36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Response to 3/8/99 review calling The Big One "a disaster", May 25, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Big One [VHS] (VHS Tape)
America needs more movies like the Big One. We've have been lulled into complacency by corporate, political, and media propaganda. This isn't conspiracy, it's reality! Michael Moore simply and effectively demonstrates the numerous ways in which workers are screwed daily by the interests of corporate capital. One must remember that to effect a game, one must be a part of it - Michael Moore does work within the system, but he at least attempts to do good for the majority of working people. As far as the interviewees being more "clever" and "genuine" than Michael Moore - asking him to leave and refusing to answer questions (with the exception of Nike's CEO) is not appealing or genuine. If politcal cliches and avoidance is clever and appealing to you, then I imagine the status quo, oppresion, and greed are too. This film charmingly and humorously addresses the question of how far the majority of citizens will let the corporate community go. What is enough profit, and at what expense? These are important questions people need to consider. Vote, become politically active, educate yourself! Don't just fall in line. Question why things are done, for whom, and why. These are the realms this movie enters into and tries to expose for thought and debate. To simply label this conspiratorial or Marxian is a classic right-wing counterpunch based on half-truths, ignorance, and propaganda. Social obligation is at the heart of the message, and it is what is missing most in today's politics and policies.
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36 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Hit Home....from Former Enron employee, January 10, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: The Big One [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Boy this hit home hard. I was a former Enron Broadband Services employee.
I really liked the movie, it was approachable, and friendly. I didn't think even the Phil Knight meeting was all that bad. It was rumored to be soo awful, but here it was pretty friendly and sweet (cuz I was expecting bloodshed & chairs flying)---both guys came out looking pretty nice & sweet.
I still wouldn't buy Nikes, because I worked there on a short contract, and if you aren't a model-type, you get stared at like a skunk and people refuse to talk to you---and they don't even know you. Got an interesting mass of murderous Stepford Wives or cheerleaders working there. And isn't anybody getting sick of those PERKY, gungho marketing sociopaths yet???
Moore is pushing that more folks should get involved in standing up for their rights. He leads by example, and makes it approachable for everyday people who aren't into bloody confrontations.
I do think businesses should be able to make a buck, & lord knows I paid way toooo much taxes---only later, found it extremely difficult to get assistance for anything (Unemployment Dept. penalizes you for taking temp jobs).....but I don't think that entitles businesses to treat people like slaves, parts, etc. Or, enjoy the benefits of being an American company, yet none of the responsibilites ie. sending all the jobs overseas, not paying their share of taxes. Are we already a 3-world-nation and don't even know it yet? What happens when the only jobs available are minimum wage?
At Enron, we were told over & over that we WERE the company, WERE the most vital asset, told to buy/hang onto stock, told to donate to the Bush campaign, watched Ken Lay primp himself to be on Bush's staff-----only to find we'd been conned like some old lady getting schmoozed by a grifter. Lots of people with stock got trick laid-off, go in for a meeting, fly accross the continent, only to find you've been invited to your own funeral & get walked out that minute. This layoff method was presented as some sort of Harvard Business school standard.
All this, because Enron pitted peers (everybody) against each other, and rewarded territory grabbers with more stock. Qualifications and work performance meant nothing, there was no ways of tracking work performed. You could be absolutely lazy, have no qualifications but destroy your peers by schmoozing the bosses, gross slander and looking like you were busy & POSH. Then you get more stock, & sell it!! before the company collapses. (Again, is anybody sick of the PERKY marketing sociopaths yet?? If I ever see another "thumbs-up" gesture again, I'll puke.)
This model too was presented as standard business school practice, so I'm sure it's spread over America. Intel pits peers against each other, but doesn't reward top backstabbers quite so heavily.
Anyway, Michael has brought out some stuff that I haven't heard too often, and I've since been listening to his talks on NPR. The only other person I'd ever heard care as much has burned out & dropped out.
I'd love for him to do an investigation of Enron and their "business school" practices, which I'm sure was a diversion--getting the rats in the cage to fight while top brass robbed the bank. Forget about the "Crooked E" movie, that was a Candyland version of the real filth...
I wonder if there's any Step-by-Step how-to's on how to deal with: peer reviews & peer competition to stay out of the bottom percentile (doomed to layoff, "burn & churn"), unlimited unpaid overtime, unreasonable management expectations, nasty tricks by HR with incentives to snag back stock options, Management saving a buck by hiring underskilled workers who're a burden on the rest, no tracking on work performance or skills, and other white collar slavery issues...
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22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
This Time Moore Is Less, February 15, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Big One [VHS] (VHS Tape)
While frequently funny and quite insightful, Michael Moore's follow-up to "Roger and Me" (1989) isn't quite up to the level of its predecessor. His take on corporate America's ruthless tendency to slash U.S. jobs in favor of low-cost labor overseas and his considerable sympathy for American workers is highly commendable - even laudatory in the age of "Armageddon". But, too often, Moore makes himself the subject of the docmentary and the film constantly pushes us to see him as the champion of the underdog. His confrontations with security personnel and junior hirelings at various corporate headquarters is becoming an old schtick by now - he acts perplexed every time he's ejected from some sleek office building although he knows darn well that he's not going anywhere: these scenes are inserted simply for a cheap shot at the impersonality of the conglomerates.
For all that, though, Moore has developed an appealingly rambanctious style of cienmatic populist muckracking using pranks, jokes, and anything else to "pull the p..s" out of his adversaries. He's effective when interviewing the very people squeezed out by the vicious "downsizing" of the 1980's and 1990's and his frank talk with Nike CEO, Phil Knight, eerily shows that even corporate ruthlessness can be embodied in an affable human personality. And he gets a lot of mileage with his stand-up routine against on-the-take politicans and self-justifying white-collar bosses. But he misses as many opportunities as he grabs - spending more screen time strumming with the guitarist from Cheap Trick than talking with Studs Terkel, who could have added a valuable historical perspective to the contemporary situation, and spending time playing shenanigans on his press agents when we'd really like to learn more about the working people whose cause he's defending. ("Roger and Me", which followed the lives of several people thrown out of work, provided a stronger human foundation for Moore to lob off his zingers). "The Big One" is like "Roger and Me"-lite. Moore give us more of his trademark stunts and humor and compassion but doesn't add anything that we haven't seen before. Moore's heart is in the right place and, based on the evidence presented here, he looks to be on the verge of becoming the first populist folk hero in some time. "The Big One", however, shows up the danger of taking your self-appointed role too seriously. The title may stand for America but I'm inclined to think Moore sees it as a self-tribute.
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