Welcome to Reel It In, a biweekly film column where I’ll keep it real, literally, by discussing an often-underappreciated side of cinema: documentaries.
This week, we’re going to be talking about “Roger & Me,” the 1989 debut of documentarian Michael Moore. The film documents the economic and social turmoil that Flint, Mich. faced after General Motors closed factories in the city that employed approximately 30,000 people and Moore’s attempt to get an interview with Roger Smith, the company’s CEO.
Through his career, Moore has established himself as a documentarian with an incredible amount of bite; his documentaries focus on social, political and economic issues that utilize satire and frequently criticize the people in power for making decisions against the interest of the public. Since his debut, Moore’s films have garnered international acclaim and earned hundreds of millions of dollars.
But Moore’s first documentary exemplifies one aspect of documentary filmmaking that sets it apart from the rest: How deeply personal it is. Through Moore’s work you can feel how angry he is about what happened to his home, and he wants you to feel that as well.
At the beginning of the film, Moore tells the viewer about himself. Moore grew up in Flint; his father worked for GM assembling AC spark plugs, and Moore tells us about how the company was the economic and social hub of the city that kept it running.
But this all changes when Smith announces that GM is going to be closing its factories in Flint and terminating thousands of employees so they can outsource the work to cheaper laborers in Mexico. So, Moore decides that he’s going to try and get Smith to sit down with him for an interview to talk about why the decision was made when GM was already having one of its most profitable years to date.
As you’d imagine, this is easier said than done for Moore; Smith doesn’t want to talk to him, and the film becomes a goose chase as Moore tries to intercept Smith any chance he gets, but he’s constantly shut down. While Smith dodges him, Moore shows the effect that Smith’s actions have on the community.
“Roger & Me” succeeds in this by showing every facet of this city, from the heartbreaking to the infuriating. In one scene Moore will follows a former factory-worker-turned-sheriff’s-deputy as he goes door-to-door evicting families from their homes, and in the next scene he’ll films a party attended by wealthy Flint residents who downplay the effect that the factories’ closings had on the city. Interviews with Flint residents who are struggling to make it to the next day are juxtaposed with Smith at a Christmas party talking to a crowd about how important generosity is.
Saying all of this may make it seem like “Roger & Me” is a miserable movie to watch, but Moore is able to intersperse a comedic edge into the film that makes you laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Moore films visits from politicians and celebrities who seem completely out of touch with what is actually happening in Flint and invites the viewer to laugh at them with him. Moore’s unique framing makes the film much more breathable than it is otherwise. Moore wants us to be frustrated at what we see on the screen, but he doesn’t want the film to feel like you’re on a sinking ship.
But the documentary isn’t without faults. One issue is how Moore portrays the timeline of events. Early on in the film, within weeks of the GM factories beginning to close, Moore includes footage of entire neighborhoods that have been emptied out as families were evicted from their homes. But the neighborhoods weren’t like that at that time; that footage comes from months or years later, when the full aftermath of the closure was felt.
At another point, Moore says that at the same time Smith was giving a speech about generosity, a Flint family was being evicted from their home. Moore intersperses footage from these events, but there’s a noticeable discrepancy in the footage: Moore is in both locations at once.
The truth is that while there was a family being evicted at the time of Smith’s speech, it’s not the family that Moore shows on screen.
A big difference between narrative films and documentary films is that documentary films purport to be truthful. What Moore is telling the viewer in “Roger & Me” is truth; neighborhoods were actually emptied in the aftermath, and a family was actually being evicted at the same time as that speech.
But is what Moore shows us truthful?
That’s a more difficult question to answer. None of the footage Moore documented was fabricated, and Moore never says that the footage on screen is of the events he’s talking about, but by manipulating the timeframe of the images on screen to fit the narrative he wants for the film, Moore deceives the audience. He doesn’t have to say things explicitly because he uses the editing of the footage to imply, even when the implications are false.
However, deceptive editing does not take away the real impact of a CEO’s decision that left 30,000 people out of work, and Moore understands that. “Roger & Me” doesn’t feel like a standard documentary; it feels like it was created with authentic frustration and desperation, and that’s because it was. Moore wasn’t just documenting what happened in Flint. He was calling for help as a citizen of Flint and condemning the people who put aside the lives of thousands to get a larger paycheck.
Moore brings an anger to “Roger & Me” that can only come from someone who is so deeply rooted in the issues that he documents. This film is deeply personal, and that’s what makes it work. Without Moore’s unique touch that comes from being a member of the community he’s documenting, “Roger & Me” would be a completely different film, and likely a much worse one.