[helicopter blades spinning]
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): On January 2nd,
I was quietly summoned to the Pentagon
to meet with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Each branch was represented-- the Army, the Air Force,
the Navy, and the Marines.
Michael, they said to me, we don't
know what the fuck we're doing.
(SINGING) Dressed up to win, we're dressed up to win.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): They hadn't won a war outright
since the big one, WWII.
They went over each of the wars that they had lost,
one after the other.
They regretted having wasted trillions of dollars,
and helping to create new groups like ISIS.
They admitted that what they got from these wars
was just more war.
They couldn't even get us the oil they promised us from Iraq.
They felt embarrassed, humiliated,
their hands were all placed in a no-fly zone.
They asked me for my advice.
I thought for a moment, and then said the following--
you must stand down.
I told them that our troops needed a much deserved break.
Finally, a break.
Finally, some downtime.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): For the foreseeable future,
there are to be no invasions, no sending in military advisors,
no more using drones as wedding crashers.
Instead of sending in the Marines,
my suggestion-- send in me.
I will invade countries populated by Caucasians
with names I can mostly pronounce, take the things we
need from them, and bring it all back home to the United
States of America.
For we have problems no army could solve.
RONALD REAGAN: I believe our government
has a responsibility to go to the aid of its citizens.
The life of a Vietnam vet comes to a tragic end.
The man was found frozen to death in his own home.
After Consumers Energy turned his natural gas off.
BARACK OBAMA: I've made it clear that we will
hunt down terrorists who threaten
our country wherever they are.
You will find no safe haven.
GEORGE W. BUSH: Our enemies are innovative and resourceful,
and so are we.
They never stop thinking about new ways
to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.
BILL CLINTON: This country will hunt down terrorists
and bring them to justice.
On your face!
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: The rule of law, not the law of the jungle,
governs the conduct of nations.
GEORGE W. BUSH: One of the things
this country stands for is--
Put your hands behind your head.
GEORGE W. BUSH: Freedom. -I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
BARACK OBAMA: We're disrupting their command
and control and supply lines.
We're destroying their facilities and infrastructure
that fund their operations.
BILL CLINTON: We cannot save all the world's children,
but we can save many of them.
NEWSCASTER: Some school districts
are asking parents to buy toilet paper
for the upcoming school year.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: Our troops will have the best possible
support in the entire world.
Banks illegally foreclosed on nearly 5,000 service members
while they were fighting abroad.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: We destroyed a threat
and locked a tyrant in the prison of his own country.
I've been in prison for almost 42 years
for something I didn't do.
I spent my 20s, my 30s, my 40s, and nearly all of my 50s
in prison.
RONALD REAGAN: Should the day come
when we Americans remain silent in the face
of armed aggression--
NEWSCASTER: A doctor in the middle of the abortion debate
was gunned down in the church lobby
while serving as an usher.
RONALD REAGAN: Then the cause of freedom will have been lost.
BARACK OBAMA: We will not hesitate
to use our military might to defend our allies
and our way of life.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): I hitched a ride aboard the USS
Ronald Reagan, and made my way to my first target,
the country of Italy.
It was time to invade.
Have you ever noticed that Italians always
look like they just had sex?
Meet Johnny and Christina Fancelli,
two working class Italians.
Johnny is a cop, and Christina orders
clothes for department stores.
It was my first encounter with the enemy.
They led me to their compound, where
they wouldn't shut up about where
they had gone on vacation.
We usually plan one week during the winter,
and then the first week of June.
MICHAEL MOORE: Right.
Because it's our anniversary.
Then three weeks in August.
MICHAEL MOORE: OK.
Because in Italy, during the month of August,
it's usually like a shut down.
And are you paid for these weeks?
Yeah, sure.
Because every year, we usually have
like 30, 35 days of holiday.
MICHAEL MOORE: Paid-- paid holiday.
-Yeah, paid. -So wait.
That's five days a week?
That's-- that's seven weeks.
Plus, we have the national holidays.
MICHAEL MOORE: How many are there of those?
Dodici
CHRISTINA: 12, 12 days.
MICHAEL MOORE: So that's another week or two.
[speaking italian]
Ah, each city has a saint patron.
MICHAEL MOORE: Patron saint, yeah.
It's a city holiday.
You're paid for this day?
Yes.
Yes, they do.
And when you get married, you have 15 days more.
Yeah.
15? Wait a minute.
CHRISTINA: 15.
When you get married, you have 15 days paid holiday?
CHRISTINA: To go on honeymoon.
MICHAEL MOORE: To go on honeymoon?
Yes.
MICHAEL MOORE: They pay for your honeymoon?
Yes.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): 8 weeks paid vacation.
In December, we have an additional salary in Italy.
Most-- I think everybody--
What's additional mean?
We call 13th-- because 12 months,
so we have the 13th salary in December.
[laughing]
MICHAEL MOORE: Wait a minute. -Yes.
Wait a minute.
You get this 13th month, this imaginary month,
that you didn't work.
Yes.
MICHAEL MOORE: And then you get--
Another month, another salary during the month of December.
MICHAEL MOORE: Like-- like what?
That it's paid--
MICHAEL MOORE: 10% more?
No, no.
MICHAEL MOORE: 20?
No, a full salary.
So you get two months pay for one month of work?
CHRISTINA: Yes.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Why?
Your regular pay is to pay the monthly bills.
What money do you have left over to go on vacation?
That's the way the Italians see it.
What good's a vacation if you can't afford to go on it?
If you don't use all those days, the following year,
you still have the vacation of the previous year.
MICHAEL MOORE: Wait a minute.
So you don't lose that.
MICHAEL MOORE: No, no, that's not true.
It's true.
MICHAEL MOORE: No, that's not true.
Tell him.
Tell him how many days you have.
[speaking italian]
80 days.
MICHAEL MOORE: You have 80 days in the bank,
in the holiday bank.
He would like to do more, of course.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Of course.
But how do companies make any money if they pay
all this to their employees?
I approached the owner of a multimillion dollar clothing
manufacturer, the Lardini Company,
who makes men's fashions for brands like Dolce & Gabanna,
Burberry, and Versace.
Do you mind paying your employees
for all this time off?
And stress causes a lot of sickness.
MICHAEL MOORE: So do you get sick very often?
No.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Italians
have one of the highest life expectancies in the world.
They live four years longer than the average American.
[bell ringing]
Yes, it's lunch time at Lardini.
But they're not getting in their cars
to drive to the vending machine, or the takeout window.
They're going home, like they do every day,
for a nice, relaxing, 2 hour lunch.
Do you come home every day for lunch?
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): I continued my invasion of Italy
by going to the Ducati Motorcycle Company.
Agreeing to meet with me for a possible surrender
was the CEO of Ducati, Claudio Domenicali.
Here is the very end of the assembly line.
You call this an assembly line?
The line is hardly moving.
It's moving very, very slow.
Very slow.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): The CEO explained to me
that his workers have numerous weeks
of paid vacation, including other benefits,
as well as a strong union.
He saw no problem with any of this.
We really feel that we are being rewarded by this.
Because the people are very committed.
Right.
There is no clash between the profit of the company
and the well-being of the people.
There is no clash between the profit of the company
and the well-being of the people?
Yes.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): He explained
that by paying a good wage, with good benefits,
the company still made a healthy profit.
[buzzing]
Here we go again.
You know what that means.
It's lunch time Italian style.
Grown men eating vegetables and smiling?
What kind of factory was this?
All the fine benefits these workers have,
vacation, wonderful lunch, how did this come about?
It is still a struggle?
The system, it's part of the welfare, you know?
Yeah, the social welfare.
Yeah, of course.
Welfare is a bad word in the United States.
OK.
With certain conservative people,
they don't like that word welfare.
Here, it's not bad.
It's not a bad word.
For whatever reason.
It's a good word.
It's a good word. Of course, you pay more--
Take care of the welfare of the people.
You take more-- you pay more taxes for that.
Uh-huh.
Do you mind that?
Because when you pay something and you get something back--
Yeah.
That's OK, you know?
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): I asked the Lardini
family if they felt the same.
You, the boss, CEO, if you did it the American way,
you could make more money and have more for yourselves.
MICHAEL MOORE: And do you agree with your sisters?
He says that many Italians, the dream of Italian people
is to come to America, to the United States.
Maybe they don't know how it works.
[speaking italian]
MICHAEL MOORE: Yeah, you know what the law says in America,
if you come to America for paid vacation,
you know how many paid weeks you get by law?
No. MICHAEL MOORE: Zero.
Zero?
MICHAEL MOORE: Yes, zero.
Zero.
I'm serious.
So would you think twice now about living in America,
knowing that you get zero paid weeks vacation?
No. MICHAEL MOORE: Zero.
