The Corporation (2004)

You won't be disappointed!

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Is a corporation indeed psychopathic? Does the Store manager really not know what the associate is doing? Is the cause of this the policies, and procedures that do not allow things to be of clear communication? I did not find this story to be shocking in anyway. Of course a corporation does not know everything about all things that run inside of it - at all times. An incorporation or a corporation is not a human being, it is an organizational structure. How can an organization be marked at a psychopath? It is like analyzing the architecture of a building to be one of deceit or honesty - based only on the way the bricks lay and the glass windows are formed.An institution is not a human being and should not be compared to one. An institution is a fake structure in which human beings operate in order to perform a task and gain financial results in order to live on this planet - in order to pay bills and support life.Perhaps operating within the corridors of an institution and a corporation is frustrating however it is the only system that human beings know that works efficiently.I believe the movie, "The corporation" does indicate how some of them work. However I think it is easy to see the wrong a corporation does - however, every corporation has good and bad parts in it. I think it would have been better to have focused on an actual case study of one large corporation and analyzed it from each layer within the company. From associate to store manager to head-office. The devil is in the details, however - as a whole - as a big picture - the corporation system gains financial results as seen in profits - which in turn builds to the ever success of capitalism.I believe that each person in the corporation machine encounters things that can have the traits of a psychopath - however those are tiny details in the big picture of gaining profits, surpassing the predicted bottom-line results and gaining success.

This excellent documentary accurately depicts, through factual reportage, the nature of a corporation, often a destructive force when it comes to the human consciousness, that is, when in contact with human consciousness, often toxic, when placed under considered scrutiny and in historical perspective.In my view, a corporation is not an "entity," nor a "person," despite judges in courts who have ruled it that, judges, perhaps bought and paid for by corporations reaching for control of and over civilization in the United States. A person has consciousness, compassion, and morality. A corporation does not. What it does have: "strategy." What the corporation is: a system, often with a singular objective, to make profits. It is the embodiment of greed.It is a strange phenomenon projected by human behavior. It was isolated, analyzed and described in Truman Capote's 1966 seminal work, In Cold Blood, a "non-fiction novel" first serialized in The New Yorker in 1965. This behavioral revelation is about the formation of an overriding singular force that is either tyrannically destructive or in a few cases, constructive, when two or more humans are present in a scenario. In Capote's book, two petty thieves create a singular, malevolent force that destroys an innocent family. By themselves, neither of the two thieves could or would have been capable of the murder.The positive or negative nature of the corporate force is created from the combination of top management, sometimes boards, if the board is in close control of the corporation. In most cases, since the objective of most corporations is profitability, the bottom line becomes the most powerful arbiter of the corporate behavioral history. In too many cases, the results are destructive to human health and welfare.Top management typically walks in a chain-lock-step, especially when members receive the obscene amount of compensation published in today's business journals. As a result, whistle blowers who report malfeasance, crime or destructively bad management are disposed of, and in the case of existing within a modest municipality controlled by the corporation, also black-listed.Malefactors are usually promoted and rewarded, often in spite of the corporation itself, as it begins to decline and eventually go out of business and close its doors, moving hundreds or thousands of employees and subcontractors who had grown dependent, out into the street to search of new employment.The greatest danger today (at this writing) is the takeover of governments by corporations who buy entire political parties, government institutions and more or less cause great human suffering and destruction of human well being and in too many cases, life itself. Untrammeled, the corporate system or force, has the potential to destroy all human life on Earth. This documentary clearly shows this possibility. It is the most insidious specter today, soon to come out of China in vast dimensions, presently inconceivable.

Joel Bakan, who served as a clerk for Chief Justice Brian Dickson and advocated for human rights against governments, now takes aim at corporations in this documentary. On the way he gets a little help from friends like Naomi Klein and Michael Moore. The stuff exposed in the final product can be shocking and hits home even if the presentation is fairly one-sided. From stuff little-known like businessmen trying to overthrow Franklin Roosevelt and aiding Nazi death camps, to a reminder of Kathy Lee Gifford's sweatshops. It questions the ethics of applying patents on life and rain water. This is a story that needs to be heard, even if it needs to be balanced.I first saw most of the movie as part of a sociology course. We considered the concept of a corporation as a person, and how if it were a person it can fit the definition of a psychopath. While it may sound extreme to apply that label to men running businesses, sadly there is some truth to it. Even if this movie doesn't convince me corporations should be banned, it demonstrates why they should not have absolute power and personhood. The stuff about Bolivia having a revolt shows people being pushed can push back, and raises questions of how we may see more of that which is alarming from a security perspective. All of this is helped by use of metaphors and pop culture and the calm, female voice of the narrator. Everyone shaping a national economy should see this movie.

I base this review on the shareware version, currently available for free on YouTube, under the user machbar. It is between 2 and two and a half hours long. This goes into all the damage corporations do, the fact that they are granted rights as if they were individuals(!) and the general callous nature of them. Sounds one-sided? Well, Michael Moore isn't in this for nothing. It is somewhat like propaganda, but at the same time, I can't come up with any real arguments for the other side. I will say that it would be good to have someone from there come in so we could see just how weak their position is, and how based on personal greed it is. It's not difficult to shred their claims with actual facts, and I suppose the choice to not do so was a fear that there might be people who weren't compelled into action by this. With that said, this is a well-done documentary. It is interesting throughout in spite of the running time, and the personal anecdotes, investigative journalism and editing(if it is a tad manipulative at times) all make a convincing case. There is quite a bit of disturbing content in this, and it is effective not only on account of it being real. I recommend this to everyone, though I fear that it is preaching to the converted more than changing any minds. 8/10