The Corporation has been called (arguably I think) a biased film, a left-wing piece that tries to rally the cause to the choir it preaches to, that corporations are simply bad and that there should be just companies run by the people and for the people without any of the restrictions (i.e. the Central American man who fought with many others to gain control of the water from a corporation that demanded that water shouldn't be free). But there's a lot of density to the Corporation- the film I mean, though obviously I mean the actual subject itself- in how it tackles as many fronts possible to engage the intellectually curious person. And, as well, how humanity becomes an issue in the whole process of a company. Noam Chomsky describes how a person who is a CEO or works at a corporation might be the nicest guy imaginable, as a personable human being. But as a worker in a system that is clogged with the most ultimate of pressures- making the most amount of profit that can be attained- it makes that person in the business sense a "monster." How could it not? Acting against better judgment will make contradictions, even if there really isn't a whole lot on certain issues that the corporate executive will not agree with protesters, like the Englishman shown who describes a group that assembled on his lawn, then got to talking.
It might be almost too long a film, and yet at the same time not long enough. The number of stories that end up on the reels of film bring out some of the most exacting, precisely infuriating material in a documentary this decade. From the story about the Fox News producers (of all people) who end up being the victims of a plot by a manufacturer of a chemical injected in cows for milk who don't want a story about the dangers of the product (taken all the way to court where's it's ruled finally that the news doesn't have to be truthful), to the stock market trader who speaks frankly about the pricing of gold being more prevalent (albeit not the topic of tragedy, which has no place on Wall Street) than the 9/11 attacks, to the blatantly manipulative efforts of advertising psychologists on children, and of course the environment and the intrinsically horrific connection to natural resources of Earth, it's all a well-oiled machine built for the good of the company itself...until it falters with the shareholders.
There's so much that could be analyzed with the film, and while it does towards the end lean towards the preachy (then again, what can really be done when looking at a system that holds in its grip of subsidiaries trillions of dollars), it's main purpose is achieved brilliantly, in a style that seems to skim a line of mockery and in sincerity as a video that corporate businessmen watch about something. Then again, how could it not with the access to footage; a lot of times it reaches lengths of montage that Michael Moore wouldn't try to attempt, bravely. My favorite random bit that gets tossed into the thick of it, when talking about certain rights revered, like the song Happy Birthday being owned by Warner Brothers. Though maybe more staggering is a section where patents are talked about, and how pretty soon human genes can be owned, as well as animals, and just random spaces of land (and what would a movie called the Corporation be without mentioning Disney, this time having created their own town!) It's absorbing all the way, even if you think it'll have something you already know (the collaboration of Nazi companies with American ones, which Michael Moore refers to, is not new news, if not the IBM bit that another interviewee points out). And It's also kind of daring the lengths that the filmmakers take its subject matter: the corporation becomes its own perfunctory organism, on-par if not more powerful than governments, and with so much at stake that no other kind of form of commerce can ever exist.
It might be almost too long a film, and yet at the same time not long enough. The number of stories that end up on the reels of film bring out some of the most exacting, precisely infuriating material in a documentary this decade. From the story about the Fox News producers (of all people) who end up being the victims of a plot by a manufacturer of a chemical injected in cows for milk who don't want a story about the dangers of the product (taken all the way to court where's it's ruled finally that the news doesn't have to be truthful), to the stock market trader who speaks frankly about the pricing of gold being more prevalent (albeit not the topic of tragedy, which has no place on Wall Street) than the 9/11 attacks, to the blatantly manipulative efforts of advertising psychologists on children, and of course the environment and the intrinsically horrific connection to natural resources of Earth, it's all a well-oiled machine built for the good of the company itself...until it falters with the shareholders.
There's so much that could be analyzed with the film, and while it does towards the end lean towards the preachy (then again, what can really be done when looking at a system that holds in its grip of subsidiaries trillions of dollars), it's main purpose is achieved brilliantly, in a style that seems to skim a line of mockery and in sincerity as a video that corporate businessmen watch about something. Then again, how could it not with the access to footage; a lot of times it reaches lengths of montage that Michael Moore wouldn't try to attempt, bravely. My favorite random bit that gets tossed into the thick of it, when talking about certain rights revered, like the song Happy Birthday being owned by Warner Brothers. Though maybe more staggering is a section where patents are talked about, and how pretty soon human genes can be owned, as well as animals, and just random spaces of land (and what would a movie called the Corporation be without mentioning Disney, this time having created their own town!) It's absorbing all the way, even if you think it'll have something you already know (the collaboration of Nazi companies with American ones, which Michael Moore refers to, is not new news, if not the IBM bit that another interviewee points out). And It's also kind of daring the lengths that the filmmakers take its subject matter: the corporation becomes its own perfunctory organism, on-par if not more powerful than governments, and with so much at stake that no other kind of form of commerce can ever exist.