The Corporation [DVD]

This is a documentary describing the origin, history, motivation and some inner machinations of "the corporation", that profiteering, money hungry and powerful institution that has been permitted to pervade so many aspects of life for rich and poor alike. The psychology of the corporation is explored, comparing the pathological pursuit of profit to clinically pathological individuals. This is a fair comparison because in the US large corporations derive many of their rights from legislature permitting them to act as "individuals". The documentary is also packed with interviews with prominent campaigners trying to raise awareness of the way that corporations function, their negative influences (sweatshop labour, agressive marketing aimed at children, pollution and sustainability, etc). Amongst these are Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Michael Moore, Elaine Bernard (although the documentary doesn't revolve around them). Case studies in the documentary involve the actions of IBM during the holocaust of WWII, Pfizer's privatization of security in small town America, Monsanto's RBGH (bovine growth hormone) scandal in US milk products as well as the attrocities arising from their product Agent Orange being sprayed in Vietnam, Shell's exploitation of the Niger delta, and FOX's attempted cover up of the truth over Monsanto's RBGH scandal.It is worth noting that this is far from a documentary only focusing on the negative aspects of corporate control. A significant portion of the film is dedicated to bringing success stories from around the world of people reclaiming natural resources, spreading awareness, and pushing back the all-dominating corporation towards responsibility. Some of the stories, such as the struggle of the people of Cochabamba, Bolivia against the Bechtel Corporation of San Francisco (who sought to privatize and thereby control the public water supply) are inspirational. There is also an interview with Ray Anderson, CEO of the largest manufacturer of carpets in the world, and his vision for a more sustainable manufacturing industry, inspired by his realisation that a company exploiting the environment merely to make profit is nothing but a "plunderer".The documentary discusses and reinforces many of the concerns that are becoming more prominent in the public eye. And although the well evidenced indictments about the horrible reality of the control and power that large corporations have leave one resigned, the last section of the documentary offers much support and encouragement. It stresses the possibility that democracy and freedom for people is a viable alternative, if people get up and do something about it.The box actually contains two DVD discs, one with the main feature and some additional bonus material and interviews, and the other disc which contains ample information regarding how the issues raised can be addressed, where to go, who to contact and how to start going about dismantling the corporate dictatorship that we find ourselves in the midst of.This is an extremely enlightening documentary and I would readily recommend it to one and all. It is very difficult, I think, for anyone not to learn something from it.

There's an awful lot going on in "The Corporation" - although released on the back of nu-wave of documentaries like 'Fahrenheit 9/11' , this film is far more heavyweight, ditching humour (save a few ironic sneers) in favour of content. One of the greatest things about the film, if that if you are not really too sure about 'how big businesses work' or 'what exactly is a corporation?', you will be taken through this in a clear and easy to understand manner, whilst being opened to some very shocking facts along the way.There's an awful lot in here - so much so, I went back to the cinema twice to see it. It's a 'proper' documentary, with a serious message - yet, always delivered in a clear to understand and 'cool' style. It strikes the perfect balance of delivering the facts whilst remaining entertaining, interesting and stylish.To be honest, every person should be made to watch this documentary - perferable whilst still in school - to make us all aware of how under-the-influence of big business we are - even if we don't think so. Part of the films remit is to encourage the viewer to 'take action' and by visiting the websites and reading supporting leaflets (these were available at the cinema and thus I assume will be in the DVD) - you will be able to follow up on the issues raised and get involved.Powerful, scary and brilliantly delivered.

