The Corporation
is a
fascinating documentary exploring the institution of the corporation,
its inherit nature, its history, and its rise. There is one central
question posed and explored in the film which is, since the law
defines a corporation as an actual “person”, what kind of person would
a corporation be? The film is played out like a business presentation
and it records a clinic analysis on a corporation’s personality. The
diagnosis uncovers that if corporations are to be looked at like
people their inherent traits would make them certified psychopaths.
They have incapacity for guilt, no concern for others, will destroy
anything in their paths, and have absolutely no moral basis (among
many other traits explored). The documentary goes into each area of a
corporation’s personality and backs up each point with loads of
evidence.
Corporations were
originally formed as a way to perform public services and when the
project or service was completed the corporation ceased to exist. Now
they are the most dominant institutions on Earth and are created for
only one reason, to make profit at all cost. That cost can range from
the destruction of the environment, the use of chemicals and toxins
increasing cancer and other diseases in humans, the loss of ethical
practices and moral obligations, and many of the most prominent
problems in this world. And yet corporations can’t help themselves,
they are set up so that any direction besides profit generation and
motivation is deemed illegal in the business environment. They are
inherently wrong in how they are set up and now the world has to live
with it.
CRITIQUE
The Corporation
is an
amazing, epic-scale documentary putting its focus on an enormous
world-view issue, one of the biggest issues facing the global society
today, that elicits feelings of respect and admiration for its
filmmakers whether you agree with the thesis or not. This is an
important, extraordinary documentary that everyone should see
regardless of your political orientation and feelings towards big
business. Although the documentary has some problems (amateur look,
long running time, and forced points) the overall experience is
groundbreaking.
The film is not
always subtle; at times it feels like it is forcing the point. For
instance, tying the Nazis to IBM because the Nazis used IBM systems
seemed like a ridiculous point to me. Or the incredibly long tracking
shot on a patent office with rows and rows of new patents while
discussing the patenting of human genomes was tedious and grating.
There are moments like these scattered throughout but for the most
part, the filmmakers have done their research and let their stories
and interviews speak for themselves. This is also a long documentary
(at 145 minutes) but since it fits in so much information and themes
it’s really amazing they were able to do it in that amount of time.
There are numerous
interviews throughout the film with some very interesting, engaging
and intelligent people; they include the usual left-leaning headliners
like Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky and balances those out with
numerous interviews with CEOs and even a right wing icon in Milton
Freidman. It’s this balanced discussion that makes The Corporation
such a unique and gratifying experience. Moore has the closing
remarks and they are very powerful and memorable. The film also
discusses solutions not just problems, which is what I always look
for. It’s very easy to point fingers and point out all of the
problems in society, but to propose viable solutions to these big
issues is admirable and a welcome surprise.
The film is finely
directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, arranging all the
interviews, montages, news footage, and graphics into a cohesive,
pointed documentary. The look of the film, as well as the graphics
used, is a bit amateurish and there can almost seem like too much
information at times, but the film is an unforgettable experience.
This is a documentary to seek out.
THE VIDEO
The Corporation
was shot on digital and it looks great, the transfer is clean and
sharp. The stock footage looks tremendous too, which is usually not
the case with most documentaries. This is an anamorphic widescreen
transfer presented in 1:85:1.
THE AUDIO
The audio is a bit
of a problem with the discs, it is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and
there are some noticeable issues (like the voice over not being very
audible and clean the whole way through and the surround is sporadic
and off). There are noticeable balance problems and the sound from
the old newsreels and footage are sometimes difficult to hear.
THE EXTRAS
This is a two-disc
package that contains an overwhelming amount of outstanding extras,
there is basically another 6-hour (!) documentary included. This is
an amazing 2-disc package for people who are enthralled by the subject
matter and the original film.
The first disc has
two audio commentaries, deleted scenes, interviews
with the filmmakers, Janeane Garofalo’s interview of Joel
Bakan conducted on Air America, a featurette on the grass roots
marketing campaign, and two theatrical trailers.
The first audio
commentary is from Achbar and Abbott and the two filmmakers also turn
out to be marvelous conversationalists infusing the commentary with
wit and intelligence. This is a terrific commentary providing insight
and back-story to many areas of the film I found myself asking
questions. The second commentary from Joel Bakan is also quite good;
he is the author of the book the documentary is inspired by. Bakan is
also a very intelligent man with insight and ideas that he is able to
eloquently get across. The only problem I had with the commentaries
was that I’m not sure why there are two, why did they not just combine
them into one with the directors and Bakan? It felt like overkill
with the two, but the commentaries are quite entertaining and
informative.
The deleted scenes
included are not very interesting and are obvious as to why they were
cut. The interview with Garofalo is entertaining as long as you can
stand her (she has a definite love her or hate her personality). All
of these extras on disc one are more than the usual amount in
themselves, and yet there is a boatload more on disc two.
Disc 2 has over
six hours of additional footage (interviews and features) that are
uniquely organized by interviewee or topic. From this disc you can
see that the filmmakers basically had an eight-hour film that they had
to cut down to two hours. This is what was cut. You can choose what
to watch by the person being interviewed or by the topic (I found it
much easier to watch by topic and much more interesting). The footage
is all outstanding as the original film is and it will give you a much
deeper sense of what the filmmakers have accomplished, as well as what
they had to sort through when trying to piece together a 2 hour film.
The topic that was a stand out on disc 2 for me, that wasn’t discussed
much in the original cut, is corporate branding. There are some great
discussions and footage around the topic, very fascinating
information.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Corporation
will
most likely be dismissed as liberal propaganda by the right and the
left might ignore it by feeling disenfranchised right now, which would
be a shame as this is one of the most important, groundbreaking
documentaries in some time. This is a film to seek out. Here’s
hoping it does well on DVD.
