2 May 1998
So, my mom made me sit down and watch "Roger & Me" with
her a few years ago. The thought of watching a documentary didn't exactly light my fire, even though I'd heard
of it and knew it had been nominated for an Academy Award.
"No thanks," I told her.
"I'm going to be dead soon," she told me. "And then you'll wish you had me around to watch movies with."
I watched the movie.
"Roger & Me" turned out to be hilarious--probably because I hadn't expected it to be. I mean, how funny can a movie be when it's about the GM plant closings and subsequent suffering of laid off employees?
But it was. It was funny and sad and thought-provoking and just really well-done. I emerged from the experience totally digging Michael Moore, the movie's writer and director.
I showed it in class for the first time last year at Carmel
High School to my senior Contemporary Communications class. I had
no real reason to show it--but it seemed important that they should see that there's more to film making than Quentin
Tarantino and Drew Barrymore.
When my juniors began their Modern Age unit in English this year, I realized that many of the themes we discussed in our readings paralleled those of "Roger & Me". During the Modern Age, expatriates such as Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald fled America because they had lost faith in the American dream. Many Americans were disillusioned by World War I because they felt they had lost their say in what went on in the country. Similarly, "Roger & Me" focuses on the city of Flint, Michigan in the late 1980's after the General Motors factories began closing. I wrote up a little assignment and arranged to show the movie.
"Chickens," I told them, "We're watching a movie in class this week." There was cheering. Cavorting in the aisles. Open weeping.
"What movie, Miss Coughlin? What will it be? Something good? 'Tommy Boy'?"
"No," I said. "We're going to watch a DOCUMENTARY!" I giggled maniacally as their little faces fell.