Rod Stroker
5 Nov 2010, 23:02
Finally got around to seeing this, 20 years later :)
Michael Moore's first film - before he was the size of a house - from back in 89 about the impact of the GM car manufacturing plant closures in his home town of Flint Michigan.
I generally don't mind Moore's movies, as questionable as his approaches and motives may be. But this one didn't do a lot for me. The premise of the movie is that Moore tries to track down Roger Smith, the Chairman of GM at the time, and bring him to Flint to see the devastation that the community has suffered as a result of Smith's decision to relocate car production from Flint to Mexico. From a business perspective I didn't have problem with Smith's decision and hence I couldn't buy into Moore's crusade on this one. My view was:
Who does Smith as the Chairman answer to? The shareholders and consumers.
What do shareholders and consumers want? Higher share prices (through increased profits) and cheaper purchase prices.
How to increase profits and offer cheaper purchase prices? Lower costs.
How to lower costs? Send production to cheap labor markets.
You can't have it both ways. Something has to give.
These sort of decisions happen every day in business and have been going on for years. Maybe it wasn't so common 20 years ago, but while the movie positioned Smith as the devil - as slippery and arrogant as he appeared to be - it could be argued that he just acting in the best interests of his shareholders, as any Chairman would be expected to do.
So for me it wasn't one of Moore's better movies.
Michael Moore's first film - before he was the size of a house - from back in 89 about the impact of the GM car manufacturing plant closures in his home town of Flint Michigan.
I generally don't mind Moore's movies, as questionable as his approaches and motives may be. But this one didn't do a lot for me. The premise of the movie is that Moore tries to track down Roger Smith, the Chairman of GM at the time, and bring him to Flint to see the devastation that the community has suffered as a result of Smith's decision to relocate car production from Flint to Mexico. From a business perspective I didn't have problem with Smith's decision and hence I couldn't buy into Moore's crusade on this one. My view was:
Who does Smith as the Chairman answer to? The shareholders and consumers.
What do shareholders and consumers want? Higher share prices (through increased profits) and cheaper purchase prices.
How to increase profits and offer cheaper purchase prices? Lower costs.
How to lower costs? Send production to cheap labor markets.
You can't have it both ways. Something has to give.
These sort of decisions happen every day in business and have been going on for years. Maybe it wasn't so common 20 years ago, but while the movie positioned Smith as the devil - as slippery and arrogant as he appeared to be - it could be argued that he just acting in the best interests of his shareholders, as any Chairman would be expected to do.
So for me it wasn't one of Moore's better movies.