Truly Dreadful Film

hyped garbage

Awesome Movie

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The Big One fails on the two levels it aims at: political consciousness and entertainment.First the entertainment level. Michael Moore's "documentaries" are meant as half entertaining, half political much like his show "TV-nation" (BBC). The entertainment often takes the shape of embarrassing his enemies in front of the camera by confronting them with suggestive questions for which they are usually unprepared. This can be funny but a lot of times I just felt sorry for the people who were confronted by his blunt questions. Often it was like the Charlton Heston visit in Bowling for Columbine which was the weakest part of that documentary. I thought the majority of the DVD was boring and lacked structure. The first half I was wondering, what is this about? The Big One was all centered around Michael Moore's book tour, promoting his latest book. Who even cares about that stuff? I wanted to see him confront high-level executives from large corporations or government officials, with sharp questions, but I got to see none of what I had hoped for. The other level The Big One fails at is political consciousness. It lacks depth. The corporate management people he visits are always lower management (except for the Nike official), who don't have any authority on strategic decisions that force their plants to shut down locally and move to cheaper countries. Despite that, these people show themselves quite capable of defending their company's policies with rational arguments: they need to stay competitive in their market to survive, they are not charity after all. But Moore never really listened to them or even thought about their arguments. He just tried to keep waltzing over them repeating cheap suggestive questions like "how do you live with yourself" etcetera. Moore did have a point criticizing the government paying welfare to companies but failed to focus on one simple subject. He could have focused on just that one issue, or the Nike factories in Asia, or the factories that were shut down. That way he might have been able to put the finger on the REAL problems in all those cases, but I doubt it. I'll give it my two cents:-The main problem with companies that downsize is that they don't hurt the people that can take the biggest blows because they make the most money in those companies: the UPPER MANAGEMENT.-The other problem with companies that fire their people despite profits is they usually communicate badly and don't give enough time and compensation to the people that are sacked. The "right to have a job" is an outdated communist notion. Let these people look for a new job, just help them finding it!-Having factories in third world countries, even when they have a dictatorial regime, is NOT "unethical". These people would be off much worse without those factories. In fact in those countries most people are jealous of the people that do work in Nike factories because they can help support entire families. The people that have to get by with their own farms and other "native" means of making money have far more miserable lives and have to work even harder. The only thing that I would agree on is that Nike should hire more people and let them work less hours (keeping their costs the same), while improving working conditions.If you like Michael Moore: Fahrenheit 911 and particularly Bowling for Columbine are far superior. Despite their flaws (often presenting fiction as fact) they are entertaining and serve a purpose in broadening people's perspectives by displaying a different view on the subjects of terrorism and violence than most of the media.

The earliest of Moore's films I've seen so far, this is definitely not his best work... technically, this is the least impressive of the ones I've seen(the others are Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11). The editing, pacing and presentation just isn't as sharp or clean as the other two. The score isn't as ironic or fitting either. The humor, tone and 'direction' is just as good, though. This time, Moore takes a clean shot at corporate America, and clearly exposes the indifference of the common man's fate displayed by all executives. Several times in the documentary we're introduced to companies that, despite of high profits and no problems with their workers are laying people off, closing and moving factories... putting people out of work, effectively robbing them of their livelihood. As usual, it's done in Moore's fashion of outlining the facts that support his cause and denying or ignoring the ones that do not. Of course, he gets so many laughs throughout that you barely notice it... and what he says is true, at least to a certain extent. The interviews in which Moore asks all the right questions, usually very controversial and direct are inter-cut with what appears to be a stand-up performance by him, which adds a sense of closeness that means a lot for the effect of the film. Not as memorable and interesting as Bowling or Fahrenheit, but most definitely worth watching. I recommend this to any fan of Michael Moore and humorous documentaries. 8/10

Yet more excellent work from documentarian Michael Moore as he hits the road in 1996 for a 47-city tour to promote his new book "Downsize This". Funded by Random House Publishing, with that company having no idea that Moore is not just going to sign books, the all-world film-maker pulls no punches as he gets to the heart of corporation down-sizing just as some of the biggest money-makers in the U.S. start to have all-time record high profits. We see regular folks laid off by monsters like Pay Day (the candy bar company), Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Johnson Controls and Pillsbury. National corporations leaving the U.S. to pay lesser fees to employees in third-world countries is explained in great detail and Moore even has a unique conversation with Phil Knight, the CEO of Nike (also the only CEO brave enough to verbally spar), and needless to say Moore comes out looking much better than his opponent. "The Big One" shows the lack of political choices for the general public (the film makes it blatantly clear that the Clinton/Dole race of 1996 was a no-win vote) as blue-collar, middle-class workers fall in the work-place due to the lack of government control on power-mad corporations that only look at the bottom line and constantly talk about competition in their industry (this makes the big-wigs look even sillier in reality). The main theme from "Pulp Fiction" late during Moore's run of metropolitan areas ends up setting the overall tone of this exceptional documentary feature. 5 stars out of 5.

Michael may be pilloried by the Conservative establishment as a hypocrite, by the fact remains he is one of the most eloquent champions of the American working class. The Big one is just one in a long line of his documentaries that highlight the gross corruption that exists within the American Corporate culture, so much of which has permeated the rest of the world. He makes you laugh at the bad guys, which in itself cannot be a bad thing.