Where to Invade Next [Documentary Movie Review]

I've seen two movies this weekend. The first was Deadpool, the second was this... Where to Invade Next. I had to think on Deadpool, debating my rating. Which is why I'm doing this review first. I had no problem figuring out how to review this documentary movie.

In this scene Micheal Moore destroys the illusions of some very nice
Italians. Yes, Italy has its own problems... but some of the stuff it does do
right, it does oh so very right.

This movie was amazing.

It was educational.

5 out of 5 stars.

It's hard to describe this movie in just a few words. The movie is too big to easily sum up, but I will try. 

There may be spoilers. 

Nice effect.

First let me simply cover the journey.

The story is already widely known. Micheal Moore is traveling around the world, invading other countries and taking what they do best back to the United States.

These are found around Germany. They are reminders.
Here worked Arthur Kroner, born 1874. Disenfranchised.
Aligned in death 2nd April 1943.
No German forgets.

He visits Italy, France, Germany, Slovenia, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Tunisia. Yeah, that last one should really give you pause, and what it does better than the USA is something you would never ever expect.

You learn things about the world in this movie that I would be willing to bet that most Americans do not know. Especially the bit about Tunisia. I learned something about every country, even Norway segment in which I assumed I knew the subject pretty well.

French school children get an hour for lunch, they get
a four course meal, and drink water not soda. It is treated
as a lesson in proper diet and nutrition.

But I want to talk about the German segment the most. The German segment has several parts. The first is about the quality of jobs in Germany, their strong middle class, the strength of their unions, and the power of their workers in the corporate sphere. Then there is the bit about stress relief, which is pretty nice.

In November 1938, many Jews are murdered in an organized

pogrom, Jewish shops and Synagogues are devastated.

Thousands are transported to concentration camps.

But the poignant bit was about history, acknowledgement, and responsibility. We all know the dark past of Germany. WWII and the Holocaust. All over Germany (and in 17 other countries too) there are these little plaques, stolperstein (stumbling blocks), that commemorate the victims of the Nazi regime. There are over 48,000 of these - the worlds largest memorial. There are signs all over that list out facts of the Holocaust. These are not pleasant reminders. However they serve a very important purpose. They do not allow Germans to forget the past. They ensure that the errors of the past, the horrors of the past, are never forgotten and never allowed to repeat again. German school children from a very young age are taught about the holocaust. The very country that committed the holocaust owns up to its own dark past, meanwhile I'm sitting in a nation where there are groups of holocaust deniers (yes, I know Germany has Neo-Nazis... but they stick out, our little freaks do not).

It hurt to watch.
It. Hurt. To. Watch.

What if America did the same thing? Wall Street was built by slaves. Wall Street was a slave market. Imagine the tone of that place if everyday you went to work, buying and trading lives and livelihoods, and were reminded that hundreds of years ago, just up the street from where you are, they did the same thing. Only they were more up front about it. They sold the physical people. Our nation would be covered in stolperstein too... from the Indian Relocations, the slave trade, the Japanese Internment, and more. We'd have to acknowledge our gruesome, often inhuman, past, instead of white washing it as so many a textbook from Texas tries to do.         

I've gone into detail on one segment of the movie, on one country. There were at least nine countries he visited, and that means that there are lessons and more to learned from eight more.

You need to see this film, I do not care about what side of the political aisle you stand on. This movie was about something very simple, human dignity. And because of that this movie will fill you with shame, embarrassment, rage, joy, and hope. 

Hammer, Chisel, Down.

Hammer, Chisel, Down.

And yes, the Deadpool review is coming...
[Update] It is now done, link above.