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The Corporation
: Who knew? The most bone chilling political thriller/horror movie of 2004 turned out to be....a documentary. While it's not exactly news to any thinking person that corporate greed and manipulation affects everyone's life on this planet in one way or the other, Jennifer Abbott and her co-directors have managed to deliver the message in a unique and engrossing fashion. Mixing the expected talking heads like Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky with the unexpected (several CEO's who are actually sympathetic to the cause) and the colorful (like a "corporate spy" who makes Nixon's "dirty tricks" experts look like Boy Scouts), the filmmakers give us the full perspective not only from the watchdogs, but from the brains to the belly of the beast itself. Tons of archival footage is cleverly interwoven. There are enough audacious "exposes" trotted out to keep conspiracy theorists, enviromentalists and human rights activists tossing and turning in sweat-soaked sheets for nights on end. Despite the somewhat relentlessly depressing (and admittedly somewhat one-sided) message, the film does eventually give some the viewer some glimmers of hope and perhaps even some inspiration. A plethora of extras (5 hours worth!) in this 2-disc DVD set make it worth the extra dollars. (If you like this one, I would highly recommend "Manufacturing Consent", a like-minded documentary by some of the same filmmakers involved with "The Corporation").
I know we all like to be entertained and laugh and get wrapped up in our lives and pretend that nothing's wrong out there, that someone else smarter or more qualified is "taking care of me, of my world", of making sure that everything is going to be alright but I think you'd be surprised to find out just how broken this machine is that's wobbling along. Sure there are people out there doing things like making this documentary film but The People, The Persons, that's us, need to be informed and we need to take some responsibility for ourselves, other people, and our world that we occupy. I would say at least know, and you might say something like "Well what can I do, I'm just one person." and the answer would be nothing that's for sure if you don't know what's happening and you must also realize you aren't just one person but that you are one person among many who want to help make things right. It's going to take many people who care and any help you can provide will be very much appreciated and welcome. I'd like to leave you with the words of the poet Gil Scott-Heron:
Back when Eisenhower was the President,
Golf courses was where most of his time was spent.
So I never really listened to what the President said,
Because in general I believed that the General was politically dead.
But he always seemed to know when the muscles were about to be flexed,
Because I remember him saying something, mumbling something about a Military Industrial Complex.
Americans no longer fight to keep their shores safe,
Just to keep the jobs going in the arms making workplace.
Then they pretend to be gripped by some sort of political reflex,
But all they're doing is paying dues to the Military Industrial Complex.
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary.
The Military and the Monetary,
get together whenever they think its necessary,
They turn our brothers and sisters into mercenaries, they are turning the planet into a cemetery.
The Military and the Monetary, use the media as intermediaries,
they are determined to keep the citizens secondary, they make so many decisions that are arbitrary.
We're marching behind a commander in chief,
who is standing under a spotlight shaking like a leaf.
but the ship of state had landed on an economic reef,
so we knew he was going to bring us messages of grief.
The Military and the Monetary,
were shielded by January and went storming into February,
Brought us pot bellied generals as luminaries,
two weeks ago I hadn't heard of the son of a bitch,
now all of a sudden he's legendary.
They took the honour from the honourary,
they took the dignity from the dignitaries,
they took the secrets from the secretary,
but they left the bitch an obituary.
The Military and the Monetary,
from thousands of miles away in a Saudi Arabian sanctuary,
had us all scrambling for our dictionaries,
cause we couldn't understand the f**kin vocabulary.
Yeah, there was some smart bombs,
but there was some dumb ones as well,
scared the hell out of CNN in that Baghdad hotel.
The Military and the Monetary,
they get together whenever they think its necessary,
War in the desert sometimes sure is scary,
but they beamed out the war to all their subsidiaries.
Tried to make So Damn Insane a worthy adversary,
keeping the citizens secondary,
scaring old folks into coronaries.
The Military and the Monetary,
from thousands of miles in a Saudi Arabian sanctuary,
kept us all wondering if all of this was really truely, necessary.
We've got to work for Peace,
Peace ain't coming this way.
If we only work for Peace,
If everyone believed in Peace the way they say they do,
we'd have Peace.
The only thing wrong with Peace,
is that you can't make no money from it.
The Military and the Monetary,
they get together whenever they think its necessary,
they've turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
they are turning the planet, into a cemetery.
Got to work for Peace,
Peace ain't coming this way.
We should not allow ourselves to be mislead,
by talk of entering a time of Peace,
Peace is not the absence of war,
it is the absence of the rules of war and the threats of war and the preparation for war.
Peace is not the absence of war,
it is the time when we will all bring ourselves closer to each other,
closer to building a structure that is unique within ourselves
because we have finally come to Peace within ourselves.
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary.
Get together whenever they think its necessary,
they've turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
they are turning parts of the planet, into a cemetery.
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary,
We hounded the Ayatollah religiously,
Bombed Libya and killed Quadafi's son hideously.
We turned our back on our allies the Panamanians,
and saw Ollie North selling guns to the Iranians.
Watched Gorbachev slaughtering Lithuanians,
We better warn the Amish,
they may bomb the Pennsylvanians.
The Military and the Monetary,
get together whenever they think its necessary,
they have turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
they are turning the planet, into a cemetery.