It's zero.
Zero.
The law does not mandate a paid vacation for anybody.
Do if you decide to go on holiday,
you're not pay for that days.
So it's--
MICHAEL MOORE: That is correct.
Now, if you have a good union, you
may have a contract that says you
get two weeks paid vacation.
In a year?
MICHAEL MOORE: In a year, that would be good.
Two weeks would be a good--
So two weeks is a good--
MICHAEL MOORE: A good job.
Wow.
MICHAEL MOORE: Three would be awesome,
if you have that kind of job.
I don't know anybody with four weeks paid vacation, frankly.
I don't know.
Zero.
Paid weeks guaranteed-- zero.
Wow.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): I see what's going on here.
First comes 8 weeks of vacation sex, and then comes--
You have five months of maternity leave.
Five months.
Are you paid for this?
-Yeah, sure. -Yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE: What do you mean, yeah, sure?
Like, you act is I--
It's something that, for us, is very natural.
What about the dad?
I think one or the other can--
JOHNNY: Exactly, exactly.
CHRISTINA: It's like a substitution, you know?
MICHAEL MOORE: But the mother must take five months.
For sure.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): It's true,
the whole world does have paid maternity leave, except
for the two countries too poor to afford it-- Papua
New Guinea and this place.
Even with the long vacations and extended lunch breaks,
the US and Italy are amongst the top 15 most productive
countries in the world.
We work many more hours than Italians,
but we are not that much more productive than you.
I believe that's true.
I believe that you are having more sex here.
And because of that, you are happier.
And you do better at work.
I've come to Italy, and I've invaded Italy, one man, a one
man army, to take the best ideas I can find here, bring them
back to America, and convince my fellow Americans to do
some of the things that the Italians do.
And one of the things I'm going to take from you
is this concept of giving workers
eight weeks paid vacation.
Two or three years from now, they're
gonna be known as American ideas from that point
on, even though you were doing it here first.
Yeah.
You don't mind?
No mind, no worry.
I shake your hand for that.
Thank you, sir.
And thank you for being the first CEO to meet
with me on a factory floor.
With pleasure.
We have my American flag here, and I'm gonna
plant my flag here at Ducati.
Good.
We've got something.
We've got something good for the United States here.
I'm gonna just plant the American flag
right here in your living room.
Is that OK?
-Cheers, cheers. -Salute.
Salute. Oh
Salute.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Sure, Italy has this problem,
like all countries.
But my mission is to pick the flowers, not the weeds.
We have just one life.
MICHAEL MOORE: Right, yeah.
That's the only one we have.
MICHAEL MOORE: We're not coming back.
And we have to enjoy it.
I am French.
You say you're French?
Oui.
We?
No, we are not French.
We're American, because you're in America, OK?
Greatest country on the planet.
Well, what have you given the world, apart from George Bush,
Cheerios, and the Thighmaster?
Chinese food.
Chinese food.
That's from China.
Pizza.
Italy.
Chimichanga.
Mexican.
Really, smarty-pants?
What did Frenchland give us?
We invented democracy, existentialism,
and the blowjob.
Those are three pretty good things.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Yes, there was all that,
but there was something else we could steal from France.
As usual, the French offered little resistance.
So I entered a small village in rural Normandy,
and went to one of the finest kitchens in the country,
to see how they prepare a gourmet meal.
By my standards, it was a three, maybe a four star kitchen.
It was definitely the best place to eat in town.
It was the school cafeteria.
[bell ringing]
I only had one year of French in school.
Would you like to hear my first lesson?
In French. -Yes.
Ahem.
[speaking french]
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): The French love their cheese,
and they eat a lot of it.
Chef Moniec had dozens of types of cheese
right here in the school refrigerator.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): I showed the kids what
I used to do at their age, when the lunch lady served us what
she called Thursday Surprise.
The American way.
It didn't take long to get this going.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Once a month, the school chef
gets together with city and school officials
and a dietitian to go over the daily menu.
Why is the mayor's office concerned
with what is being served in the-- in the school cafeteria?
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): You see, here in France,
lunch time isn't just 20 minutes where you have to stuff
your face as fast as you can.
They consider lunch a class, a full hour
where you learn how to eat in a civilized manner,
enjoy healthy food, and serve each other.
And yes, drink water, lots of water.
Mmm.
Water.
They don't stand in a long line, waiting for a bunch of slop
on their plastic or Styrofoam tray.
Actual real china.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): The chefs bring the food to them.
Scallops with a curry sauce.
And with carrots.
Oh, oh, oh, OK.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): And this was just the appetizer.
[speaking french]
French fries?
Two, three times a year.
Two times a year, you'll have French fries?
French is in the word.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): I couldn't
find a single vending machine in the school,
so I smuggled in some contraband.
Do you drink Coca-Cola?
-No. -You don't?
No?
No Coca-Cola?
No?
Coca-Cola you don't drink?
You don't drink Coca-Cola?
No?
Nobody drinks Coca-Cola?
Here.
Try this.
Try this.
No.
No.
Want to try Coca-Cola?
[inaudible].
MICHAEL MOORE: It's what?
[speaking french]
MICHAEL MOORE: It's OK?
All right.
Tell me how you feel in 15 minutes.
How about a sloppy Joe?
Jamais.
Never. MICHAEL MOORE: Never.
Never.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): On this day,
the children were being served lamb skewers and chicken
over couscous, a four course meal that included
a cheese course and dessert.
Here's something I'd never seen before.
When does a kid share his ice cream?
Come on.
You've had a Whopper.
You've snuck somewhere, sometime in your life,
and had a Whopper.
Well, you haven't lived till you've had a Whopper.
What's for lunch?
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): The daughter
of one of our crew members is a high school
student near Boston.
When she heard we were filming a school lunch,
she started sending her mother pictures of what
her school lunch looked like.
This is what American children eat for lunch.
MICHAEL MOORE: OK, yes.
That looks familiar.
MICHAEL MOORE: Does that look good to you?
No.
No.
MICHAEL MOORE: We don't know what's inside this.
MICHAEL MOORE: Yeah, I know. I know.
It's like I'm showing your photographs
on an episode of CSI here.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): You know it's
bad when the French pity you.
What's even more remarkable is that Chef Moniec
spends less per lunch than we do in our schools
in the United States.
And this public school is not in a wealthy area.
In fact, I got a hold of a copy of the menu
from one of the poorest schools in one
of the poorest towns in France.
And this is what they're eating this month-- a fillet of cod
in a dill sauce, fennel and beef stew, moussaka, and a choice
between a caramel or vanilla flan,
not to mention there's at least one
cheese option every single day.
It seemed almost unbelievable that this country, which
provides free health care for its people, nearly
free daycare, also makes sure that the school
lunches are fit for a king.
I had to ask myself, how do the French afford all of this?
Europe for the past four decades has been raising taxes.
Very high income taxes.
Some higher taxes.
They're sick of the high taxes!
Gerard Depardieu said, no more.
I'm out of here.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Here's
how much the average working American pays in income
and social security taxes.
And those taxes get us the basic services-- police, fire, roads,
water, war, and bank bailouts.
And here's what the average French worker pays in taxes.
A little more than we do.
And for paying just a little bit more,
they too get the basic services, but they
also get all this extra stuff.
We can get some of that stuff too, but we have to pay extra.
And when we pay extra, we don't call it a tax.
We call it tuition, and daycare fees,
and the nursing home bill, and co-pays, and deductibles,
and on, and on, and on.
We don't call them taxes, but they are.
And we pay a whole lot more than the French.
One more thing.
Every French paycheck has a detailed list
of where their taxes are going, line by line.
This is what our paycheck looks like.
Other than social security and Medicare,
it doesn't say a damn thing.
Maybe if we saw where our income taxes were going,
we wouldn't let Congress spend nearly 60% of it on this.
But the French aren't fighters, they're lovers.
Sweetheart, Peppy Le Pew loves you.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): And if there's
one thing the French know how to do right,
it's passion and desire.
But where do you learn something like that?
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Magical moment?
I thought the whole point of sex ed, when I was in school,
was to scare us from ever having any.
And you took a risk by doing something
that society condemns.
Perhaps you didn't realize some of the penalties
involved-- syphilis.
Syphilis?
MICHAEL MOORE: Yeah, but what about abstinence?
[laughter]
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Too risky?
What does she mean by that?
A small high school in West Texas
that does not offer sex education
is dealing with an STD outbreak.
A significant rise in STDs among Utah teens.
Parents can always preach abstinence, but teens, we know,
don't always listen.
A chlamydia outbreak.
NEWSCASTER: Chlamydia.
NEWSCASTER: Chlamydia.
Why does Texas continue with abstinence education programs
when they don't seem to be working.
