American Jobs

Year: 2004

Grade: C+

Country: USA

Director: Spotts

Review

by no means is this documentary sweeping, novel or amazingly deep, but it does a fairly good job of addressing the exportation of manufacturing jobs in a small (60 minutes) package. the main thesis of the film is that american jobs are being lost to countries like mexico and china and that this is not a good thing. the dominate proposed solution to the problem is more government regulation on free trade. it’s a film that’s typically biased in its views on free trade. it’ll include statistics on mexican wages (they’ve gone down since nafta – a bad thing), but excludes figures on unemployment (which has probably gone down – a good thing). i’m not defending nafta by any stretch, i think it’s one of clinton’s more egregious errors, but i’m merely pointing out that the film should be viewed as one, informed opinion, instead of a bipartisan, unbiased piece. then again, that’s how you should probably view all films – documentaries included. it does offer some new info and a couple interviews which offer somewhat unique perspectives.