Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Roger and Me

Michael Moore uses irony many times throughout his film, Roger and Me. One example is the music he uses throughout the film. He plays the song “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, by the Beach Boys, while he showed video of crumbling houses and destroyed neighborhoods. It’s ironic because a happy song is being played against a sad and destroyed background. Moore’s title Roger and Me is also ironic because Moore only meets Roger Smith very briefly and Smith doesn’t even answer Moore’s questions.

Another ironic aspect would be Moore’s interviews with the workers affected by the closings and the rich who live in Flint or just visiting. All the workers speak of their bleak futures trying to make it through every day. The rich, however, speak only of the good aspects of Flint only they can afford. In addition, the rich people who are paid to visit Flint only see the good things. They ignore the bad occurrences and speak of changing things that never occur.

Moore also uses irony when the Miss America star is talking. He is asking her questions about Flint and the closing of the plants. She however, only talks about herself and how she wants Flint to wish her luck in the completion, instead of her caring about the city.

At the end of the movie he uses irony when speaking with the woman who sells and kills rabbits for food and income. She tells Moore she intends to go to school to become a veterinary assistant and dog groomer. It’s ironic because before he showed the scene of her killing and skinning a rabbit and now she plans to go back to school to take care of animals.

His greatest use of irony though was showing the parade that occurred in Flint. Such a happy celebration should have never taken place because the city was falling apart due to the closing of all the plants.

Moore’s use of irony helps illustrate the differences between the rich and poor in the struggling city of Flint.

4 comments:

  1. Adam, I think you did a nice job giving examples of irony in the film. I particularly like how you pointed out that the title of the film itself is ironic, because that's something that I had not realized myself. I do think, however that you can expand on what hes using irony for. You do give excellent ways that he uses irony and someone who hasn't seen the film would understand what you're trying to say.

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  2. This is a well written post, you mention good scene references for irony. I also like your last sentence and you related all of the scene examples back to the main point of the film, which you mentioned at the end. I also choose the scene where the music was playing and we are given a tour of just how bad of a shape the town Flint is in. Your post was easy to read and flowed well and you answered the prompt.
    Good Job,
    Dominique Shepherd

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  3. You have many very valid points that show irony. I agree that it was very effective how Moore shows the difference of how the higher and lower classes perceive and are affected by the GM job loss. Another point that I really liked about your blog is Moore taking a look into the lives of those recently laid off trying in desperation to create jobs for themselves.

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  4. I think you did a really good job at giving multiple good examples from the movie. I like the point where you point out that Miss America focuses all the questions Moore asked her onto herself or the pagent. I actually noticed that myself as I watched it. She didn't want to talk about real topics going on in her own state, she was more interested in promoting herself to America and looking happy and presentable.

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