I.O.U.S.A.
I.O.U.S.A. is not trying to be subtle. It is very, very careful to be factual, politically neutral, and revelatory – but subtle, no way. Director Patrick Creadon and advocates David Walker and Bob Bixby have a message to get out there and this! Movie! Is! It! It seems clear that they were inspired by the effectiveness of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth lecture tour and film, as an engaging presentation of a lot of complex statistics and facts, seasoned with some urgency. This movie (also being toured as lectures) engaged in just the same way: easy to follow graphs and pie charts, talking heads with information-filled anecdotes, and clear explanations.
The movie was released in August 2008, when gas prices had finally dropped below $4.00, the Olympics were preventing us from noticing the massive collapse of the financial sector, and the men who ended up on the presidential ballot were mere glimmers in their parties’ eyes. Now, with the Wall Street bailout behind us and the automakers bailout still percolating, the movie feels all the more relevant. The economy is a complicated thing even in the best of times, affected in surprising ways by unexpected factors. Creadon does a good job breaking it down and showing just how we started to go wrong (longer ago than either party would admit) and why we kept doing it.
Historical information is fascinating when it so keenly reflects current-day anxieties, considering the short memories of pundits and news teams alike; it’s valuable to see the cycles and policies and relative crises since Hoover’s 1929-1933 presidency. The filmmakers separate the major economic influences, Budget, Savings, Trade, and Leadership, and explains their role and goes on to show how broken each quarter is now. It sounds incredibly dry but it is not – my eyes involuntarily glaze over with talks of market indicators, reserve rates…zzzzz. I.O.U.S.A manages to keep this dense, dry information dynamic enough to be interesting and terrifying enough to be important. It’s not sensationalistic at all – it’s very matter-of-fact, but certain things are too serious to gloss over.
Inspired by William Bonner and Addison Wiggin’s book Empire of Debt, Bixby and Walker are trying to educate their audience about all that tedious ledgerdemesne (wink) that affects our lives much more seriously than terrorism or gay marriage. They take no political stance, repeatedly reminding us that their agenda is non-partisan, their work not political in any way. The facts happen to damn one party more than another, but history is history and everyone from voters to presidents is responsible for where we are today. The parties could mend their ways and be better, but at our current rate, by January 2008 every American will be in the hole (the national debt hole) for $184,000. In fact, the national debt as a whole increases by about $85,000 during the length of time it takes to watch this movie.
Walker and Bixby don’t lay blame so much as they lay bare the culprits, not all of whom are political. Since the 1980’s, America hasn’t really had a rainy day to save for, and as a result, the cultural sensibilities learned during the Depression and World Wars have been forgotten and supplanted by the Me Generation and the Me! Me! Me! 1980’s. Unchecked consumerism, unregulated markets and industries, increasing reliance and dependence on foreign aid, namby pamby resolve to change the expectations of the American Way of Life ™ – these things and more have brought us to the brink. Supply-side economics (a.k.a. trickle-down or Reaganomics) started gouging out the slope we are currently slipping down, but once glance at the news will tell you more than just one presidential policy (or four) is responsible.
While we are all clearly complicit in the crisis (by voting, by consuming/saving or wasting/investing – or not), I.O.U.S.A. is careful not to blame its audience either. Rather, it is an earnest and literal plea for us to wake up and get to changing things fast. This holiday shopping season, with its ample mall parking, rashes of Going Out Of Business sales, and careful movements, is an apt epilogue to this summer film. I recommend it for its style and for its message.
MPAA Rating PG
Release date 8/21/08
Time in minutes 85
Director Patrick Creadon
Studio Roadside Attractions
