'Capitalism' as Comedy and Tragedy Now Playing in NY and L.A.

Friends,

The time has arrived for, as Time magazine called it, my
"magnum opus." I only had a year of Latin when I was in high school, so
I'm not quite sure what that means, but I think it's good.

I've spent nearly two years on this new movie, "Capitalism: A Love
Story," and have poured my heart and soul into this project. Many early
critics and viewers have called it my "best film yet." That's a hard
call for me to make as I'm proud of all of my films -- but I will tell
you this: What you are about to see in "Capitalism" is going to stun
you. It's going to make some of you angry and I believe it's going to
give most of you a new sense of hope that we are going to turn the sick
and twisted mess made by the last president around. Oh, and you're
going to have a good laugh at the expense of all the banking and
corporate criminals who've made out like bandits in the past year.

I'm gonna show you the stuff the nightly news will rarely show you.
Ever meet a pilot for American Airlines on food stamps because his
pay's been cut so low? Ever meet a judge who gets kickbacks for sending
innocent kids to a private prison? Ever meet someone from the Wall Street Journal who bluntly states on camera that he doesn't much care for democracy and that capitalism should be our only ruling concern?

You'll meet all these guys in "Capitalism." You'll also meet a
whistleblower who, with documents in hand, tells us about the
million-dollar-plus sweetheart loans he approved for the head of Senate
Banking Committee -- the very committee that was supposed to be
regulating his lending institution! You'll hear from a bank regulator
why Timothy Geithner has no business being our Treasury Secretary. And
you'll learn, from the woman who heads up the congressional commission
charged with keeping an eye on the bailout money, how Alan Greenspan
& Co. schemed and connived the public into putting up their
inflated valued homes as collateral -- thus causing the biggest
foreclosure epidemic in our history.

There is now a foreclosure filed in the U.S. once every seven-and-half SECONDS.

None of this is an accident, and I name the names others seem to be
afraid to name, the men who have ransacked the pensions of working
people and plundered the future of our kids and grandkids. Somehow they
thought they were going to get away with this, that we'd believe their
Big Lie that this crash was caused by a bunch of low-income people who
took out loans they couldn't afford. Much of the mainstream media
bought this storyline. No wonder Wall Street thought they could pull
this off.

Jeez, I guess they forgot about me and my crew. You'd think we
would've made a better impression on these wealthy thieves by now.
Guess not.

So here we come! It's all there, up on the silver screen, two hours
of a tragicomedy crime story starring a bunch of vampires who just
weren't satisfied with simply destroying Flint, Michigan -- they had to
try and see if they could take down the whole damn country. So come see
this cops and robbers movie! The robbers this time wear suits and ties,
and the cops -- well, if you're willing to accept a guy in a ballcap
with a high school education as a stand-in until the real deal shows up
to haul 'em away, then I humbly request your presence at your local
cinema this weekend in New York and Los Angeles (and next Friday,
October 2nd, all across America).

In the meantime, you can catch us on some of the TV shows that have been brave enough to let me on in the past week or so:

- Nightline (as we take a stroll down Wall Street to Goldman Sachs)

- Good Morning America (where they let me talk about Disney employees who don't get medical benefits)

- The View (where the Republican co-host told everyone to go see it! Whoa!)

- The Colbert Report (this guy is a genius, seriously)

- Larry King (where a spokesperson for the Senator who got the sweetheart loans responds for the first time)

- Keith Olberman (where we both wonder just how long these media corps are going to let us get away with what we do)

- Wolf Blitzer (yes, he's back for more abuse - and lovin' it)

... And the amazing Jay Leno. This man called me after seeing the
movie and asked me to be his only in-studio guest on the second night
of his new prime-time show. I said, "Jay, shouldn't you be thinking of
your ratings in the first week of the show? Are you sure you didn't
misdial Tom Hanks' number (the area code where I live is 231; 213 is
LA)?" He told me he was profoundly moved by this film. So I was the
guest on his second show, and he told all of America it was my "best
film" and to please go see "Capitalism: A Love Story." That was Jay
Leno saying that, not Noam Chomsky or Jane Fonda (both of whom I love
dearly). The audience responded enthusiastically and, after 20 years of
filmmaking, it was a moment where I crossed over deep into the
mainstream of middle America. Jay's bosses at General Electric musta
been... well, let's just say I hope they didn't place a reprimand in
his permanent record. He's one helluva guy (and following the example
he set with his free concerts for the unemployed in Michigan and Ohio
last spring, I've gotten permission from the studio to do the same with
my film in ten of the hardest-hit cities in the U.S. next week).

Oh, and he made me sing! Prepare yourself!

Thanks everyone -- and see you at the movies!

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
Twitter.com/MMFlint
Facebook.com/MMFlint
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