I don't want to sound like no late night commercial,
but its a matter of fact that there are thousands of children all over the world
in Asia and Africa and in South America who need our help.
When they start talking about 55 cents a day and 70 cents a day,
I know a lot of folks feel as though that,
thats not really any kind of contribution to make,
but we had to give up a dollar and a half just to get in the subway nowadays.
So this is a song about tommorrow and about how tommorrow can be better. if we all,
"Each one reach one, Each one try to teach one".
Nobody can do everything,
but everybody can do something,
everyone must play a part,
everyone got to go to work, Work for Peace.
Spirit Say Work, Work for Peace
If you believe the things you say, go to work.
If you believe in Peace, time to go to work.
Cant be wavin your head no more, go to work.
... this is absolutely the one. Albeit slightly single-minded in direction and viewpoint, the film is a superb depiction of the late 20th century world where corporations play roles that historically belonged to omnipotent empires.
 The film's analysis of corporate psychopathy is reasonably accurate and a valuable educational experience for those who imagine that most corporations are, on balance, benign. However, its analysis is narrow and biased and its conclusion is unsupported by anything in the body of the film. It blames corporations for the actions of governments and then seriously proposes more government involvement as a solution. If its Pollyanna producers had ever worked for a government, they would know that governments are no better and may be worse than corporations.
For example, the film criticizes corporations for supporting Nazism. Early on, many German corporations did make that mistake. The Krupps and Thyssens soon learned to their regret that Hitler was not as controllable as a US Senator. The Nazis did not kowtow to corporations; they took control of German corporations for the good of the German Volk. (While it is true that they got a large part of the Volk killed and Germany reduced to a burned-out cinder, we have to allow for the fact that governments sometimes make mistakes.) However poorly considered the Nazis' foreign policy may have been (for those too young to remember, it was even worse than current American foreign policy), the Nazis were disinclined to share power with anyone. Since they controlled German corporations, it is illogical to argue that the horrors of WWII were caused, controlled or significantly influenced by those corporations.
But what of American corporations? Should IBM and other American corporations feel ashamed of their involvement with the Nazis? Hard to argue that, too, because the film effectively demonstrates that corporations are psychopaths. Psychopaths don't feel shame. Oh, well.
Then--without even an "Oh, well" to announce the logical reversal (probably because the film's producers did not notice it)--the film provides numerous examples of the horrors that result when governments support rather than control corporations. Even here, it is clear that the down and dirty business of killing people to support corporate profits is handled by governments, not by corporations. Fact is, corporate leaders are wimps. Sure, the Krupps and the Thyssens built weapons for the Nazis, but they did not pull any triggers. Sure, American corporations poison cows and sell the water of life--hell, they destroy the atmosphere--but don't look to their Boards of Directors to go out in the street and kill the bastards who object. They have governments to do that for them.
Yet, somehow, despite this film's documentary evidence to the contrary, its producers seem to think that governments are a solution. As Nietzsche once observed, insanity in individuals is rare but, in governments, corporations and other bureaucracies (including film companies), it is the rule. Yes, I'm paraphrasing; Nietzsche predated bureaucracies and corporations; to him, large agglomerations of people were nations, states and popular movements. But he saw the problem: the rational intelligence of an organization is not the sum of the individual intelligences within it, nor the average of the individual intelligences within it, nor even the often demonic intelligence of some highly-regarded crackpot at the top; too often, the intelligence of an organization is equal to one very average intelligence divided by the number of individuals in the organization. And that brings up a final point touched on too lightly in this film: If you see a massive problem, don't assume it results from conspiracy. It may result from stupidity and cowardice.
If you assume conspiracy, you may wonder about the motives of the film's producers, who emphasize, in their brief prognosis for the future, a few popular victories over corporations. They fail to mention that, for every victory, humanity suffers ten thousand defeats. False positivism is the gruel that corporations would have everyone eat, every meal, every day. It's cheap and it's effective. Seeing it repeated in this film demonstrates the pervasive, invasive power of corporate marketing in everyone's thinking, even the thinking of those who think they think for themselves. For all its willingness to present some sour truths, this film ends in artificially sweetened pap. It needs a realistic and powerful conclusion. There is no shame in admitting that you see no solution and the future looks pretty bleak.
I saw this film with a good friend of mine who comes from a cattle ranching family. He was flabbergasted by this film, particularly the parts concerning the Bovine Growth Hormone, and vowed to have a long talk with his family about it.
This was the most educational film I have ever seen. I have long been the anti-corporate type, but feel this film gave me a lot of new perspectives and a more honest understanding of what and who I am actually dealing with. This isn't just the hogwash I here from other protesters, this is a very intelligent, very straight, very solid account of what a corporation actually is and does. This is NOT a Michael Moore film. Though he is in it, he is featured along side the men and women who have run these corporations, and not in a manor that is making fun of them. That is important because if I don't listen to both sides, then I really don't know what I am talking about. And, regardless of what side you are on, I feel this film is ESSENTIAL in bringing both sides up to par so they can at least complain about the right things.
I can't say enough about this film. Its VERY long, but I wouldn't have cut one minute. I honestly think its one of the most important films I've ever seen. I am going to buy copies for a lot of people, but from local retailers.
Thank you, and enjoy.
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