Cultural Conflict in Michael Moore’s “Roger and Me”

In Dario Fos Accidental shoemakers last of an Anarchist, a character asks Where are all these poor people I keep hearing about? I go to a make do of parties, and I never meet any of them. In his movie Roger and Me Michael Moore depicts the taradiddle when the habitual humankind can meet those poor people. The impression is a docudrama about the effect of customary Motors plant closing in granitic, Michigan, in the mid-1980s.From the comminuted point of view, Roger and Me constitutes a sardonic picture of merged accessible tariff, everlasting social and cultural conflict (once greatly exclamatory by Marx) amid operative class and capitalists, now often cover in the image of managers and corporate specialists. Simultaneously, the film can be perceived as unsuccessful attempt of the artist to abstract from pitiful do of the event (plant closing) and to create unbiased actual picture. Practically, Moores Roger and Me represents documentary of satire, social revolt and pr ejudice.After the closing of plant Michael Moore tried to get in with Roger smith, head of GM in Detroit, to invite him to Flint for a take care at what had happened to people there. Practically, Moore never got near Smith, therefore he created a documentary, where people and some facts spoke for themselves. The conflict between big keep gild and workers regarding the issues of corporate social responsibility remains to be urgent and sensitive. From the critical point of view, there is nothing wrong with attacking General Motors. This caller along with the vast majority of multinational corporations surely deserves to be attacked. Criticism, sensible or unfair, whether deserved or not, is a price people pay to go away in a free society.Thus, Michael Moore had e really right to make his smash-hit documentary film. Like any advocate, surely he had the right to present save one side of a case. Simultaneously, there is a divergency between fair and unfair criticism, just as the re is a difference between truth and factual distortion. Fair upbraiding challenges the actions of a someone or an organization, examines something your opponent has done, and attacks him or her for it. Even if it may hurt the person criticized, fair criticism contributes vigor and wellness to a free society. It helps hitch abuse of power, corruption and wrongdoing. partial criticism uses lies and distortions to accuse someone of things he has not done and wouldnt do. Unfair criticism blames him for things beyond his control. Unfair criticism uses innuendo to attack him for things that cant be said straightaway because they are untrue. Unfair criticism employs dirty techniques of filmmaking (or other distortions) and degrades and endangers a free society, because it damages public trust in our institutions. Individual judgment decides at what point unfairness becomes outright dishonesty.Michael Moore begins his story by saying, Maybe I got this wrong, but I prospect companies lay off people when they hit hard times. GM was the richest company in the world, and was closing factories when it was making profits in the billions GM chairman Roger Smith appeared to have a brilliant plan First, close 11 factories in the U.S., then open 11 in Mexico where you pay the workers 70 cents an hour. Then use the money you save by building cars in Mexico to take over other companies, and preferably high-tech firms and weapons manufacturers. Next, evidence the union youre broke and they happily agree to give back a couple billion dollars in wage cuts. The situation depicted by Moore seems to be outrageous.However, if critically examined GM could not sell Flint-made cars unless it modernized obsolescent factories. Moreover, in during that period GMs average salary at a lower place the fall in Auto Workers contract was $15.36 compared to the national industry average of $9.07 (Kauffmann, 10). General Motors did build Mexican factories and employ low-cost, unskilled la bor to assemble telegraph and cable harnesses for GM cars. The wire and cables in those harnesses were manufactured in the United States.To stay competitive, GM had to reduce the cost of hand-assembly of the harnesses. So, it worked out an agreement with the Mexican government to provide needed unskilled jobs in poverty-stricken areas of Mexico. The Mexican government then allowed GM to manufacture more cars for the Mexican (not the U.S.) grocery (Kauffmann, 11).Moores camera shows an auto worker who had suffered a moral breakdown. He soft one night era working on the assembly line. He was now shooting hoops at the local mental health center. Was Moore honest in blaming GM and Roger Smith because his friend had a mental breakdown? GM refuses to discuss whether the man had a previous videotape of mental instability, because, the company says, personnel records are confidential.Was Moore honest in showing a gun-toting crazed man shot down in the street by police, to support his claim that GM layoffs had caused crime judge to soar in Flint? Moore failed to mention that crime has dropped 13 share since 1986, when the major layoffs took place (Schwammenthal, 7). Instead of soaring, as Moore says, crime in Flint dropped 5 portion in the first half of last year, while violent crime across the United States increased 5 percent during the same period (Schwammenthal, 7).If assesses critically, Michael Moore technique can be characterized as duplicity persuasion since he, being a talented director and experienced persuader, concentrate exclusively on the negative sides of the closing, hence corporate social responsibility in the context. From the personal point of view, Moore abstracts from the core of the problem, social conflict, and speculates on working class mentality.Bob Eubanks of The Newly-wed Game is included as he ridicules Jews with a vile anti-Semitic remark. Moore himself ridicules a pretty young Miss Michigan, who, at the time of his ambush inter view was more concerned with being chosen as Miss America than she was qualified to discuss economic conditions in Flint (White, 1). Moore ridicules a homosexual in a way that the film critic of the Chicago Tribune called the lowest kind of gay-bashing, a crude crowd-pleasing question (Schwammenthal, 7).Moores documentary becomes the picture full of controversies. Practically, the film could consolidate the general public and authorities over the problems in Flint, however its sardonic, nihilistic and contentious character does not offer any resolution and brings the conflict to the very top.BibliographyKauffmann, Stanley. Films & the Arts Cars and Other Vehicles, The New Republic. Washington Jan 22, 1990. Vol. 202, Iss. 4Joseph B. White. Movie That Attacks GM, Roger Smith Opens in Flint, Michigan. Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition), New York, N.Y. Dec 21, 1989Daniel Schwammenthal. In the Fray Michaels Manipulations, The Chicago Tribune. Chicago, May 19, 1990