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner but from their regard to their own interest".For the makers of this film the over-riding issue is that companies are established to make profits.To think that many people would put their their money at risk for any purpose is naive.In this film the viewer's intelligence is insulted from the outset.It is argued that "the Corporation" has ever characteristic of an anti-social personality disorder ( psychopathy) and each element of the citeria for that dianosis, as it appears in the DSM iv, is identified and ticked off with reference to the selective identification of the manner in which some companies have misconducted themselves.Applying the same methodology,every fieldof human activeity, including movie making and social criticism, would exhibit psychopathic tendencies.And who produced of this film? Why, a corporation, stupid.The movie is simply a veiled attack upon capitalism in general but in our post 1989 world, overtly Marxist critiques no longer wash.We are told that when the original charters were granted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ( ie in the pre-capitalist era) they were always granted for specific ( ie limited) purposes - the implication being that underlying principles have been subsequently subverted. This contention doesn't survive much scrutiny.Charters were given - often bought- for the purposes of creating monopolies and to the extent that they were "limited"in scope belies the fact that some charters legalised piracy, slavery or the conquests of whole countries.Corporations have indeed come a long way.It is not as if this film is entirely devoid of merit. It does identify a number of problems - although the critique is hardly original. The unsustainability of the present use of resources should worry us all. But this is presented as a problem unique to Capitalism whereas the environmental devastation caused in Eastern Europe and Russia during the Soviet era was more extensive than anything observed in the West.No convincing alternatives are proposed.One is forced to smile at the by now "conventional" radicals who criticise western liberal capitalism - many of whom are either millionaires or people who owe their own livelihoods to the subsidies,donations and taxes paid by corporations.I'm not aware that Naom Chomsky or Michael Moore have donated their assets to the exploited masses.What for me is an unsettling idea about some large companies ( and not touched upon in the film) is that they have now acquired an almost autonomous status - and by that I don't mean that they have corporate personality. My concern is that due to muliplicity of the cross holdings, it is not easy to establish ( except in the case of young entities like Microsoft) "who" actually owns them. The major stock holders in these conglomorates are themselves other companies or diffuse funds - with the result that we are never sure to whom accountability is owed.Therefore because the stockholders are now almost incapable of (human) identity, directors cease to feel accountable to people at all.Earning profits for the shareholders is no longer the principal purpose of a particular company. Instead, it can become merely the enrichment of senior management - even in circumstances where the companies are losing money.As I said earlier, the movie doesn't really propose any alternatives. Any ideas? Come to think of it, there is somewhere in the world where there arn't any corporations at all - but the makers of this film failed to ask North Korea's President Kim Jong Il for his views.

Demonstrates that corporations are corrupt institutionspermitted to do EVIL by the legal authorities.

Quando la tua vita sembra aver preso una piega accettabile, questo film ti pone una semplice domanda. E' la domanda più banale che ti possano fare, ma alla quale incredibilmente ti accorgi non saper rispondere così bene. Ed ecco che sorgono i dubbi che ti aprono la mente a qualcosa di inaspettato, terribile e minaccioso. Era meglio continuare a vivere nel Matrix ???

Fondamental, ce documentaire ! L'homme, en formant des sociétés a pu se partager les taches, et se spécialiser (affiner des techniques de fabrications) pour etre plus performant. Toi tu t'occupes de stocker le bois, moi de chasser le gibier, lui de construire des armes, l'autre de conserver les aliments et nous échangeons nos productions pour le bien de tous. Plutot que de tout faire soi meme pour soi meme.Ainsi, qualité des compétences, des services, et amélioration des conditions de vie. Sauf que... les entreprises,juridiquement,ont acquissent les meme droit que les hommes alors que leurs seul but, aujourd'hui, n'est plus la qualité de la vie mais faire de l'argent!! là est le bas-blesse. Notion de base des maux de nos sociétés et leurs fonctionnements. Humains,donnez votre argent aux artisans(véritables humains) non pas aux multi-nationnales qui engendre la GUERRE des MONOPOLES(ca ou rien), car les entreprises n'ont pas d'autres morales que le profit. Cupidon au sommet de la fornication. Sachons-le,appréhendons le monde que nous donnons a nos enfants.

