If you’ve read past the headline, I’ll assume you’re open-minded enough about the work of filmmaker Michael Moore to hear him out. A favorite bogeyman of the right at least since he did his damnedest to take down the presidency of George W. Bush with Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore’s reputation among those on the opposite end of the political spectrum from his own gleeful liberalism severely limits the potential size of the audience for his work.
Which is a shame, because his films never fail as entertainment. Yes, they can employ oversimplifications in their arguments — as when, in Bowling For Columbine, he opened a few unlocked doors in a Canadian city and implied that the people of that entire country feel so safe that they have no use for keys.
Moore is a provocateur, certainly. But he would argue that there are times when it’s appropriate to provoke the public into taking action.
On the face of it, Where to Invade Next is a gentler brand of Moore diatribe. Instead of focusing primarily on where he believes America has gone astray, his mission is to show us what he thinks other countries are doing right. It has some similarities in this respect to his 2007 film Sicko, in which he compared health care in other countries favorably to the American for-profit system.
What he highlights in Where to Invade Next — regarding education, employment, treatment of drugs, and prisons — will be eye-opening for many Americans. The travelogue structure includes visits to several European countries, as well as Tunisia, and Moore (as always) brings humor to his discoveries by playing the part of a simple-minded, disbelieving American.
Early on he explains this film will point to the good stuff found in other societies, not ponder the bad stuff that might come along with it. So is it a little disingenuous to discuss the months of paid vacation time Italian workers typically enjoy without acknowledging Italy’s unemployment and poverty rates, which are significantly higher than those in the U.S.? Would I prefer that instead of merely asserting that citizens of more socialist countries like France pay “just a little bit more” in taxes in exchange for the additional government benefits they receive, he would tell us the difference in exact dollar figures? Yes.
However, Moore’s aim is to inspire a revolution by helping Americans to see that there are other ways to do things. He wants his audience to ponder that, even if you consider the United States the greatest country in the world, there are practices elsewhere that could help us make it even better. To that end, he’s here to share the big ideas — if we buy into those, he’s confident we can find a way to work out the details.
The most convincing segments of this film center on school lunches and the treatment of prisoners. Moore juxtaposes the low nutritional value, frozen and fried, typical American cafeteria meal with the fine dining he finds children enjoying in France. He visits a penitentiary in Norway where prisoners — even convicted killers — are free to roam the grounds of an island, have their own unlocked rooms and free access to kitchen cutlery.
What these and the other strongest moments of Where to Invade Next have in common is an appeal to basic human dignity. It’s a reminder that we can, that we should, do better by our kids and by our fellow citizens.
That’s a lesson worth pondering even if you believe Moore is on the entirely wrong track about how to do so.
