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Editorial Reviews
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
Customer Reviews
Typical Factless Nonsense (2004-07-20)  Why not called this movie instead "The Unions Killed Flint, Michigan"? Moore implies that the Flint plant was the best in class. If the plant was so good then why did GM close it? To move the production somewhere that they could produce for a better price? Exactly. Isn't that what capitalism is? Truth is that this plant and many other industrial outfits in America became bloated and expensive because of terribly inefficient union operations. Aren't companies in business to sell products? When they sell more they continue to employ more people otherwise they go under. Do you realize that only 2 of the original 30 Dow Jones companies still exists? These things don't last unless the companies make tough decisions. You always have to get cheaper or the competition kills you. Actually haven't the Germans and Japanese pretty much eaten our lunch in the auto market anyway? I'm sure it would be smarter to continue to make even worse, more expensive cars. That'll put the U.S. back on top in autos. Put blame where it really lies. No one wins when a huge corporation languishes and falls further behind. Would you rather lose some jobs to Mexico or lose 500,000 jobs altogether (yeah, half a million employees). I love the argument that GM had "record profits". Don't most companies have "record profits" every year? You grow 1% - isn't that 1% better than last year and therefore a "record"... yeah, it's a terrible year to grow just 1% but it's still a "record". Most companies grow over time. If they don't they have to lay people off to stay competitive. It is incumbent upon you and I to keep ourselves ready for the job market because we could be ditched at any time, just like we can ditch our company at any time. Has to be that way. Moore, like most of you, knows nothing about economics. And is it surprising that Roger Smith never meets him? Trust me, this guy is so busy he has no time to make an appearance for this little meaningless film which amounts to little more than a smear campaign. If he took the time to meet him, what critical issues would he be missing. Can you even imagine the demands on a guy at this level? Doubtful that you can.
Gone now (2004-07-19)  A thinner, shaved Michael Moore goes after Roger Smith of General Motors for ignoring the plight of the people of Flint, Michigan. A comical look at the 80's, though a real downer of a movie, especially the Christmas scenes. Hard to imagine a bigger scrooge, though I see no reason why anything would be different all these years later. I wonder what Smith would say about F911 Michael Durankowww.bootism.com
Let us listen to the downtrodden for once! (2004-07-19)  Flint was a paradise: their GM factory was the most modern and efficient of them all, its workforce the best trained and motivated. Then, out of the blue - GM announces that they are closing the factory and moving to Mexico. Flint is destroyed. It now looks more like an Eastern European ghost city, its factory closed, houses borded up, empty dirty streets. One of those who lost their jobs was Michael Moore's father. Michael sets out to tell his father's story to the head of GM, Roger. The film is partly a bout Flint. All the failed attempts to bring new business to the town, and the various ways the inhabitants try to cope. The stupidity of the Town Council is amazing. Moore does not give them their jobs back, but he rescues them from anonymity; he gives them a voice, and a face. He tells that behind the profit margins, behind the business strategies, we have human beings. Humans with dreams and emotions, just like Roger. They do not have a Board, or millions of dollars backing them though. We also follow Michael Moore's hilarious attempts at meeting with Roger, just to ask him to go to Flint.This is Moore's first film. In many ways it is is best, because it is so close to his heart. Hilariously funny, and hearbreaking at the same time. The episode of the rabbit lady, and the rather dim Miss Michigan, are minor classics.
Michael's best - and here's why... (2004-07-19) With all the fuss over Farenheit 911 many people will overlook Michael's brilliant, heartbreaking (and funny!) Roger & Me. Of course Dittoheads won't get it but what makes this movie important is that for once, somebody shows the suffering that results from the quest for profit without consideration of the consequences. Ever since the Republican Revolution I've been hearing that I must take responsiblity for my actions. But Roger takes none. Bupkis. He is a babe in the woods. This time around its Roger Smith. But it could just as easily been "Kenny Boy" Lay. Certain things are just plain wrong and everyone, moderate, conservative, whatever, should distance themself from condoning such behavior. But no. Conservatives would rather whitewash what goes on in Roger & Me, saying things like "That's the American way" or "Take responsibility" (Of what? How?) and this is why someone, finally, had to respond.
You've got to be kidding... (2004-07-18)  I have to laugh to myself reading some of these reviews, where the authors actually regurgitate some of Moore's distortions as fact. One minor example: Moore shows several scenes where he's "trying to reach" Roger Smith (chairman of GM), at the NY Yacht Club and other very exclusive locales. He doesn't actually say that Smith belongs to the club, but by showing up there and wandering around for a few minutes, asking for him on camera, it's pretty well implied. In fact, three of the places that Moore goes to in order to "try to reach Mr. Smith" are clubs that Mr. Smith has never belonged to (including the NYYC). Further, Mr. Smith has stated publicly that he has never been to them in his life. Moore might as well have gone to Antarctica, then claimed that Smith was avoiding him because they didn't happen to run in to each other there. This is one example of dozens of knowingly and proven false implications and outright lies in Roger & Me and Moore's subsequent mockumentaries. Whether you agree with Moore's politicial views or not, anyone who accepts this stuff without sniffing around for real facts a bit is simply weak minded. If you keep smelling something unpleasant, you're likely standing in it, even if you haven't noticed it on your shoe yet. I personally don't think that we are collectively that stupid, so unfortunately I think Moore hasn't helped anyone decide to vote for Kerry or Bush, but rather has simply managed to bring the lowest common denominator of political discourse even lower.
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