Released 1997
Directed by Michael Moore

Americans are happy with the economy. Unemployment is at an all-time low. Clinton gets high approval ratings despite scandals, because times are good and we don't want to rock the boat. Swimming upstream against this conventional wisdom, here comes Michael Moore, the proletarian in the baseball cap. In his new documentary, "The Big One," he crisscrosses the country on a book tour, and finds factories closing, corporations shipping jobs overseas, and couples working extra jobs to make ends meet.

Moore became famous overnight in 1989 with his hilarious documentary "Roger & Me," in which he stalked Roger Smith, president of General Motors, in an attempt to find out why GM was closing its plants in Flint, Mich., and moving production to Mexico. The movie was filled with cheap shots and media manipulation, and proud of it.

The occasion for this documentary is Moore's 45-city tour to promote Downsize This!, his best seller about hard times in the midst of prosperity. We see him lecturing campus crowds, confronting security guards, sympathizing with the striking workers at a Borders Bookstore. He's an unapologetic liberal, pro-union, anti-fat cat; during an interview with Studs Terkel, he beams beatifically as Studs mentions the 60th anniversary of the CIO's sit-down strikes against the carmakers.

The movie is smart, funny and edited cleverly; that helps conceal the fact that it's mostly recycled information. There is little here that "Roger & Me" didn't say first, and more memorably. But we get two documentaries for the price of one: The second one is about book tours, with Moore on a grueling schedule of one city a day, no sleep, endless talk shows and book signings, plus his guerrilla raids on downsizers.

Summary by Roger Ebert