"Some will rob you with a six-gun,

And some with a fountain pen."

— Woody Guthrie

Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd" lyrics and Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde spring to mind while viewing the opening credit montage of Michael Moore's latest film, Captitalism: A Love Story. Surveillance camera footage of a bank robbery is soon juxtaposed with a family that is losing the farm they have owned and worked for four generations. Toting his camera crew and playfully provoking reactions by pointed grandstanding pranks, the rotund baseball cap wearing "everyman" filmmaker adds a grand sequel to his resume. Echoing the populist stance Moore has consistently maintained in films like Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Sicko, his latest release especially emphasizes the themes he first skillfully broached twenty years ago in Roger and Me. Moore even includes clips from that breakthrough film.

Moore doesn't craft documentary films in the great tradition of the genre, but that's irrelevant. He's great at what he does—he grabs attention like no other "left wing" media figure—enough to warrant the continual wrath of the Rush Limbaugh's of the planet and enough to gain a wide theatrical release of his film projects.

True to form, Moore returns to his Flint roots for subject matter. Besides including footage from his first feature, he interviews his father and local church officials, who decry the unChristian attitudes of greed and selfishness that capitalism promotes. Moore questions how modern politicians (especially ever since the Ronald Regan presidency) have usurped Christianity to support the message that Wall Street style capitalism is inherently blessed and a sign that God is on our side. Signature comical juxtapositions of a cinematic Jesus responding like a hard core capitalist are hilarious—most notably Jesus' reaction to healing a cripple (without health insurance).

The expected humor and entertainment value remain, but Moore is at his best in the editing room—uncovering little known material that is extremely relevant and worthy of further discussion and action. Capitalism contains at least three of these elements:

1. Derivatives: We've all heard about these during the recent financial crisis, and how Wall Street financial wizards can either use these to advantage if they understand them. Yet, have you ever seen a sensible description of derivatives? You won't after Moore's film either—a former Goldman Sachs executive gets tangled up in words, and a Harvard economics professor gets even more befuddled when attempting to explain the concept. Moore's graphic of complicated Calculus formulas pretty much sums up the purpose behind derivatives—essentially to make it so complicated that NO ONE can figure our just what you do with the financial figures.
   
   

2. Dead Peasant Insurance Policies: This shocked the hell out of me. The small company I work for has insured us (and we have named our beneficiaries), but there's a big insurance business that large corporations participate in where they take out life insurance on their lowly employees and name themselves as beneficiaries. That makes it profitable for companies like Wal-Mart, AT&T, etc. for workers to die, and especially young female employees. Especially poignant are sequences where Moore explores this type of insurance with grieving families that received virtually no benefits themselves from their loved one's company.
   
   
3. FDR's Second Bill of Rights: Spoken in private just a few months before his death because he was too ill, Roosevelt outlined basic rights he believed all Americans were entitled to—a well paying job, sufficient pension plan, ability to buy a home, education, and health care. Ironically, these ideas took root in Germany and Japan after WWII, but are still "controversial" and being dissed today over right wing radio programs and town hall meetings.
   
   
   

You already know whether you are an appropriate audience for Michael Moore's latest film; this is another op-ed piece and not a documentary. In a sense, Capitalism: A Love Story is his most ambitious project, serving very much like a summation of his lifelong canon. It tends to ramble and lose the more singular focus of Roger and Me and Sicko, but pure cohesion isn't the intent. Moore throws a lot of mud on the wall and unrolls the crime scene tape on Wall Street to inspire the many who share his progressive views to take action and take this country back to its idealistic roots—the government of the people and by the people—one that was founded on the principles of democracy and not capitalistic ideology.