Lengthy, but still yet incomplete, The Corporation develops the psychopathic role of corporations in recent society like no other movie.Our vigilant government duties, that which ensures a government by, of, and for the people can now be done without involving the people. We can call corporations people and real people can stay home and ruminate in thoughtlessness.People have little voices that are lost in the atmosphere, so their message goes unheard, and their real wishes and intentions are substituted by a very few gruff corporate white men (aka elitists) who only see how easy life is for them. They imagine, with good intention, it is their role to help other people, so they design a system that takes working-class money and labor, and gives back to them but a small portion of what they had before - much of it as debt. They give it God's blessing and spend their time in celebration of their own righteousness - that they have given people the right to compete with the slaves of other nations which they call free trade. Nowhere to be found is there an indication of representation.Although investors may hold substantial capital they are often deluded by the corporate executives. Yet, by law, corporations are obligated to the investors, to the point where consumers, labor, and the benefit of the community can be ignored. As suggested by Joel Bakan, as a person corporate behavior is psychopathic - that is, marked by mental disorder. Corporations maintain such power by producing powerful government lobbies and attorneys to represent them. And with this a government can become composed of individuals with close association to the corporations. Here, there is no secret.The movie does not address the death of the Meritocracy, but I believe it is essential to consider how we define free trade in conjunction with the psychopathic corporation. As individuals we believe in Meritocracy - we believe that people work, and are rewarded for their efforts. In the western agrarian society, such as 18th century America, a person could cut logs to supply their home with energy. They could grow food, become bakers, blacksmiths, traders, and writers. They could then sell their wares. It was a day when ordinary clean homes lined ordinary streets, where people lived happily in community.But, with corporations and NAFTA the situation slowly became complicated. Peddling wares meant competing to sell wares with larger companies that may not exist within the community, the state, or even within the nation. Today, one must peddle their wares in competition with corporations hiring people that have never known health, environmental, safety or labor standards. Of course, near slaves need not be paid much. There are no logs to be cut to provide energy for homes - these have been awarded to privitized corporations that hold nature's resources as their own right. The apparent reward for labor becomes increasingly smaller, more illusive, more tenuous and abstract. People are reminded that corporations have every right to seek anyone who will work for lower wages. Few people say they feel rewarded for their labor, or see relation between work and pay.Instead people are paid for image, and personality. They are paid because they are family, relatives or friends with someone having the power to employ. Once employed people become numbers to investors that speculate in widespread layoffs. Once laid off, elderly or sick, people become liabilities and are seen as a plague to a corporation. Corporations want young go-getters that have not become accustomed to disillusionment. However, today young people experience the constant stream of deceit faster than they can learn their jobs, often find themselves owing more money for their education than what they can make in their field of work. Corporations prefer desperate workers willing to work for less. A desperate life situation becomes an integral requirement of a good job applicant.While people must look good on the outside people hurt on the inside, and are crying.Why is image so important? Because people have become obsessed - literally stupefied - over the appearance of the body - evidence the boom in cosmetic spending, the obsession over an American President caught in lust, the rush to nudity in entertainment. The result is stupefaction. Stupefaction is rapidly becoming one tool for corporations and government, because it distracts people from what is really going on - that is, the death of the Meritocracy. In its place is a system of methods allowing stupefaction, so that corporations can operate with full control - that is the Pornocracy.The Corporation briefly addresses commercial advertising and media news (a rather weak link), which indoctrinates and permeates society with stupefaction. The root of the word stupid and stupendous comes from the Latin verb stupere. Stupendous means amazing or astonishing. Corporations are obviously trying to stupefy us with amazing products.Another convenient tool that the movie missed is petrifaction. Conveniently, politicians use fear as a tool so that voters will observe fears over a stumbling economy and terrorism. Our leaders find these fears translate into votes, so they pass out messages such as "your nation may be attacked" during Presidential campaigns in effort to acquire votes.Stupefaction and petrifaction are alike in that each makes thought seem unnecessary. People can spend without thought, make important life decisions without thought, vote without thought... lives go by wholly without thought. Thoughtlessness is never a positive outcome for a society.While there is much more going on than the results of some court decisions made years ago as it seems to imply, the movie does bravely venture into new territory, thus five stars.

