I have no secret agenda in favor of reparations and their profit reaping, nor do I sport a Marxist poster on my dormitory wall. Thus I feel that some of the aspects of the Corporation was interesting, even eye opening. However, some points I feel worked too hard to dislodge modern day capitalism without any real solutions to the problems it presented. A particular strength of the documentary is that I found some of it to be quite balanced In Its approach. It allows Coos of companies to get a fair chance to outline their opinions.
It didn’t portray these guys as demons; It actually made them come off as good people who wanted to help the business world become more ethically responsible – for example when the protesters were given tea by the CEO of Shell outside his own house as he explained to them he held similar views to the protestors. This gives the documentary a more balanced feeling as some other documentaries tend to be massively one sided in their attempt to convince their viewers. It also provides a sense of confusion.
If these Coos are good men who want to help improve the ethical behavior of the corporate world, then who’s to blame if not evil men running the corporations? Why does the problem persist? It made me think that maybe it’s not the companies that are the problem but the people the companies operate for – the shareholders. This is solidified by one point I found interesting which was the interview with the former CEO from Goodyear when he says that his Job has been frustrating as he thought he would have the power to do what he wanted, but he didn’t.
He realized that being a CEO doesn’t Inherently mean you run the company as shareholders and market forces can dictate what a CEO does. But how do we regulate shareholders? The legal status of corporations was discussed quite often as t describes the business entity as a person with constitutional rights. It was often portrayed as though corporations don’t get penalized for their actions due to this flaw, as someone states that corporations have no soul to redeem and no body to Jail, but it’s not as though corporations go without punishment.
Fines and penalties can be huge and devastating to some companies. I found the comparison between the corporation and a psychopath quite memorable. I feel that one of the main messages of the film was to portray how corporations can make good people do bad things through the psychopathic pursuit of self-interest (maximizing profits). The head hunter spy, or ‘Intelligence professional’ outlined that the tactics he used for his Job, would never be used In his personal life. The corporation manipulates everything. It accept responsibility for its actions.
It relates to others only superficially, via versions made by public-relations consultants and masters of deceit in the marketing team. In short, if the metaphor of the business entity as person is valid, then the corporation is clinically insane. Not dissimilar to other documentaries, The Corporation used anecdotes (which only scratch the surface level) to make best their argument. I felt that the arguments laid out in the documentary could have used a lot more factual information in order to convince viewers, rather than putting an inherent focus upon trying to convince people that corporations are evil.
Everybody with a hint of sense knows that large businesses care only for profit due to shareholders preferences, and everybody should know that this leads to unethical practices. What I was expecting was something more, solid information to act on. We see corporations engaged in behavior that wreaks havoc on health, the environment, deprives poverty-stricken tizzies of better standards of living which could instill strong emotion in viewers. However, I felt some scenes were Just downright unnecessary.
For example, the scene where a woman and a man were walking down a street discussing a CD they like, which in turn convinces a passer-by to purchase the same CD. I personally think useless scenes like this work to discredit the documentary (and add more time to an already long film). To me, this movie highlights the weaknesses of governments worldwide in tackling the power and abuse made by corporations. The fear of less bobs has made governments futile in their effective regulation, which has caused numerous issues discussed throughout the documentary.
Overall, The Corporation brings to light an overall fact that most of us already knew (corporate America is out to make profits at any cost), it does so by showing many smaller, supporting facts that many of us probably did not know. Whether you agree with the overall message (or opinion) is key to creating discussions amongst viewers and get them talking about a subject that people may not have normally discussed. Any film that can generate such discussion is good thing and should be seen by all.
