HuffPo talks to Michael Moore, who says Capitalism: A Love Story might be his last documentary, ever.
“I’ve done this for 20 years. I started out by warning people about General Motors, and my whole career has been trying to say the emperor has no clothes here, and we better do something about it,” Moore said. “I’ve been having to sort of knock my head against the wall here for 20 years saying these things.
“Two years ago, I tried to get the health-care debate going, and it did eventually, and now where are we? We may not even have it. What am I supposed to do at a certain point?”
The article names Moore’s sole foray into narrative filmmaking, “Canadian Bacon” a comedy from 1995 starring John Candy and Alan Alda. No matter your personal opinion of Moore, it’s easy to understand where he’s coming from when he says he’s exhausted trying to flog the mule all by himself.
“I think people will be maybe somewhat disappointed because there’s so many things we need to deal with right now, and they wish I would make a film about it. But I want other people to make those films,” Moore said.
“I am tired of feeling like I’m doing this alone. All through the eight years of Bush, you Google `Bush’ and `nemesis’ and I’m the first name up. And there aren’t a whole lot of other names,” Moore said. “It doesn’t work with Michael Moore and Sean Penn and Ted Kennedy and a few others. The people have got to get involved in their democracy.”
As much as I hate to hear about this crisis of confidence from our Muckraker-in-Chief, I can’t blame him for feeling discouraged. The article says Capitalism: A Love Story is a call to arms, but too many fans of Michael Moore — myself included — often feel like we’ve fought the good fight simply by buying a ticket to his movies. The success of his films isn’t enough for Michael Moore, and we shouldn’t be so easily satisfied either. The movies are brilliant spark plugs, but those of us who believe in what Moore is trying to do need to grab hold of the stick and put the engine in gear.