In fact, I think we have the third highest
teen pregnancy rate in the country among all the states.
Abstinence works.
But we are the third highest teen pregnancy--
we have the third highest teen pregnancy rate among all states
in the country.
The questioner's point is, doesn't seem to be working.
I'm gonna tell you from my own personal life,
abstinence works.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): The teen pregnancy rate
in the United States is more than twice France's rate,
more than six times Germany's, and more than seven times than
the Swiss.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Yes, education.
I grabbed a copy of their high school textbook
"Lovemaking is Fun, vol.
1," packed up a few of their school
lunches, and hopped aboard what they
call a train to a country that really
was number one in education.
Finland is ranked at or near the top
of having the best educated students
in the world, which left everyone wondering, really?
Finland?
These are the people who gave us the air guitar championship,
and the sports of cellphones throwing, and wife-carrying.
These are the geniuses that cracked
the code to good education?
I mean, how is it that the kids in Finland
are ahead of the rest of the world?
So here's what happened.
Back in the day, Finland schools sucked on the level
that ours suck on.
When they tested the world's kids,
both Finland and us were usually about the same,
somewhere down the list of nations.
But Finland didn't like that.
So they tried some new ideas.
And in no time, Finland shot to the top of the world.
Their students were number one.
How did they do that?
That was the one question I wanted an answer to.
And I went straight to see the enemy's Minister of Education.
Before I could say anything, she blurted out their top secret.
They do not have homework.
MICHAEL MOORE: Wait, so you reduced the homework
you give them in schools?
Yes.
They should have more time to be kids, to be youngsters,
to-- to enjoy the life.
How many hours of homework did you get last night?
About 10 minutes or something.
MICHAEL MOORE: 10 minutes of homework?
Yeah.
Maybe 15 minutes or 20 minutes.
20 minutes, but not so much.
MICHAEL MOORE: 20 minutes?
Yeah.
Well, if I would have done the homework,
I think it would have been like 10 minutes tops.
Usually, I don't really do homework that much.
The whole term, homework, is kind of obsolete, I think.
In that way--
MICHAEL MOORE: Homework is obsolete?
Yeah, yeah.
In that way that these kids, they have a lot other things
to do after school.
MICHAEL MOORE: Like what?
Like, like being together, like being with a family,
like doing sports, like playing music, like reading.
MICHAEL MOORE: So they have no homework.
What if all they want to do is climb a tree?
They could climb a tree, yeah?
They can climb a tree.
Then they learn how to climb a tree.
But they'll end up, while climbing the tree,
probably finding out about different insects,
and they can come to the school the next day,
tell me about what they found.
MICHAEL MOORE: Compared to the older kids,
how many hours a day do the younger ones go to school?
Mondays, three hours, Tuesdays, four hours.
It varies.
It's 20 hours a week.
MICHAEL MOORE: So they're-- oh man.
Now, does this three or four hours at school
include the lunch hour?
TEACHER: Yes.
MICHAEL MOORE: How are they learning anything?
How are you getting anything done?
Your brain has to-- it has to relax every now and then.
If you're just constantly work, work, work, then
you stop learning.
And there's no use of doing that for a longer period of time.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Finland
students have the shortest school
days and the shortest school years
in the entire Western world.
They do better by going to school less.
Yay!
How many languages do you speak?
English, yeah, Swedish, Spanish.
Finnish and Swedish.
Finnish, English, and German.
French, German--
Finnish and English.
English.
Swedish, and French, and Spanish.
MICHAEL MOORE: So you are an exchange student in the US?
Yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE: When you got back here in school,
what did you notice that you felt relieved about?
No more multiple choice exams.
MICHAEL MOORE: No multiple choice exams here?
Or very few of them, if any.
MICHAEL MOORE: Really?
Because all of my exams in the US--
MICHAEL MOORE: How do you answer the question
right if it isn't listed as one of the four choices?
You write your answer.
GIRL: You have to know it, actually.
Yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE: You actually have to know it?
GIRL: Yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): If there was one thing I heard
over and over again from the Finns,
it was that America should stop teaching
to a standardized test.
Get rid of those standardized tests.
National testing.
Standardized tests.
Standardized testings.
What you are teaching your students
is to do well on those tests.
Then you're not really teaching them anything.
No, we are teaching them.
We're teaching them how to flunk a test,
and then a bunch of schools fail the test.
And those schools are turned into charter schools.
And then somebody makes a lot of money.
But school is about finding your happiness,
finding what-- finding a way to learn what makes you happy.
MICHAEL MOORE: They figured out about one third
of the school time the students are
in school is spent preparing for the standardized test.
And so they've eliminated a lot of things
that aren't on the test.
So music is gone.
Art is gone. Poetry is gone.
Art is gone?
MICHAEL MOORE: Yeah, in many schools.
Civics isn't even on the test.
So now schools are dropping civics.
Really? MICHAEL MOORE: Yes.
Civics, American civics.
OK.
Unbelievable.
MICHAEL MOORE: We got rid of poetry.
Really? MICHAEL MOORE: Yeah.
Yeah. -Why?
MICHAEL MOORE: It's a waste of time.
When are they ever gonna learn-- when are they ever gonna speak
as poets when they're adults?
How does that help them get a job?
We try to teach them everything that they need so that they
could actually use their brain as well as they can,
including PE, including arts, including
music-- anything that can actually
make brain work better.
The children need to be baking.
They should be singing.
They should be doing art, and going on nature walks,
and doing all these things.
Because there's this very short time that they're
allowed to be children.
If you don't have standardized tests here in Finland,
how do you know which schools are the best?
You know, people need a list.
The neighborhood school is the best school.
It is not different than the school which can be,
for example, situated in the town center.
Because all the schools in Finland, they are all equal.
When we move to a new city, we never
ask where the best school is.
It's never a question.
So nobody has to shop for schools.
There's nothing different in any of our schools.
We're all the same.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): It is illegal in Finland
to set up a school and charge tuition.
That's why, for the most part, private schools don't exist.
And what that means is that the rich parents
have to make sure that the public schools are great.
And by making the rich kids go to school with everyone else,
they grow up with those other kids as friends.
And when they become wealthy adults,
they have to think twice before they screw them over.
In the United States, education is a business.
There are corporations making money.
Here, it's so student-centered that when
we had to redo our playground, they had the architects
come in and talk to the kids.
MICHAEL MOORE: Were they-- were they listened to?
MEGHAN SMITH:Yes.
Yes, there are things on our playground
that the students really wanted.
Being in school here is more independent.
We're treated more like adults than in the United States.
Yeah.
I mean, we don't need a hall pass to go to the bathroom
during class. -Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll see students commuting on the subway,
even as young as seven and eight, going on their own
to school.
When I started doing teacher training practice back
in the US, I was in these certain neighborhoods,
teaching these kids and telling them,
you can be anything you want to be when you grow up.
This is kind of a lie.
And when I came to Finland, a lot of my teaching
is based on what the kids want, and what
they see for their future.
So it doesn't feel so false to say
you can really be whatever you want to be when you grow up.
Because they're making it happen already.
They already have such power.
MICHAEL MOORE: That's upsetting to think about that,
that our kids don't have that.
That's really beautiful.
It's not that we have figured out something
that nobody else has done in education.
That's wrong.
Many of these things that have made
Finland perform well in education
are initially American ideas.
We try to teach them to think for themselves,
and to be critical to what they're learning.
We try to teach them to be happy person, to be respect
others and respect yourself.
MICHAEL MOORE: You're concerned with their happiness?
MAN: Oh yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE: What the hell do you teach?
I teach math.
MICHAEL MOORE: So the math teacher
says that the first thing out of your mouth, what you wanted
these students to get out of school
was to be happy, to have a happy life?
Yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE: And you're the math teacher?
Yeah.
When do they have their time to play,
and socialize with their friends,
and grow as human beings?
Because there's so much more of life around than just school.
You want them to play?
I want-- I want the children to play.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): And that was the principle.
I'm planting the American flag right here
in the middle of your school, and claiming
this great idea for us.
Thanks for stealing it.
Yeah, that's how-- that's how we roll.
All right.
I'm just saying.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): So after getting
that great K through 12 education,
where do you go next?
Deep in the heart of the eastern slopes of the Alps
is the home of Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty, Slovenia.
Not Slovakia-- Slovenia.
Actually much of Slovenia's mail gets missent to Slovakia,
but that's not why I'm here.
Slovenia is a magical fairy land,
home to the rarest of mythical creatures--
a college student with no debt.
How much debt do you have here, being a student?
None.
None.
It's free.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Slovenia
is one of dozens of countries where it is essentially
free to go to university.
Do you have any debts?
WOMAN: No.
MICHAEL MOORE: Do you know what I mean by debt?
