Movie Review: Michael Moore's Latest Examination of American Exceptionalism

Where to Invade Next is currently playing at Salem Cinema in Salem, Oregon

In Where to Invade Next, filmmaker Michael Moore visits various countries to examine how Europeans view work, education, health care, sex, equality, and other issues.

(SALEM, Ore.) - The creator of the top two Documentaries of all time - Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 - is back. Michael Moore and his merry band of co-conspirators have a new documentary out in an expanding number of theaters after a six-year hiatus. It's an Election Year gift.

Where to Invade Next is not an expose of the Perma-War nature of 21st Century American Imperialism, as the title would seem to imply (though, in a profound way, it also is that). It is a sly travelogue take on how other countries have used American ideals to gain many cultural improvements US citizens are told are unattainable or once had and now have seen eliminated by both wings of the Wall Street Perma-War Party.

Reprising his bemused everyman role, Moore visits Germany, France, Slovenia, Tunisia, Portugal and a raft of Scandinavian countries. Carrying a huge Old Glory over his shoulder, he checks in on how these countries have attained – Universal Health Care, required months of paid vacation, an equitable workers' say in management and sense of ownership of one's work, a humane penal system, civilized drug policies, free college, far more women in positions of power in both business and government, more cultural and racial diversity...down to four-star school lunches.

Moore introduces us to many wonderful Public Servants...the unarmed (“our brains and talk are our weapons”) Scandinavian police and prison guards, in particular, seem like an impossible species by American standards. Yet, they have Michigan’s abandonment of Capital Punishment in 1845 as one of the models for their rehabilitation-based, instead of punishment-based, Justice system. Even parents of murdered children seek rehabilitation, instead of vengeance (the scene with one bereaved father will make you cry).

An Icelandic prosecutor cites the legal precedents used by the Reagan Administration(!) going after the Savings and Loans crooks as the model for Iceland's charging and convicting the banksters who crashed their economy. Said economy has recovered far faster than any of the countries who let the banksters off the hook for their recent round of plunder. What the single mom former president of Iceland and three women business leaders from that country have to say is a highlight of the film.

Tiny, poor Slovenia provides free college (even to foreigners); again, something that once was done in some US states. Portugal has seen a big drop in addiction and crime and better overall Mental Health since the country decriminalized all drugs.

Workers are required to take those paid breaks as stress is recognized as anti-productive. CEOs eat lunch with the employees and make a far less higher differential in pay than the employees. No one has to worry about losing it all due to a health crisis.

Yes, other countries are pulling it off and often using concepts born in the US to do it. When Ted Cruz mocked Bernie Sanders as a someone who would make a “great president of Norway,” it is clear that the audience who clapped and laughed have some serious research to do. Moore does it for them.

Rod Birleson and Michael Moore (Photo: Rod Birleson)

There is a poignant scene of Moore with long-time co-conspirator and Where to Invade's Executive Producer Rod Birleson discussing the Nature of the Universe (a very Flintoid activity) while walking by a piece of the Berlin Wall that has been left as a monument.

It is interspersed with footage of Birleson taking whacks at the Wall at its glorious demise back then in 1989. Nelson Mandela's release from prison shortly thereafter is noted as an example of how such dreadful things CAN change for the better. Yes. We Can!

Moore tones the snark down and is funnier and more playful than usual in his latest effort to cut to the chase as to what is misguided with American culture/politics. But, as usual, Moore has come in for immediate abuse from the usual suspects – right-wingers who are always outraged at his exposing their lies and leftists who always feel Moore does not go far enough.

I laughed. I cried. And, I was angry when I left the theater...angry about how badly my generation has blown it the past 50 years with this Imperial crap. 900+ bases in over 150 countries is not “Defending Freedom” (unless you count freedom to exploit). It is an Empire. And that Empire has cost us dearly in so many ways. While we were busily garrisoning the planet, other countries were busy making life more equitable for their citizens...even welcoming immigrants and giving them the same rights.

See this Oscar-nominated Documentary. If enough people do, we may just join the rest of the civilized world and leave the Neo-Con/Neo-Lib “no, we can't” corporate/Imperial blather and the “exceptional” fear and me-firstism behind it...behind.

PS Michael Moore is out of the hospital and confined to home. He was in the ICU with pneumonia for a week recently; brought on by his burning it at both ends getting this doc out, endorsing Bernie Sanders and taking on the pricks behind the poisoning of the citizens of our hometown Flint. He's on the mend and will be back being a thorn in the side of the Establishment soon.