that the fight is going back home to Africa. It’s quickly revealed that this isn’t due to any worthy cultural reasons but due to the president of Zaire agreeing to put up the massive bank roll.

The footage follows both fighters through their preparations including the injury suffered by Foreman which delayed the action for six weeks. Interspersed between the clips are various worthies such as Norman Mailer, who talks about the fight, and Spike Lee, who predictably talks about it’s cultural impact on the oppressed black community.

The footage of Ali especially, is cracking with his ready wit and bristling personality at its height. The talk of the time was of his bravado as Foreman was highly fancied to win, but it was good to see him prevail using tactics that Rocky Ballboa would later employ in his rematch with Clubber Lang.

Added to the jamboree was the inclusion of both James Brown and BB King, and we are treated to short bursts of both their sets. Brown is especially pleasing with his short lived moustached and topless dancers.

The film has a pretty short running time with a montage of photos over the title track used to pad things out. This isn’t a criticism as such, as I’d rather it be short and sweet than bloated and worthy.

Overall ‘When We Were Kings’ is a cracking example of the sports documentary and a rare insight into the world of true legends.

Best Bit : The fix is in - oh it isn’t!

‘W’ Score : 18/23

No.16 : What Would Jesus Buy? (2007)

What Would Jesus Buy? at the IMDb

‘What Would Jesus Buy?’ is a documentary ‘presented by‘, but not featuring, burger muncher Morgan Spurlock. It’s basically a 90 minute one sided argument about the commercialisation of Christmas. We follow the crusade of a deluded self publicist, Rev. Billy, who travels across America to berate people who have the audacity to spend their cash on Christmas presents. Obviously paedophile priests and serial killers are too soft a target for this coiffured crusader.



It starts off in OK fashion as statistic are bandied about showing how much crap people spend in lieu of spending time with each other. Obviously statistics can be found to suit any argument - 75% of people know that. We also learn that Christmas almost died out in post revolutionary America but was brought back due the commercial element - is that what Santa died for?

Things fall away fast when the arguments for a more family orientated Christmas give way to Wal-Mart and Disney bashing. The Rev shows his colours by buying an ugly jumper in a small shop rather than get it for half the money at the local mega-mart. Ideas like supply and demand and capitalism aren’t addressed at all, as these are clearly contrary to his blinkered vision of what the world should be. Another point missed, is where the cash to buy all the more expensive stuff will come from when all the major employers such as Wal-Mart are run out of business.

Clearly our the Rev is a man of principle but you have to wonder how he finances his tour bus, hair spray and cell phones if he avoids all the evils of commercialism. Well you can buy his DVD on Amazon and no doubt Wal-Mart so maybe that’s a clue. He does have a strong platform though as everyone knows religion has only ever been a tool for good and not lots of murders, sodomies and grand larcenies.

Some of the ideas in the film were interesting, and the shots of sweat shop workers making the West’s toys were sobering, but one man’s point was hammered home so relentlessly that any idea of a balanced argument was lost after ten minutes. Stating the bleeding obvious may be a decent career but don’t go dressing it up as entertainment unless you want a disappointed audience.

Best Bit : I like the ‘get that wacko’ expressions on our singers faces as another protester made his own thoughts known. Physician heal thy self!

‘W’ Score 10/23