The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant

Julia Reichert and.her partner created a special documentary about the last days of the closing of a General Motors plant in Moraine, Ohio. We rarely see this part of the country or the working class. Julia Reichert is best known for documentaries about the American working class.

The workers are hard working and loyal. They formed a family type working environment at the factory. When they closed the factory which is an enormous sized plant, they broke up the family. They weren't just hard working but loyal to the company and each other. They made decent salaries with benefits. They raised their families and provided for them by working at the factory.

The factory employed thousands and boosted its local economy. The closing of this plant was heartbreaking.

'The Last Truck' is a straightforward account of a grim, Ohio winter; and the closing of a giant automobile factory, owned by the troubled General Motors. Such a huge plant is always going to dominate the local economy; the film follows the soon-to-be redundant workforce, as they contemplate a future world that may not be as kind to them as the one they enjoyed previously. The film makes the important point that GM's high cost base is due mainly to a pension bill, rather than through overpayment of current staff, a problem widespread in many modern economies but maybe particularly severe in America because of the absence of state-funded alternatives to corporate pension plans. What it doesn't mention is something that many outside the U.S. might assert: that fundamentally, modern American cars are rubbish. The factory in question built S.U.V.s, for which demand fell drastically when the economy fell on hard times; the likes of GM were particularly hit because they never tried to make fuel-efficient vehicles in the days when oil was cheap. Nonetheless, this is still a sympathetic portrait of the characters of the men and women who worked the line; and a grim reminder of the human costs of recession.

I live in Dayton, and although I have sympathy for the no-longer-employed of GM Truck & Bus, I feel this film is not Oscar worthy. Perhaps I feel that way because this film was "shoved" down our throats in the Dayton area. GM is not the only major employer to leave Dayton and this film lacked depth, in my opinion. In Dayton, one of the workers featured in the film has done her best to make it all about her, by going on several local news broadcasts and sending mass emails. Which is, I suppose, rather pathetic when you think about it. I don't know her personally, but her overt narcissism has jaded my judgment of this documentary short.