MAN: Not really.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): No, debt
is that when you owe other people a whole lot of money.
Oh. WOMAN: No, we don't have any.
We don't have.
MICHAEL MOORE: No, no.
Nothing?
Nothing.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): I did find one student with debt.
I actually moved here four years ago
to finish my education, because I couldn't afford
to go to CU Boulder anymore.
Really?
University of Colorado, Yeah.
Yeah.
I still owe the government like $7,000.
MICHAEL MOORE: So what do you pay here now?
I don't pay anything. MICHAEL MOORE: Nothing?
No.
MICHAEL MOORE: You're an American?
Why did you decide to come here?
I couldn't even afford to finish community college.
So then I found out the situation in Slovenia.
I'd never heard anything like that before.
MICHAEL MOORE: Did you even know where Slovenia was?
No, I had no idea where Slovenia was.
MICHAEL MOORE: Right.
Yeah, but seriously, what kind of education
are you getting here?
It's miles better.
MICHAEL MOORE: Really?
Yeah.
it's not even comparable.
It's like high school here is more
difficult than American undergraduate work.
How do you say in Slovenian, any American student
can come here and go to university for free?
[speaking slovenian]
Wait a minute.
Slow, slow.
[speaking slovenian]
[speaking slovenian badly]
Do you use the regular alphabet here?
ABCDEFG?
IVAN SVETLIK: We do.
We have 26, right?
IVAN SVETLIK: One less, yeah.
Which one did you cut out?
Did you cut out W while Bush was president?
Or was that before? I'm just curious.
IVAN SVETLIK: No, no, no.
It's not.
It's from the beginning. -It's from the beginning.
It has nothing to do with Bush?
IVAN SVETLIK: No, nothing.
OK, all right.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Luckily, the University
of Ljubljana in Slovenia offers nearly 100 courses of study
that are taught in English.
Why do they do that?
You're a foreigner?
I mean, it's-- their tax dollars are paying for you.
Well, I think the thing is that here,
education is really seen as something
that's really a public good.
And the issue is, once you start charging foreign students
for education, you automatically open up the idea
that you can charge everyone.
And as soon as anyone starts paying tuition,
the entire idea of free university for everyone
is under threat.
That changes the nature of school being a public good.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): A while back,
the government of Slovenia decided it was time to start
charging students tuition.
That sent a shock wave through the country.
And the students responded.
We organized a protest against that law.
We spent nine months meeting with the Minister of Education,
with the heads of the universities.
We managed to delay the law for long enough for the government
to eventually collapse.
Wait a minute.
The organization's got 40 to 50 active members.
Yes.
MICHAEL MOORE: And you helped to bring down the government?
MAN: That's right.
That's right.
And force a new election?
That's right.
MICHAEL MOORE: That's amazing.
That's an amazing story.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Here's
what the government tries to fleece them
in countries like Canada, Germany,
France, Finland, and Norway.
And here's what happens each time there's
a tuition hike in the US.
I would like to give you a small present to memorize
your visit to the university.
Oh, thank you.
Here is a very strong tradition of lacemaking.
Of lacemaking.
IVAN SVETLIK: Lacemaking, but this is a metal lace.
No man has ever given me a gift of lace
before, so thank you for this.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): The idea of making a college free
and not sending 22 year olds into a debtor's prison
was something I could definitely take back to the United States.
I asked for a meeting with the president of Slovenia.
And strangely enough, they gave me one.
-How are you today? -Wonderful.
Thank you.
It's such a pleasure.
No, it's an honor to meet you.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): The President
was happy to meet with me, but he ordered my crew out
of the room, because he did not want
any witnesses to his surrender.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): See how easy that was?
Success.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): No casualties,
no PTSD, no Dick Cheney.
Just me, walking away with something better than oil.
I have just met with the President of Slovakia,
and he has surrendered to the United States.
I have invaded your country, essentially,
to take this incredible idea that all college
should be free for everyone.
Thank you.
Next stop, Germany.
With no student loans to pay off,
imagine them going into the real world
and getting a job where you only work 36 hours a week,
but got paid for 40, a place where you can still
find a thriving middle class, even amongst people
who make pencils.
MAN: We are producing pencils.
MICHAEL MOORE: Pencils? -It's still a good business.
So we start in-- MICHAEL MOORE: Still?
Still? -Yes.
MICHAEL MOORE: Even with computers and everything?
ROLF SCHIFFERENS: They are still buying pencils.
And by the way, last year was the best year in producing
concerts in Germany ever.
MICHAEL MOORE: Where are the pencil factories?
The pencil factories?
This is here, around us.
MICHAEL MOORE: Right behind us? -Yeah, yeah.
This is factories. MICHAEL MOORE: No, no, no, no.
These aren't-- these aren't factories.
They have windows.
ROLF SCHIFFERENS: What do you mean, windows?
Factories don't have windows.
Of course we have windows.
They-- they must have good light.
MICHAEL MOORE: What do they need sunlight for?
They're just making pencils.
Yeah, but good pencils, and also to feel well,
not to get sick.
Because if you have workers who are ill,
then you have problems.
We don't want that.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): I opened a door
and found something that was missing
in America, the middle class.
What's everybody doing in here?
MICHAEL MOORE: You're on a break?
You only work 36 hours a week as it is.
How many of you have a second or third job?
You're laughing like that's a funny idea.
MICHAEL MOORE: You leave here at 2:00 PM.
You're home at 2:30.
What do you do with all this free time?
MICHAEL MOORE: And do what?
Nothing.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): In Germany, work is work,
and when work is over, work is done.
In fact, they're so concerned that the workplace has created
so much stress that under the German universal health care
system, any stressed out German can get
their doctor to write a prescription for a free three
week stay at a spa.
[speaking german]
You don't have to cook.
You don't have to wash.
I need time for me.
I need more time for my children.
We have massage, gymnastics, then we go to the pool,
and we eat healthy.
It's very yummy.
MICHAEL MOORE: I don't understand
why the government does this.
Because it's cheaper in the long run.
It's cheaper.
Not only to prevent and reverse sickness.
So it makes sense to pay before.
MICHAEL MOORE: And what about the kids, also?
SABINE: Yeah, well, some kids get massage, and--
MICHAEL MOORE: The kids get massage?
SABINE: Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
We are in Paradise here.
Everybody takes a little bit care of the neighbor,
life is more easy for everyone.
It's just common sense.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): One of the reasons
that German workers have all this free time
and other benefits is because they have power, real power.
It's a law that companies have to have
a supervisory board which consists 50% representatives
from the workers side.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): That's right.
Not a token worker on the board-- half of these boards
are workers.
And one of the good things about having workers with power
on the board is that when the company breaks the law--
End of the road.
Volkswagen, the world's largest automaker,
was busted for cheating its way around the law.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): The workers make
sure the company is prosecuted.
That's why companies listen to the workers.
We ask our employees, what can we do better?
MICHAEL MOORE: Why?
You're in charge.
You're management.
Just tell them what to do.
They observe what we are doing, and they make proposals,
what we can do better.
MICHAEL MOORE: Do you ever adopt any other workers' proposals?
Yes, of course.
We do it regularly, of course.
MICHAEL MOORE: Why?
Just to keep them happy, or?
No, no.
They have good ideas, and they are--
MICHAEL MOORE: What? They have good ideas?
They have good ideas. They know--
MICHAEL MOORE: You don't really mean that.
No, of course.
It's true.
MICHAEL MOORE: You're saying that because the camera's on.
No, no, no.
They are so important and so intelligent.
Believe me, it's the key to success.
We know that the more you give people a say,
the more they help the company to win.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): The latest area that German workers
have advocated for is how they are
to be treated during their free time, when they're not at work.
It is against the law in Germany to contact an employee
while he or she is on vacation.
And now many companies in Germany have adopted the rule
that the company cannot send an email to employees after work.
At Mercedes, the company's computers
will block any boss who tries to bother an employee at home.
Employees have the right not to answer emails,
and bosses are not supposed to intervene on the weekends,
or on the vacation, or after normal working hours a day
into the private spheres of employees.
Agh!
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): No, the Germans
don't want to interfere with your private sphere.
But things weren't always like this in Germany.
Here in Nuremberg, they didn't just make pencils.
They made documentaries.
[chanting in german]
My duty is to make a future without such things,
to make everything that this is never possible again,
or to do everything.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Every day in Germany,
in every school, they teach the young
what their predecessors did.
We had the chance to meet survivors,
and they told us their stories.
And, yeah, you're can't forget it.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): They don't whitewash it.
They don't pretend it didn't happen.
They don't say, hey, that was before my time.
What's this got to do with me?
I didn't kill anyone.
