Any film that attempts in the course of 2 1/2 hours to explain an endemic problem that's been around for a century or more, will have to sacrifice some methodology for the sake of expediency.
For most of a century, the population have been force-fed corporate and government propaganda, until it's becomes second nature to spread 'em wide open to receive the daily dosage.
Then along comes a 2 1/2 hour piece of, call it counter-propaganda, a very small ripple in a very large and indifferent/hostile pond, and some people who stumble upon this film, all of a sudden, will take it upon themselves to turn into fact checkers and snort indignant platitudes about "propaganda crap" or "factual inaccuracy", dismiss the movie wholesale, then go back to spreading 'em wide open for their unquestioning daily dosage, courtesy of their good friends from GM, McDonald's, Halliburton or Chiquita Banana.
Wouldn't it be something if these people could turn their razor-sharp fact checking abilities towards Big Business and the way it exploits and abuses both society and the environment, instead of attacking a small film that tries to spark a dialogue it that direction?
Somebody at least made the effort of swimming against the current to make The Corporation, yet what have the pundits done? Simple, they've struck an equilibrium: nothing on one side, saturation on the other, and don't even try to upset that balance. Like rubber, they will go back to a preprogrammed, minimum effort position. Hey look, Jack Bauer's coming up!
To restate, The Corporation can only go so far in the course of two hours, yet there's more great material elsewhere. For a more in-depth look at just how much we've been manipulated as a community during the last hundred years, go to Google Video http://video.google.com/?tab=wv and type in quotations "Adam Curtis", then select either of two of his BBC documentaries, The Trap http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0979263/ or The Century Of Self http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432232/. Each documentary is divided into four parts, each part is about fifty minutes long. Both of these shows are a little bit like a red pill that allow you to see that you've been living in a state and corporate sponsored Matrix. If you like, there's also The Power Of Nightmares and The Mayfair Set by Mr Curtis.
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isomeric
17 years ago
I think the same people who become fact checkers would do the same with any other film. The Corporation is flawed because it makes itself out to be the truth, or the honorable voice who knows -the truth-. This film is as slanted, selfish, and unforgiving as the corporations it attacks.
And any sort of propaganda exploits and abuses, even this anti-corporate one. A fact checker is against poor journalism, questionable facts, and slanted coverage. The Corporation does a disservice to its audience by being propaganda. An audience has to choose whose bull**** smells best or they have to figure out the facts for themselves.
...go with another movie - this movie fails to flesh out anything with real substance. Unless you want to understand what a few corporations are doing to help the environment.
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Blunic3
12 years ago
Sorry to resort to personal attacks, but you're such an idiot. "The film is unforgiving toward corporations" This doesn't make any sense whatsoever. The film is exploring and analyzing the negative effects of the corporation in society. Whether or not you are persuaded by what it has to say is another thing; what the film presents is a generally sound thesis: which is that corporations are driven to maximize profits at whatever cost. Corporations have garnered so much legal influence that politicians represent corporations rather than people, where legislation reflects the interest of corporations rather than the well being of the populace at large. The film demonstrates this by examples. Your claim that the film fails to flesh out anything of real substance is itself a meaningless statement. If you are indifferent to the potentially harmful methods corporations prepare food products, for example, (with legislation supporting their right to do so) then that reflects on you as an idiot and not on the documentary who is trying to alert people to the ill effects of such practices.
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dhummel-1
16 years ago
"For a more in-depth look at just how much we've been manipulated as a community during the last hundred years, go to Google Video..."
Irony anyone?
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mozillameister
12 years ago
"
For most of a century, the population have been force-fed corporate and government propaganda, until it's becomes second nature to spread 'em wide open to receive the daily dosage.
Then along comes a 2 1/2 hour piece of, call it counter-propaganda, a very small ripple in a very large and indifferent/hostile pond, and some people who stumble upon this film, all of a sudden, will take it upon themselves to turn into fact checkers and snort indignant platitudes about "propaganda crap" or "factual inaccuracy", dismiss the movie wholesale, then go back to spreading 'em wide open for their unquestioning daily dosage, courtesy of their good friends from GM, McDonald's, Halliburton or Chiquita Banana. "
You mean, the part where industrial society has allowed humans to live over twice our normal lifespans, sustain billions of people, and create economic subsistence in countries that were in hunger crisis just a decade earlier (aka: China)?
Are there major fundamental issues with greediness of certain tycoons? Hell yes...
But under a truly competitive global market, a lot of the negative issues of greed would be eliminated. It is due to the collusion of government and larger corporations that allows for inequalities to exist, since competitive markets mean more growth a less time for corruption.
Blaming competition is wrong. If we had a truly open society with no collusion and free markets, you would see poverty ended all over the world in just a decade.
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