Roger & Me (1989)

Roger & Me (1989) Movie Reviews
Watch Trailer

Cast: Michael Moore, James Blanchard, James Bond, Pat Boone, Rhonda Britton, Anita Bryant, Karen Edgely, Bob Eubanks, Ben Hamper, Dinona Jackson

Director: Michael Moore

Writer: Michael Moore

Running Time: 87 min.

Genre: Documentary

Rating: R

Synopsis: Michael Moore's wickedly iconoclastic documentary was inspired by the decline and fall of Flint, Michigan. Once the site of a thriving General Motors plant, Flint went quickly to seed when GM decided to close down and move out. As Moore pokes around what has been described by one magazine as the worst place to live in America, he finds out how the local populace is coping with GM's betrayal of the American Dream. Among those visited are a family who is evicted just before Christmas, and an enterprising middle-aged woman who set up a thriving business slaughtering and skinning rabbits. Never feigning objectivity, Moore contrasts the impact of the shutdown on the average Joes and Janes with the diffident reaction of Flint's power elite. The latter's patronizing attitude towards the unemployed multitudes is succinctly captured in the scenes in which visiting celebrities Robert Schuller, Anita Bryant, Bobby Vinton and Pat Boone exhort the citizenry to grin and bear it. Even more out of synch is Miss Michigan Kaye Lani Rae Rafko, who in her morale-boosting speech to the disenfranchised GM employees begs them to pull for her in the upcoming Miss America pageant! The film's throughline is Moore's futile effort to locate GM chairman Roger Smith, so that he can show Moore first-hand the utter devastation of Flint. Roger & Me is very funny, but it is the gallows humor of soldiers about to embark on a suicide mission. In 1992, Michael Moore more or less updated Roger & Me with his half-hour short subject Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

User Rating

User Reviews

Rate it!
Critic Rating

Critic Reviews

About the Graph & Metric

Reviews

Sort by:

News & Blogs

Sort by:

User Reviews

There are currently no user reviews for this film. Be the first to rate it below!

Rate This Movie!

Please sign in or sign up to rate this movie.