I just adopted the German nationality,
and I think by my adopting the German nationality,
I have to adopt the history of Germans
too, and also feel responsible for the things the Germans did,
because I'm German too.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): They treat it as their original sin,
a permanent mark on their collective German soul, one
for which they must always seek redemption,
and make reparation, and never forget.
And they can't forget, because outside of their homes,
on the sidewalk are little engravings that remind them
of the name of the Jewish family that used to live in this house
but was taken away and killed.
Local artists have installed around town the Jews forbidden
signs from the 1930s
to remind today's generation that to be German
isn't just about Beethoven and Bach,
but also about genocide and evil.
What would our signs look like?
What would our classes teach if we wanted
to teach our young the whole story of what
it means to be American?
What reparations would we make?
Have we truly changed?
Until 2015, the United States never had a museum of slavery.
Why do we hide from our sins?
The first step to recovery, the first step to being a better
person, or a better country, is to be
able to just stand up and honestly say who and what
you are-- I am an American.
I live in a great country that was born in genocide
and built on the backs of slaves.
If there's one thing we should steal from the Germans,
it's the idea that if you acknowledge your dark side
and make amends for it, you can free
yourself to be a better people, and to do well by others.
If they can do it, surely we can.
My invasion across Europe continued.
The next stop was Portugal, the country that helped to bring
slavery to the Americas.
After a few hundred years, they gave up the slave trade,
but they kept the slaves' drums.
Somehow, the Portuguese have caught wind of my invasion.
But of course, this was May Day, a celebration of workers
held all over the world.
In some countries, it's a day off work,
but not in the United States.
Portugal, like most countries, had a war on drugs.
And, like most countries, they were losing that war.
So they decided to try something new.
It's my understanding that you don't arrest
people for using drugs anymore?
MICHAEL MOORE: No.
MICHAEL MOORE: Heroin? Pot?
Meth?
Pills?
Nothing?
MICHAEL MOORE: If I told you I had cocaine on me right now,
you wouldn't do anything?
MICHAEL MOORE: No?
OK.
MICHAEL MOORE: Officers, I have cocaine in my pocket,
a whole bunch of it.
[sniffing]
Sorry, allergies.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): I found my way
to the offices of Portugal's, well,
I don't know what they call this guy.
I guess he's some sort of drug czar, Nuno Capaz.
You know, you like a drug user.
Yeah, people have told me that before.
I know that.
It-- well, it helps me relate to them, so I'm OK with that.
MICHAEL MOORE: You don't care. -I don't care.
Not really. MICHAEL MOORE: Right.
Are you a drug user? -Yeah.
Yes, I am.
Yes, I am.
MICHAEL MOORE: What drugs do you use?
Well, mostly alcohol, internet, a lot of coffee,
some sugar, sex, occasionally.
Well, a lot of make-- things that make me feel good.
How many people last year went to prison for using drugs?
For using drugs?
Zero.
How many people went to prison two years ago for using drugs?
NUNO CAPAZ: Zero.
Five years ago?
In the last 15 years, no one was
arrested in Portugal because they were caught using drugs.
No one?
No, it's not considered a crime,
so there's no legal possibility of someone getting
a jail sentence out of it.
MICHAEL MOORE: So if I had 25 joints on me,
I would be considered a user?
Yeah.
Yes.
Have you had an increase in drug
related crimes as a result of--
No.
If there is less people using, there
will be less people causing troubles
because they are using.
OK, wait a minute.
You're saying that by decriminalizing all drugs,
not throwing people in jail, drug usage went down?
Not up?
Mhm.
Um--
When you think about drug users,
everybody thinks about those small 10%
that are causing problems.
People don't think about the 90% of people that are not
causing any troubles, although they
are using illicit substances.
People that are using drugs might be causing harm.
MICHAEL MOORE: Causing harm to themselves,
but not necessarily to others.
NUNO CAPAZ: But not necessarily to others.
MICHAEL MOORE: I mean, they may be
bringing sadness to their marriage, or their family,
or whatever.
So?
So does Facebook.
Are we going to illegalize it?
MICHAEL MOORE: See, we think of it the other way.
By identifying those who are using and doing drugs,
we can weed them out.
We use that as the crime.
Is it working?
MICHAEL MOORE: Well, actually, it is.
It's probably just a coincidence,
but in the 1950s, and '60s, the Negroes of the United States,
after 400 years of oppression, got all uppity
and started demanding their civil rights.
And they started to assert their power.
Our people want an end to the living hell
that drug pushing has spawned.
In order to fight and defeat this enemy,
it is necessary to wage a new all-out offensive.
Get on the ground.
On the ground, man.
Against the wall.
This is one area where we cannot have budget cuts.
Drugs are menacing our society.
They're threatening our values and undercutting
our institutions.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Here's
how I think the history books will record
all of this 100 years from now.
Around the time that the blacks began to rise up,
coincidentally, new laws were passed imposing harsher
sentences on the drugs that were created
for the urban demographic.
See this cute little vial here?
It's crack, rock cocaine.
This is crack cocaine.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): While the drugs
used in the white community resulted in lesser punishments.
So help me God.
I experimented with marijuana a time or two,
and I didn't like it, and didn't inhale,
and never tried it again.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Their leaders assassinated,
the uprising grew right.
And over the next four decades, the police, coincidently,
rounded up millions upon millions of black men,
stripping from all of them their right to vote,
with 35 states not even letting them vote
after they get out of prison.
Which means that in states like Florida, and Virginia, one
in three black men cannot vote.
When we fight drugs, we fight the War on terror.
And the way you get the states with the largest percentage
of terrorists to become red states
is by taking away their right to vote.
Yes, white America had inadvertently figured out
a way to bring back slavery.
And master knew that the way to get rich
was having all that free labor.
Today's masters have found our prisons
to be the perfect places to make their products
for as little as $0.23 an hour.
Yes, that burger you're eating, that airline reservation
you made, the software you're using to watch the pirated copy
of this movie, your child's backpack
with its 5 hours of homework--
I always wondered what the Victoria's secret was,
and now I know.
It's one of many companies that have used 21st century slaves.
It was an act of pure, mad genius.
So what do you do with your black people here?
Do you have black people here?
Yeah.
And you don't-- you don't have drug
laws to put them in prison.
No.
No.
MICHAEL MOORE: Whoa whoa, whoa.
You're telling me that if you arrested
someone who was black for usage of drugs,
they wouldn't go to prison?
They wouldn't be arrested in the first place.
The usage of drugs is not an excuse
to arrest anyone in Portugal, regardless of their color.
Right, but it's a way to help control the population,
if you understand what I'm saying.
In the US, we have millions--
I know
MICHAEL MOORE: Of black, mostly men--
With a criminal record.
And it's ridiculous.
MICHAEL MOORE: Even though they're out of prison.
And they can't ever vote again.
Our prisoners actually vote first.
I'm here right now to steal your great idea,
and take it back to the United States.
The thing is, well, it won't work if you just take it there
and-- if you just go there, and you've
just decriminalize drug usage, that's not going to work.
You have to steal some other good ideas that we had before.
Yeah?
Like what?
An health care system that is universal and free
for all, that will increase the accessibility to treatment.
So what you're saying is, it's not just
taking back the decriminalization
part of drugs.
I am also gonna have to convince United States to increase
treatment, basically take the stick out of our ass
and help people?
Exactly.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): As we were packing up to leave,
the Lisbon cops asked if they could
say something directly to law enforcement
in the United States.
MICHAEL MOORE: And you guys are cops, and this is how you feel.
I don't know what to say.
MICHAEL MOORE: A lot of work to be done.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Welcome to the Norwegian prison
system, based on the principle of rehabilitation, not revenge.
I wanna meet prisoners.
Yeah, you wanna meet prisoners?
Yeah.
You're meeting one now.
You're-- you're a prisoner dressed like this?
Yes.
So this is the house, and here is the living room.
It's a nice, OK view.
And this is my room.
It's pretty OK.
MICHAEL MOORE: Yeah, so this is your cell?
RUNE: Yes.
MICHAEL MOORE: Do they lock you in at night?
No, I'm the only one that has the key for it, so--
We watch TV.
We can play basketball, running, swimming.
Fishing.
MICHAEL MOORE: Wait a minute.
What do you mean swimming?
You can swim to the other side?
That is not allowed.
From another side, you can swim here, you cannot
swim from here to another side.
Because they call escape.
You're in prison for murder?
Yeah.
You killed somebody?
Yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE: I can't help but notice
that right behind you are a whole bunch
of very sharp knives.
Yeah.
Yes.
MICHAEL MOORE: Nobody here is worried about that, or?
No. No.
MICHAEL MOORE: No should I be worried about that?
No.
MICHAEL MOORE: You're not worried about it.
I'm not worried about it.
I love this.
Yeah.
