Reich is a bad communicator/salesman which hampers this film's message
Reich is a bad communicator/salesman and that failing hampers this film's message. I'm sure Reich understands what he is talking about...but understanding a subject and selling/communicating it are completely different skill sets, and latter is one that Reich lacks.
The rich CEO guy is far more interesting than Reich, and the CEO's points come across far more clearly, strongly, and memorably than do Reich's.
Reich couldn't even convince the apparently mentally challenged worker(the one who was super hostile to him, and who was kissing the butts of the bosses who exploit him whilst praising their big brains and insulting his own small brain) why his message is right. That's a microcosm of what is wrong with this film. If Reich can't even sell his message to that mentally challenged guy, what hope does he have to sell it to anyone else?
I remember pretty much everything the rich CEO guy said. The main thing I remember about what Reich said is his really, really bad stand-up comedy routines featuring short/little man jokes. In other words, I remember very little of the substantive points that Reich was trying to make (because he communicates them so badly).
Why did they give the rich CEO guy only a few minutes of speaking time?
This film would have been 10000000000% more effective if they had Reich feed every single one of his points to the rich CEO guy, and then let the rich CEO guy translate what Reich was trying to say to the viewing audience. The rich CEO guy - not Reich - should have narrated/starred in this whole film.
I also didn't like how Reich glossed over the fact that his buddy clinton did nothing about any of the issues that Reich brings up. Reich says simply says something like "there was no political will" and then abandons the subject entirely. Rather than doing that, Reich needed to explain, in detail, why his buddy clinton refused to listen to him and refused to do anything about the inequality problems.
Reich also shouldn't have glossed over why he quit. What was he frustrated about, exactly? I can understand that he missed his family...but why didn't he move them to Washington then? I'm sure he could afford it. Alternatively, he could have/should have stayed on another 4 years anyway...because fixing the world is more important than one man's desire to see his family.
Although I doubt Reich would have accomplished anything by staying on another 4 years. Probably the reason why he didn't accomplish anything in the 4 years he was there is because he sucks at selling. He should have a hired a salesman to be his spokesman.