Roger & Me (1989)

Director Michael Moore pursues GM CEO Roger B. Smith to confront him about the harm he did to Flint, Michigan with his massive downsizing.

Director:

Michael Moore

Writer:

Michael Moore

Stars:

Michael Moore, Roger B. Smith, Rhonda Britton

14 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Moore	...	Himself
Roger B. Smith	...	Himself
Rhonda Britton	...	Herself - Pets or Meat Lady
Fred Ross	...	Himself - Eviction Deputy
Kaye Lani Rae Rafko	...	Herself (Miss America)
James Blanchard	...	Himself
James Bond	...	Himself
Pat Boone	...	Himself
Anita Bryant	...	Herself
Karen Edgely	...	Herself
Bob Eubanks	...	Himself
Ben Hamper	...	Himself
Dinona Jackson	...	Herself
Timothy Jackson	...	Himself
Tom Kay	...	Himself

Storyline

A documentary about the closure of General Motors' plant at Flint, Michigan, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 jobs. Details the attempts of filmmaker Michael Moore to get an interview with GM CEO Roger Smith.

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Plot Keywords:

michigan | flint michigan | general motors | factory | downsizing | 

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Taglines:

The story of a rebel and his mike.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Michael Moore Official Website

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 December 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Humorous Look at How General Motors Destroyed Flint, Michigan

Filming Locations:

Detroit, Michigan, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$160,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$80,253, 25 December 1989, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$6,706,368

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dog Eat Dog Films, Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to the documentary Michael Moore - Polémique système (2007), Michael Moore falsely implied that he could not get General Motors' CEO Roger B. Smith to respond in front of a camera. The makers claim that Moore actually had two interviews with Smith, but chose to leave these out of the documentary to create the illusion that Smith refused to answer for his actions. Moore has denied these claims, saying that if he had consciously held back such footage, General Motors would have undoubtedly used that fact to discredit him.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Michael Moore: I was kind of a strange child. My parents knew early on that something must have been wrong with me. I crawled backwards until I was two... It all began when my mother didn't show up at my first birthday party, 'cause she was off having my sister, and dad tried to cheer me up by letting me eat the whole cake. I knew then, there had to be more to life than this.

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Crazy Credits

This film cannot be shown within the city of Flint. All the movie theatres have closed.

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Connections

Referenced in Stone Reader (2002)

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Soundtracks

Jailhouse Rock
Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Performed by The Nighthawks

User Reviews

A great documentarian is born

I saw this film at a second-run theatre not long after its initial release. And not being a fan of documentaries, I must say I was incredibly impressed, informed and even. (gasp!).entertained. Prior to this film, when I heard the word documentary, I usually conjured up images from Mutual of Omaha African landscapes and another scene of animals either mating or killing.

My mother has always touted the merits of stories based on true events, and of course documentaries being 100% true, she finally found a film that she could whole-heartedly embrace and recommend to her son who at the time, preferred films of a more fantastic and less plausible nature.

Michael Moore, the "Me" in "Roger And Me" has a dry wit that can leave you rolling in the aisles with his dumbfounded disbelief in the face of human absurdity that he encounters almost everywhere he goes on his hunt for "Roger" Smith, the CEO of General Motors. Michael just wants to talk with Roger and ask him to visit Flint, Michigan, Michael's hometown, to see the effect that closing down all the automotive plants in Flint has had on the people who live there. That effect being at times incredibly depressing and at others, quite amusing. The most amusing moments coming from Roger Smith's repeated, successful but narrow evasion from the confrontational Michael Moore.

Is Michael Moore entirely unbiased? Hell, no. But he is intelligent, engaging and inherently humourous in his views and I'm glad there's someone like him out there. If after this film, you feel you need more, than all you must do is prime yourself with his book, "Downsize This" and follow it up with the simple yet powerful documentary, "The Big One". Michael Moore is also the man behind the short lived "TV Nation" which ran for two years on two different networks in the early 90s, and proved to be some of the most intelligent, thought-provoking material that ever hit the idiot box. There are tapes available of the show, which I own, and sadly cannot recommend due to the low technical recording quality, which doesn't do the fantastic content justice.