Michael Moore's first major film was one of his best in my opinion for two reasons. First off, since he did not yet have a trademark style, he did not try to go over the top in this film as much as he does in his subsequent efforts. He does his normal routine of tracking people down in an effort to embarrass them by asking them pointed questions, but for most of the film he lets the story and the citizens of Flint do the talking. As you probably already know, this is the story of Moore's hometown, Flint, Michigan, and the utter despair that fell upon it after GM began shuttering auto plants under the supervision of then CEO Roger Smith. The film really highlights how clueless Flint's elite are as to the suffering that all of this "consolidation" is causing. At one point in the film Moore is talking to some wealthy people at a party who seem to think they are doing the unemployed some kind of favor by hiring them to act as living statues at one of their fêtes. When he asks the party goers about what is going on in Flint they seem somewhat offended that there is such "negative publicity" circulating and say there should be more emphasis on the positive things going on in Flint - they name the symphony and the opera. Ah yes, let them eat opera glasses!

The second reason I consider this film to be one of Moore's best is that even though this film was made in 1989, it is still interesting and relevant today. This is because the contrast between what average working people have to endure - the struggle to find secure jobs with decent benefits and their increasing vulnerability - and the desire of the captains of industry to improve the bottom line at any cost ... as long as it doesn't cost them ... has only worsened and deepened over the last 21 years since this film was first made.

Roger & Me is Michael Moore's first documentary feature film. It's more personal than his other films in that it focuses on his hometown of Flint, Michigan. More specifically on the aftermath of the closure of the General Motors plant that was based there, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 jobs and subsequently led to a steep decline of Flint itself. The town developed such a poverty and crime problem that it was named as 'the worst place to live in America'.

It's a blackly comic work which constantly contrasts the people afflicted by the upheaval with the attitude of the town's elite. It also takes a dim view of GM itself and its chairman Roger Smith in particular. The narrative thrust of the film sees Moore pursue Smith to try and get a face-to-face interview. Needless to say, he is successful in this endeavour in only an extremely limited way, only getting a very brief exchange late on in proceedings. Moore's approach to this and the film in general is typically manipulative though, setting up situations where he knows he will be rebuffed and including some unfair interview snippets with some quite innocent people, making them look stupid with editing for cheap laughs. When I viewed Moore's work for the first time, this sort of stuff didn't very much concern me but now I find it a little too underhand for my liking.

Having said all this, if you accept that documentaries tend to be biased to some degree, I have to acknowledge that Moore does at the very least shine a light on a situation which otherwise would have been long forgotten by the majority of people by now and does give some disenfranchised folks a platform of sorts. And he is a skilled film-maker so his documentaries certainly are dynamic and entertaining which does help in getting a point across more effectively than a more sober treatment would. Roger & Me may be an attack on corporate America but it's often the smaller, stranger details that remain with you, such as the segment about the slightly unhinged lady who breeds and kills rabbits in her back yard in order to survive. On the whole, this film has all of the same negatives that all of Moore's subsequent work has, yet like those too it hammers home its point in an entertaining enough manner to remain in the memory and it occasionally hits upon an interesting truth every so often.

Before Flint, Michigan had their recent water crisis, they had a jobs crisis. In the late 80's GM shuttered 11 plants and laid off 30,000 workers. "Roger & Me" is Michael Moore's dogged attempt to get GM chairman, Roger Smith, to go to Flint and see the devastating effects of the plant closures.

"Roger & Me" is a really depressing documentary. Flint went from a humming middle class community to a derelict wasteland with high crime and high unemployment. I'd like to say that "Roger & Me" had a happy ending, but if you know anything about Flint today, then you already know the answer to that.