If I could get one of these to take home,
I would have to ketchup up on everything.
That is like the cool-- look at it.
It's still going.
On the weekend, it's four guards at work,
and in another building.
That's it?
Yeah, that's it.
And how many of you are there here?
115.
-115? -Yeah.
-And four guards? -Yeah.
Wow.
Warden, where's the punishment?
Where is the punishment?
The main idea is we're just supposed
to take away their freedom.
That's the only punishment we're actually giving them.
They miss their family.
They miss their friends.
Right, right.
But also, I think, and I hope, when you speak to them,
they will also feel that we're trying to help
them back to the same society.
You know, this is gonna be very hard for Americans
to see this-- This looks very strange-- to understand
why you're doing it, why you do your prison system this way.
We have to show more love and affection for each other,
to take care of each other in another way.
This is the way.
This is a sense of life, you know?
MICHAEL MOORE: If we showed a little
more love, and affection, and kindness toward each other.
Yeah, yeah.
This is the way.
And this is so important.
So important.
MICHAEL MOORE: Yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): The US has one of the highest
recidivism rates in the world.
Nearly 80% of prisoners are rearrested within five years.
Norway has one of the lowest at 20%.
And that was something I was claiming for the USA.
Of course, I was visiting a model prison,
a place for inmates who were being rewarded
for their good behavior.
I said it wasn't fair to show the American public
their nicest place.
I wanted to see a maximum security facility.
And that's where I went.
When the prison first opened in 2010,
the guards wanted to send a strong message
to the new inmates.
So they made this orientation video.
There comes a time when we hear the siren call, when the world
must come together as one.
There are people dying, and it's time to lend a hand.
To live, the greatest gift of all.
We can't go on pretending day by day that someone somewhere
will soon make a change.
Is that Braille?
Yes.
Braille, for the blind?
Yeah, for the blind, yes.
Yes.
It is art, modern art.
You have modern art throughout the prison here.
We are the world, we are the children.
We are the ones who make a brighter day,
so let's start giving.
There's a choice we're making.
We're saving our own light.
It's true.
Make a better day, just you and me.
MICHAEL MOORE: How many fights have you been in?
I have never been in fights, actually.
MICHAEL MOORE: You don't need a knife to protect yourself with?
Oh, no, no, no.
MICHAEL MOORE: No.
We don't need that.
MICHAEL MOORE: No.
Show me your wounds from the number of times
you've been stabbed. -Oh no.
Never. -Never?
I've never been stabbed.
How many times have you been beaten
up here by other prisoners?
No, never.
How many times have you been raped in the shower?
Never.
That's not gonna happen, because you've got your own shower.
Here's the bed.
MICHAEL MOORE: OK.
That's a bed.
A TV.
Got the flat screen TV.
MICHAEL MOORE: Mhm.
I'm painting, and besides that, I'm studying art class.
MICHAEL MOORE: You're taking philosophy class?
I'm gonna have examine after summer,
so I want work with the community
problems and things like that, maybe, politics later on.
So.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): That's not a bad idea.
Go to prison first, then become a politician.
And speaking of politicians, as in Portugal,
prisoners in Norway can vote.
And in order to get their votes, candidates
show up for election debates televised
live from inside the prison.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): I had to keep
reminding myself this was a maximum security facility.
Here, the inmates have keys too.
And this inmate was a murderer.
They had Xboxes and a library, as nice
as any suburban high school library in the US.
They even had their own record label and a recording studio.
Music can actually open to a lot of the creativity
inside of them.
And if it's one thing that's said about the guys here,
they are very creative in all sorts of ways.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): They've got their own laundry.
They've got a pantry.
And yes, they've got their own knives too.
Where are your guns?
-We don't-- -We don't need it.
MICHAEL MOORE: You don't need any guns?
We talk to the guys.
That's our weapon.
MICHAEL MOORE: That your weapon is-- is your mouth?
Yeah.
When it comes to do the job, they really do it good.
Because the officer, they serve you.
They're there for you.
MICHAEL MOORE: The guards?
It's not like in America.
They're there from beating the shit out of you.
Crawl, motherfucker, crawl!
[shouting]
Get out of the way!
Get out of the way!
[screaming]
Get out of the way!
Don't move!
Don't move! -Behave yourselves.
Behave yourselves!
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): This is Trond
Blattmann, a plumber by trade.
On July 22nd, 2011, he lost his 17-year-old son
when he was murdered with 54 other teenagers on a summer
camp island in a lake in Norway.
One killer, who espoused neo-Nazi and racist beliefs,
not only killed all of these children,
but blew up a federal building in downtown Oslo.
My son called me from the island and said,
Daddy, Daddy, there's something.
They're somebody shooting at us, at us on the island.
What are you gonna do?
I'd never been on the island, so I didn't know what to answer.
And I said, are you together with other people,
other youngsters?
Yes.
Well, then, hide.
And stick together, take care of each other, and be careful.
He called me around 5:20, and he was dead just past 6:00.
MICHAEL MOORE: Do you wish that your son had a gun instead
of a cell phone that day?
What I wished that he had done was to swim.
MICHAEL MOORE: Because the ones who swam survived.
We don't have death sentences here in Norway.
So we kind of said that mass murderer,
he's going to have the same kind of treatment as everybody else.
The justice system is going to judge him,
and he's going to have his sentence.
MICHAEL MOORE: You cared about whether he had a fair trial?
Yeah. MICHAEL MOORE: You?
Yeah. MICHAEL MOORE: You yourself?
Yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE: But don't you personally want to kill him?
No.
MICHAEL MOORE: If you-- if you had the chance?
No.
MICHAEL MOORE: If you had the chance?
No.
MICHAEL MOORE: He-- but he killed your son.
Yeah, but I-- no.
MICHAEL MOORE: You don't wanna kill him?
No.
MICHAEL MOORE: But he killed your son.
Yeah, he killed my son.
MICHAEL MOORE: You wouldn't wanna just take him--
But I don't wanna step-- I don't wanna step down
on the ladder and say, I have the same right
as you thought you had to kill.
I don't have the same right.
MICHAEL MOORE: Even though he's just a piece of scum?
Yeah, but that's-- I know he's a piece of scum,
but it doesn't give me the right to shoot him or kill him.
So after this horrible act of terrorism,
Norway didn't change its system.
You don't try to institute a Patriot Act.
No.
You don't try to take away people's freedoms.
No.
You're cautiously thinking about arming the police now,
but even that is bothersome and worrisome.
Why didn't you respond the way we responded after 9/11?
Well, let me put it this way.
The whole establishment, from the Prime Minister
through the King's family and all of the officials in Norway,
all of the press, the media, said, well,
let's now take care of Norway.
As we have been used to taking care of each other,
we take care of Norway.
So we stay together.
We open our hearts.
We open our society.
We are gonna have more democracy,
more freedom of speech.
Because to lock up wouldn't help us.
That would just create more hatred.
[speaking norwegian]
There was much I took from Norway,
and much more to think about-- a country that forgave,
a country that, when it locked up its citizens,
it treated them as human beings.
So what was I to do now?
Where to invade next?
Sweden?
Denmark?
I could go somewhere else, like Iran,
or Brazil, or even Rwanda.
But I chose Tunisia,
[muslim prayer]
A country in Muslim North Africa that has something that we
don't-- free government-funded women's health clinics
and government-funded abortion.
[speaking french]
We have 24 reproductive health centers in Tunisia.
And it is our main mission, contraception.
We have IUDs, pills, implants, and, of course, condoms.
MICHAEL MOORE: So how about abortion?
Yes, of course.
In Tunisia, abortion is legal since 1973.
MICHAEL MOORE: And the Tunisian people are OK with that?
Yes, because these kinds of services
help women to be the equal of men.
And when a woman is well educated, when she works,
she has a better quality of life,
so she will have better life expectancy.
And I think that family planning has played a great role.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): As in other countries, once women had
control over their own bodies, eventually,
both women and men want control over their own lives.
And in Tunisia's case, that meant the dictator had to go.
We are gonna turn now to an almost
inconceivable act of protest.
More than a dozen men across the Middle East
have now set themselves on fire to oppose
corruption and repression in their own countries.
This massive uprising began with one man, Mohamed Bouazizi.
A 26-year-old college grad, he was unable to find work
and forced to sell fruit in the street.
Last month, harassed and insulted by corrupt officials,
he snapped and set himself on fire.
Mr. Bouazizi, he was a hero.
Mr. Bouazizi was a martyr.
He was a hero.
He's a symbol.
I thank him, because he freed me of my fear.
MAN: Fear of what?
Fear of oppression, fear of the government.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Armed only
with the fruit from Bouazizi's broken cart,
the people of this town stormed the governor's mansion,
and the revolution had begun.
