Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990 TAG: 9003032757
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VINCENT CANBY THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Moore's frontier is his hometown, Flint, Mich., population 150,000, the birthplace of General Motors. As a result of the closing of various GM plants and the elimination of 40,000 jobs, Flint has become one of the more embarrassing eyesores in the landscape of what is supposed to be a booming American economy.
All sorts of attempts have been made to save Flint.
"Just when things were beginning to look bleak," Moore recalls on the soundtrack, "Ronald Reagan arrived in Flint and took 12 workers out for a pizza." Somebody walked off with the pizzeria's cash register, though it's unclear whether the two events were connected.
When Money magazine named Flint "the worst place to live in America," ABC planned to devote an entire "Nightline" show to the subject. The program was canceled at the last minute. The television power truck had been stolen.
Depressing figures and nutty anecdotes bubble out of "Roger and Me" non-stop, leaving the frequently appalled audience roaring with laughter, the kind of response that Twain would cherish.
The film takes its title from Moore's attempts to reach Roger B. Smith, the GM chairman. Moore's plan is to take Smith on a tour of Flint and to persuade him of GM's responsibility in attending to the problems of the unemployed. A modest goal, it seems, though Moore knows as well as anybody that it's not a goal that stands any chance of being achieved. It is, however, a wonderful premise for an angry, biased, witty movie.
The portly, beady-eyed Moore, as sharp and sophisticated a documentary filmmaker as has come on the scene in years, manifests a down-home wonder at the world's idiocies. With a toothpick stuck in the corner of his mouth, wearing a down jacket, jeans and the sort of cap that should have the name of a feedlot on it, he stalks the GM chairman in the assorted sanctuaries of the seriously rich and powerful.
To save their city after the GM pullout, the Flint city fathers approve a series of schemes that sound as if they'd come out of the head of Evelyn Waugh, reborn as a Flint booster. They spend $13 million to build a Hyatt Regency Hotel and $100 million or so more for a theme park called AutoWorld, both of which quickly go broke.
They attempt to boost morale by bringing in Pat Boone and Anita Bryant to perform for the tired masses. The Rev. Robert Schuller, the television evangelist, is paid a reported $20,000 to tell his audience, "You can turn your hurt into a halo."
Moore is clearly someone who believes that poverty and corporate neglect are sins, and he doesn't pull his punches. He doesn't appeal to easy sentiment. He demolishes the television personality Bob Eubanks, of "The Newlywed Game," just by letting him talk on and on.
Moore makes no attempt to be fair. Playing fair is for college football. In social criticism, anything goes, as it goes triumphantly in "Roger and Me."
`Roger and Me' A Warner Bros. release showing at the Valley View Mall 6 (362-8219). Rated R for strong language.
by CNB