Diese nach dem gleichnamigen Buch von Joel Bakan entstandene über zweistündige Dokumentation (englischer O-Ton mit deutschen Untertiteln) beleuchtet die Entstehung, Entwicklung und die heutige Stellung von Konzernen, und ihre Folgen für uns. Sie wurde in den USA und Europa mehrfach ausgezeichnet.Und das zu Recht. Als ich den Film im Kino gesehen hatte, blieben alle noch bis zum Ende des Abspanns sitzen -- so tief gehen die Erkenntnisse, die dieser Film vermittelt. Nach diesem Film ahnt man, was mit Konzernen nicht stimmt: Sie sind nämlich, rein rechtlich gesehen, Personen; doch im Gegensatz zu Menschen fehlt ihnen eins, nämlich jegliches Verantwortungsgefühl. Und sie sind dabei im Recht, denn Konzerne sind juristisch sogar dazu verpflichtet, Gewinn zu machen, um jeden Preis. Die denkwürdige These dieses Films ist, dass Konzerne, als Personen betrachtet, gemeingefährliche Psychopathen wären, da sie einfach nur die eigenen Interessen verfolgen, ohne Gewissen und ohne Schuldgefühle.Zwar ist diese Dokumentation auf die Bedürfnisse der MTV-Generation zugeschnitten -- schnelle Schnitte, ansprechende Musik, Video-Schnipsel usw --, doch hält ist der "Propaganda-Faktor" noch sehr erträglich; so kommen nicht nur die "üblichen Verdächtigen" (u.a. Noam Chomsky und Michael Moore) zu Wort, sondern auch andere, etwa ein Börsenmakler, ein Industriespion und mehrere Konzernchefs. Und oft sind es gerade Kommentare dieser Menschen, die im Kontext dieser Dokumentation nur noch Kopfschütteln hervorrufen. Oft weiss man nicht, ob man lachen oder weinen soll.Es gibt so viele Beispiele, die einem nicht mehr aus dem Kopf gehen -- die Privatisierung von Trinkwasser in Dritte-Welt-Ländern; die Vertuschungs- und Manipulationsversuche eines Milchkonzerns bezüglich einer Dokumentation über gesundheitliche Risiken in seiner Milch; die Patentierbarkeit von Genmaterial und deren langfristige Folgen für Mensch und Umwelt; die Zusammenarbeit zwischen IBM und dem Dritten Reich; die Manipulation durch die Werbeindustrie, und und und...Ach ja, die DVD enthält nur die englische Originalfassung, aber wahlweise mit sauber gemachten deutschen Untertitel (ist ja auch keine Selbstverständlichkeit...). Und im Gegensatz zu der englischen Fassung fehlt bei der deutschen Ausgabe die Bonus-DVD mit den ungeschnittenen Interviews -- grrr... --, also sich nicht von der unteren englischen Rezension täuschen lassen, die wohl für die amerikanische Fassung gilt.Fazit: Ich bin ein eher kritischer Mensch und kein radikaler Globalisierungsgegner, doch dieser Film zeigt, dass Konzerne tatsächlich nicht nur Wohltäter der Menschheit sind. Ich kann und muss diesen Film allen nur wärmstens ans Herz legen, die auch nur ein bisschen über ihren Tellerrand schauen und die wissen wollen, was Konzerne eigentlich sind und was sie für Auswirkungen auf Mensch und Natur haben. Der Film birgt ungeheuer viel Wissenswertes und regt zum Nachdenken an, und das ist es, was eine gute Dokumentation meiner Meinung nach leisten muss. Daher gehört dieser Film für mich zweifellos zu den besten Dokus der letzten Jahre. Fünf Sterne.