When the Revolution happened, I was pregnant.
And I was so proud that my babies are born free.
They are born free citizens.
They are born proud to be Tunisian.
I wasn't proud.
I was so ashamed.
I studied in Paris, and I was like, I'm here.
I can talk to you because it's in France.
I'm safe.
But I won't have the courage to outspeak in my country,
because I choose life.
And I didn't have the courage to be persecuted.
And I'm quite ashamed about that.
MICHAEL MOORE: So what did you do when the Revolution started?
The day of the Revolution, the 14th of January, as I told you,
I wasn't in the street, because I was pregnant.
And I was having journalists all over Tunisia.
I was trying really to not censor as much as I could.
Because censorship was everywhere.
And at some point, one of my journalists
called me, crying, and said to me,
my brother was shot three minutes ago.
So what are you going to do now?
And it was like a point of no return for me.
I was ready to lose my job to everything, but this guy,
I still remember when I put the phone down.
And I said, OK.
Stop.
There is no turning back.
His brother is dead in front of him.
So I went into the studio and said, guys, guys are shot.
We have to outspeak this.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): There were
many women like Amel, who played a key role in the Revolution.
They toppled the dictator, and formed a democratic government.
But when the newly formed Islamist party
decided they didn't want women's rights
as part of the new constitution, the women of Tunisia
fought back.
We have many new political movements
that weren't here before.
And those movements are threatening women's rights.
And so now we're here to defend them
and to show that we will not lower our guards.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Like with the women in Tunisia,
women in America have tried to get their Equal Rights
Amendment to the Constitution passed back in the 1970s,
but it fell three states short of ratification.
The Tunisian women were determined
not to have the same fate as those in America.
They took to the streets and rallied the people.
And before long, the majority of the country was behind them.
NEWSCASTER: The final vote on the Constitution
was passed with 200 voting yes, four
abstentions, and 12 no votes.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Although
the conservative Islamist party controlled the most seats
in Parliament, they agreed to abide
by the will of the people, who wanted
an equal rights provision for women in the Constitution.
They also offered to voluntarily step down,
even though, legally, they didn't have to.
MICHAEL MOORE: That's really amazing
that you decided to step down and follow
the will of the people as opposed
to following, maybe, what some religious leader might
have told you to do.
MICHAEL MOORE: That's not the impression
that we're given in the United States
of anybody who's a Muslim.
Do you require women to cover their heads here?
MICHAEL MOORE: How do you feel about discrimination
against homosexuals?
MICHAEL MOORE: Is there something you think
America can learn from Tunisia?
Americans are lucky.
They are-- they belong to the most
powerful country in the world.
But being the strongest one maybe stops
them from being just curious.
I know a lot about you guys.
I know your music from the '70s until today.
I dance on your music.
I speak, as much as I can, your language.
I know Henry Miller, Kerouac, Scott Fitzgerald.
I wear your clothes.
I eat your food.
But I also have my culture.
What do you know about my culture, or Estonian culture,
or Zimbabwean culture?
I read an interesting article about the average time
an American spends watching the Kardashian show.
Why do you spend your time for this?
You invented the most powerful weapon in the world.
It's internet, guys.
Use it the right way.
Check, read, watch, and then come to visit us.
We're worth it.
It's a little, small country.
It's name is Tunisia.
It's in North Africa.
And I really think we deserve, as the other countries,
your attention.
Because if you keep this way of thinking,
that you are the best, and you know everything, it won't work.
[singing]
I was seven when the women of Iceland
went on strike on October 24th, 1975.
They marched into the center of Reykjavik
and filled the streets.
90% of women did no work that day.
No schools opened.
No banks opened.
No kids ate.
No buses rode into town.
It was impossible to get anything done on that day.
Because when women don't work, nothing works.
They changed the impression of the value of women,
for women and men alike, forever.
Because nothing worked in Iceland that day.
So they changed the very reality that I grew up with,
and they changed my view on it forever.
And five years after this day, we
were the first country to democratically
a female president.
She was a single mom.
She had a seven year-old daughter.
You cannot help but to thank those role models and these
women who came before us, and think that we owe it
to the next generation to empower
ourselves and the generations that follow.
I campaigned all over the country.
And it was absolutely a unique experience.
I never slept in a hotel.
I slept in children's bed around the country.
And it was arranged.
I knew who in the area would vote for me, and I campaigned.
And finally, I was elected.
There were hundreds of people outside the house here.
My daughter, seven years-old, was here standing beside me.
MICHAEL MOORE: You know, if you take the really long view
of history, you have, essentially, a few thousand
years of it being just one way-- men in charge, men in control,
men making the decisions, calling
the shots politically, economically, socially,
and personally.
Look what's happened in this time,
since that women strike in '75, since your election in 1980.
How many countries have elected women?
I mean, dozens.
And that doesn't even count the women elected by parliaments.
All fathers know that the daughter
is as clever as the boy, has the same intelligence.
All brothers know that their sisters
have the same intelligence as they have.
I'm very proud that Iceland was the first and set an example.
MICHAEL MOORE: Right.
And, definitely, it, had a very good, very good effect
on our woman and girls here at home.
MICHAEL MOORE: That's actually how I would have hit it.
Back center.
MICHAEL MOORE: I predict an eagle for this hole.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Meet Haftis, Ranvig, and Margaret.
Aside from beating me in a game of golf on a balmy 29 degree
day, these women are all CEOs, one of them
the former head of their food and drug administration.
They're part of a generation of Icelandic women
inspired by the election of President Vigdis.
I think Iceland is the best county to be
a female in, in the world.
There has been a lot of change since the last maybe 20--
15, yeah.
15 to 20 years.
Yeah.
Like that.
Yeah.
We have the same chance as the men.
MICHAEL MOORE: You do?
Yeah, definitely. MICHAEL MOORE: You do feel it.
In your bones, you feel that?
Yeah, in your bones.
We grow up believing that.
I mean, we don't even think about it.
We have a gender quota for the biggest companies.
MICHAEL MOORE: You mean the company's board of directors?
Yeah.
So you have to be either 40%, at least 40% women or 40% men.
Because you also have to think about the young men.
They need to get on the boards, also.
So it's a good law for them, also.
MICHAEL MOORE: Right.
So yeah, so it can't be more than 60% women.
No.
That's true.
Research has shown us that-- and this
is international research-- that once
you have three women in the board room, that's
when culture starts changing.
Not when you have one or two.
Because one is a token, and two is a minority.
But once you have three, it all of a sudden
changes the group dynamics.
It changes how the dialogue is taken, what is discussed.
And it's been well shown that that
goes beyond the balance sheet.
When you have more women around the table,
they start asking more about all stakeholders.
And this is what I call a different moral and ethical
compass.
And I think this is extremely valuable today,
and I actually don't think you can
survive long term in business without doing this today.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Throughout my invasions,
it was clear that where women had
power, and were true equals, people were simply better off.
Yet here in Iceland, I felt that the women had taken
this to an even higher level.
And while they controlled nearly half the seats on company
boards, and nearly half the seats in Parliament,
it did make me wonder, what was it that the men of Iceland
still controlled?
When much of the world went into recession last year,
no country melted down faster than Iceland, dragging
down three major banks with it.
The only bank to operate in the black is run by women.
So does gender make a difference in the financial world?
Here's Sheila McVicar.
SHEILA MCVICAR: Iceland's collapse
was the fastest in history, with 85% of the economy wiped out
in weeks.
There was only one financial institution,
Audur Capital in Iceland, that did not
lose money for its customers.
Founded by two women on the investment principle of,
"if we don't understand it, we're not buying it,"
there's a lot of talk here about the difference
it would have made if more women were on the trading floors.
It's been 99% men that wanted to take risk,
wanted speed, wanted individual rewards, and excessive rewards.
SHEILA MCVICAR: There is new evidence emerging
that some of what happens on trading floors
may be partly the result of male hormones.
When testosterone levels get too high,
traders become overconfident, take too much risk,
and the bubble bursts.
Women, they think, what's good for the whole?
With men, more, they think, what's in it for me?
SHEILA MCVICAR: It's a provocative question
being debated around the globe.
Where would we be if it had been Lehman Sisters?
MICHAEL MOORE: So do you think any of this
would have happened if women had been in charge in 2008?
I thought we had created a world that was
on an empty pursuit for more.
And I had a question about if this growth journey we had been
on was really a successful business
strategy that I had somehow missed during my MBA education.
Is it a relentless pursuit for getting big,
or is this the great big penis competition?
So 20, 30 persons in Iceland have turned the whole economy
on this island on its head?
Yes.
20, 30 persons?
Yes.
That's insane.
Yes, that is.
SHEILA MCVICAR: Normally stoic and proper,
Icelanders have started protesting.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): His name was Jon Gnarr,
and he's Iceland's top comedian.
