Michael Moore's films recall the rich and brilliant decade of the 1930's, the years of the last Great Depression, when, along with a number of other genres, the documentary flourished. Like the documentarians of that era, Moore engages important contemporary social, economic, and political issues; also like them, he approaches those issues from a populist, generally leftist position. Thanks to modern advertising, the broad reach of radio and television, and the outrage of the querulous whiners who dominate those media, he also enjoys a far greater success than his predecessors; he may not always equal the art and power of Robert Flaherty, Joris Ivens, or Pare Lorentz, but he's surely earned both wider fame and a good deal more money.

In his long, crowded, somewhat incoherent "Capitalism: A Love Story," Moore attempts to confront the implosion of the system that plunged the economy into the present depression. Employing an intermittent voice-over to carry the narrative, he interviews a number of experts and commentators, attaches clips from television talk shows and news reports, archival footage, scenes from several Hollywood features, adds his own original material, and in his customary manner, frequently lumbers into the frame to practice some of the grandstanding ambush journalism that irritates so many of his critics.

While explaining some of the background of the current economic crisis, Moore provides a handy lesson in civics for a new generation, recalling some events of the 1930's and showing the efforts of President Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal to meet the challenges of that dark and troubled decade. He tracks some of the political and financial maneuvering that led to the current problems of high-risk mortgages, the subsequent torrent of foreclosures and evictions, the numerous bank failures, and the collapse of the real estate market.

When he consults some experts to learn about those notorious derivatives that assisted in the most precipitous stock market decline in history, he finds that nobody can clearly and satisfactorily answer his questions. A successful Wall Street wheeler dealer who reaped a fortune from the dubious financial instruments cannot define them and a distinguished Harvard professor of economics lapses into stammering confusion. Some people made a lot of money, a great many more suffered, and, absurdly, nobody knows how it all happened.

Moore targets a great many villains responsible for the present crisis, naming politicians from both parties and the familiar flouting of regulations, but saves his heaviest artillery for the giant banks and investment companies, like CitiGroup, AIG, and Goldman Sachs. In a typical bit of hyperbole, he drives an armored truck up to the doors of one of those firms and asks for the return of the taxpayers' bailout money; in another he strings yellow crime scene tape around a building and demands that the executives submit to a citizen's arrest.

The defenders of the system provide its most telling condemnation, including a memo from CitiGroup rejoicing that 1 percent of the population controls 95 percent of the wealth, but regretting the fact that the 95 percent can vote. A senior editor of the Wall Street Journal, a familiar television talking head, argues that capitalism trumps democracy, though the plutocrats may allow it to hang around a while longer, a sentiment echoed by the drug addict Lawrence "Loathsome Larry" Kudlow on his television show.

A couple of Catholic priests and their bishop tell Moore that capitalism is simply evil, a system based on greed and selfishness, totally at variance with Christianity, that Jesus would condemn. One of the most emotional moments in an oddly religious film shows the bishop of Chicago visiting a group of workers who occupied their factory to protest their firing, assuring them of his support and serving Communion. That sequence evokes the clearest comparison with the 1930's, which Moore underlines by showing footage of President Roosevelt sending troops to protect strikers from the assaults of policemen and company goons, and calling for a second Bill of Rights. Appropriately, among the heroes of this heartfelt, unabashedly 1930's-inspired defense of the American worker, FDR stands out like a giant among pygmies, the kind of leader the nation desperately needs in our own dark time.

Capitalism: A Love Story

(R), directed by Michael Moore

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