He decided to run for mayor of its capital city, Reykjavik,
as a joke.
The people of Reykjavik thought it was the best way
to send a message to the bankers and the people
who had ruined their country.
MICHAEL MOORE: So why did you decide
to call it the Best Party?
Well, because there's this idea of best.
Here, we're not allowed to say that something is best.
You mean-- here, it's not against the law.
You mean in Icelandic culture?
Yeah, I mean it's a law.
Oh, it is a law?
I cannot say that this brand of coffee
is the best brand of coffee.
Oh, really?
No.
You cannot say it.
Have you tried it?
Yeah, it's very good.
But it's not the best.
It's the best, but I can't say it.
It might be the-- OK.
No, but they don't have these rules in politics.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): He won in a landslide.
His election was a total rebuke of these guys-- the bankers.
Anybody who has kids will know that if the kids get
away with their crime, chances are they will continue.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): When the bankers went to court,
they went to a real criminal court.
And when the judges issued the sentence,
they put the bankers away, far away.
Far, far, far, really far away.
They were being kept as far away from society
as possible, where they could do no harm
to the people of Iceland.
That's not exactly how we did it.
Well, there was that one guy named Kareem,
but since the crash of '08, not a single banker without
a Muslim name has been tried in a criminal court in the United
States of America.
In Iceland, nearly 70 bankers and hedge fund managers
were prosecuted, with many of them sent to prison.
I went to see the top cop, the special prosecutor appointed
to put the bankers in prison.
His name was Olafur Thor Hauksson.
The bankers know him as Thor.
So, Thor, I have the files here, actually,
of the people that I think can helped precipitate the banking
collapse in the United States.
OK.
Just take a look at that in your spare time
here, if you can.
If you read through these, these files,
you will see things that will make even
Icelandic hair stand up on end.
OK. MICHAEL MOORE: I mean, it's--
Can I keep this?
MICHAEL MOORE: You can, actually.
Yup, I wish you would.
Yes.
Actually, in the States, you have
the ability and the knowledge to do the right thing.
MICHAEL MOORE: Yes.
In America, you had a prior incident.
You had the Saving and Loan Scandal.
MICHAEL MOORE: Mhm.
You had some prosecutions at that time.
MICHAEL MOORE: We did. -Yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE: That's right. And people went to jail.
So we had one of the prosecutors
that actually worked on that.
He gave us an advice.
So our prosecutor, one of them, gave advice to your office
to help you do this.
Yeah.
Jack Black?
No, no, no.
Not Jack Black.
It was Bill Black, I think.
The former prosecutor in the US.
He was quite blunt with us.
We learned a lot from him.
MICHAEL MOORE: Well, Thor, I have invaded Iceland
because you decided to investigate and prosecute
your bankers after your banking collapse,
and put a number of them in prison.
And that's just a genius idea I wanna
take back to the United States.
OK.
You're the man.
Thank you for this great idea.
Thank you.
God bless you.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): Because Iceland didn't bail out
their banks, and instead, prosecuted the bankers,
and turned much of the financial decision
making over to the women, their economy
has completely recovered.
In fact, it's doing better than ever.
Why do you think the United States is like this?
Why don't we have what you have?
In America, you have the American dream,
that it's a land of opportunities,
that everybody will be able to do whatever.
But in reality, it isn't like that.
Every kid should have the same opportunity,
the basic opportunity to get education and health care.
It's not communist.
It's just a good society.
You play more solo.
I'm taking care of myself and my family,
and the rest I don't care about.
But we are more like a big group.
And we try to take care of each other within that group.
MICHAEL MOORE: Right, you structure yourself
with "we" in mind, and we structure
ourselves with "me" in mind.
It's the women.
More women.
MICHAEL MOORE: It's women, right?
It's our DNA, yeah.
I'm convinced.
It's my conviction.
That's my belief in women, in the capacity
and intelligence of women.
If the world can be saved, it will be women that do that.
And they do not do it with war.
They do it with words.
Women, if they are running society,
they are looking for peace.
They want to save humanity.
They want to save the children.
When the man on Earth open up to how women see things,
and add it to their way of seeing things,
then we get a better world.
MICHAEL MOORE: If you were to talk to Americans, if you had
two minutes to say anything you wanted to the American people,
what would you say?
Don't be afraid of hurting our feelings.
No.
MICHAEL MOORE: We need some truth here.
No.
I wouldn't want to live in the States,
even though you paid me.
Because just the society and the way that you treat people,
the way that you treat your neighbors,
I would never want to be your neighbor.
Never, ever.
Because you don't treat your fellow Americans the way
you should.
You-- how can you in a way come home and feel well
if you know there are so many people that can't eat,
they're sick, they can't go to the doctor's, they
can't get any education?
How can you come home and feel OK with that?
I couldn't.
[clearing throat]
MICHAEL MOORE: I don't feel OK about it.
No. That's good.
You shouldn't feel OK with that.
We just have, like, a hammer and chisel,
and we were just-- I dunno.
There were a couple dozen people here,
and we were just like, the chisel
and then banging away on this thing.
You know?
Did this for two or three nights, and the crowd
kept getting larger and larger.
And there was no hole yet in the wall,
but you'd hit the steel stuff, and then
sooner or later, a little, little crack
would appear in the wall.
And the East Germans on the other side,
they were just, like, having a smoke.
And I think they felt, I think they knew it was over.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): This is my buddy Rod from Michigan.
And we've met up in Berlin now, at the end of my invasions.
In November of 1989, we happened to be traveling through Berlin
when we heard that a few people were down at the Berlin Wall,
and were chiseling on it for some reason.
We thought, hey, we got a couple hours to kill.
Let's check this out.
You know, there weren't that many doing it.
It was just those first few nights.
And I don't know.
I was just, like, chiseling away on this thing, and all
of a sudden, I looked up.
And you were on top of that.
Yeah.
You know, like, dancing around on top of the wall.
I'm trying to remember how many Germans did it take to hoist
you up to the top of that wall?
Well, it was one that got me, you know,
he sort of grabbed my foot.
And then another wing grabbed my belt, and kind of shoved me up.
And then I was able to grab hold of the top of it.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): We stayed at the wall, , chiseling
away, for the next three days.
The thing about this is that you and I grew up in the Cold War.
Yeah.
And it was one thing that was certain,
is that this wall would never come down.
Yes.
MICHAEL MOORE: Built to stand forever, impenetrable.
It lasted less than 30 years.
ROD: Yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE: And in a night, it was over.
I remember it, that.
And around the same time, Mandela got out of prison,
and then became the president of South Africa.
ROD: Yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE: And those two events, like, from that moment
on in my life, I was like, Oh, I get it.
Anything can happen.
They always say the solution is too complicated,
but there's always simple answers to these things.
You just take the hammer, and you knock it down.
You know?
It really was as simple as that.
Hammer, right?
Chisel?
-Yeah. -Down.
Down.
Hammer, chisel, down.
Rinse, repeat.
Hammer, chisel, down.
You know?
And then three months later, it's official.
Yeah.
This Cold War, this wall, that was supposed to go on forever,
was-- woop-- gone.
Just like that.
You know?
It's like, three years ago, gay marriage in the United States
was outlawed in every state.
Yeah.
Now, law of the land.
It was like, wow.
That was quick.
You know?
I mean, so I'm just-- I've turned into this kind
of crazy optimist.
Just name something that seems impossible,
and this, this wall, proves that that could happen,
that suddenly, first it's a wall.
Now there's a hole in the wall.
And then, soon, the wall comes down.
Pretty cool.
Yeah.
MICHAEL MOORE (VOICEOVER): We discussed all the great things
I had taken from my invasions, but I began to lament
that the American Dream seemed to be alive
and well everywhere but America.
It was then that Rod reminded me that he and I,
and most of our generation, went to college
for practically free.
He reminded me that the Finnish education
chief had said that their education
ideas were American ideas.
And that May Day didn't begin in Moscow or Lisbon.
It began in Chicago in 1886.
That's where the fight for the eight hour day and the vacation
came from-- American unions.
The fight for the ERA began eight years
before Iceland elected the first female president.
The same thing with the Norwegian prison
warden, that the idea of no cruel or unusual punishment
was ours.
And it was our state, Michigan, that
became the first English speaking
government in the world to eliminate the death penalty.
And the special prosecutor in Iceland,
he based his whole investigation and prosecution of the bankers
on our Savings and Loan Scandal back in the '80s.
Even hired an American to help him with it.
These weren't European ideas.
These weren't new ideas.
These were our ideas.
We didn't need to invade all these countries
to steal their ideas.
They were already ours.
We didn't need to invade.
We just needed to go to the American lost and found.
Maybe that was