The Corporation
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Movie Reviews of The Corporation
Movie Review: The corporation as psychopath
Summary: 5 Stars
This extraordinary documentary is based on the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (2004) by law professor Joel Bakan (see my review at Amazon). Bakan's thesis is that the corporation is a psychopathic entity.
In his book he notes that the modern corporation is "singularly self-interested and unable to feel genuine concern for others in any context." (p. 56) He adds that the corporation's sole reason for being is to enhance the profits and power of the corporation. He shows by citing court cases that it is the duty of management to make money and that any compromise with that duty is dereliction of duty.
Directors Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott bring these points and a slew of others to cinematic life through interviews, archival footage, and a fine narrative written by Achbar and Harold Crooks. The interviews cover a wide spectrum of opinion, from Michael Moore and Norm Chomsky on the left, to Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman on the right. Friedman is heard to agree with Bakan that the corporation's duty is to its stockholders and that anything that deviates from that duty is irresponsible.
What emerges is a view of the corporation as an entity working both for and against human welfare. Designed to turn labor and raw materials efficiently into goods and services and to thereby raise our standard of living, it has been a very effective tool for humans to use. On the other hand, because it is blind to anything but its own welfare, the corporation uses humans and the resources of the planet in ways that can be and often are detrimental to people and the environment. Corporations, to put it bluntly, foul the environment with their wastes and will not clean up unless forced to.
An interesting technique that Achbar and Abbott use is to go down the list of behaviors cited in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that identify the psychopathic personality and show how the corporation has all of those behaviors including a criminal disregard for the welfare and feelings of others and a complete absence of guilt. Indeed corporations feel no compunction when they break the law. Their only concern is whether breaking the law is cost-effective. The result is a nearly constant bending and breaking of the law. They pay the fine and then break the law again. The corporation, after all, has no conscience and feels no remorse.
Bakan notes that "corporations are designed to externalize their costs." The corporation is "deliberately programmed, indeed legally compelled, to externalize costs without regard for the harm it may cause to people, communities, and the natural environment. Every cost it can unload onto someone else is a benefit to itself, a direct route to profit." (pp. 72-73) We are shown how rivers are polluted, environments destroyed and people placed into something close to servitude by the corporation's insatiable lust to profit.
The answer to this, as presented in the film, is to make corporations pay for their pollution. What many people are proposing is the creation of bills or certificates that would allow the barer "the right to pollute." The cost of these bills would reflect the societal and environmental costs of the pollution. This sounds scary, but what it would do is make those who pollute pay for their pollution instead of having the costs be externalized as they are now. Consequently, to protect their bottom line, corporations would pollute less.
Another problem with the corporation as emphasized in the film is that the corporate structure is essentially despotic. It is not a democracy or anything close. The owners hire officers to exercise control over everyone who works for the corporation. This is in direct contrast to democratic governments whose officers are elected and who are subject to the checks and balances of a constitutional government with shared powers. It is true that if you are a shareholder of a corporation you may be able to indirectly vote for the CEO. However, such a "democracy" is a democracy of capital in which the electoral power is inequitably distributed. Some people have hundreds of millions of votes. How many does the average shareholder have?
Bakan, Achbar and Abbott play fair, and give both sides of the case--although that is not to say that the weight of evidence or sentiment is equally distributed. After all, who's in favor of pollution or the destruction of the environment? The pathological corporation doesn't care about such things, but its officers should. Some do, but feel constrained by their fiduciary duty to their stockholders. Consequently it is our responsibility as the electorate to get our government to make the corporation socially and morally responsible. The way to do that is make the fines for breaking the law large enough to change corporate behavior. Furthermore--and this is essential--make management responsible--criminally if necessary--for the actions of the corporation.
This is absolutely one of the most interesting, most compelling, and, yes, entertaining documentaries that I have ever seen. But beware of some graphic footage.
Movie Review: A surgical strike against pervasive ideological hegemony
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is a masterpiece, and my only criticism being I wished it could have been longer. However, the film has a purpose and it serves that purpose well- it is an attempt to shatter the hypnotic daydream we all live within (maintained by trhe ideological state apparatuse, repressive state apparatuse, and our media cocoon) and expose us to a devastating critique of our current socioeconomic situation and its suicidal tendencies.
It is meant to show to others, to entertain and inform, to help raise consciousness and change paradigm. Oh, and did I mention it is a gorgeously edited and conceived work of art with a chilling central thesis that any fair minded viewer will have to confront (the corporation is psychopathic- in the clinical sense that its actions conform with the diagnostic criteria).
So, in its intent and construction and execution, it is brilliant- the type of film I would sacrifice 100,000 typical films if only we could encounter its type more often. I dream of seeming and sharing this type of film and in this instance, my dream has manifested.
It is meant to share, and for that reason, it has to be short, if one can conceive of 2 hours and 25 minutes as short. I can only imagine the 35 hour rough cut that Director/Editor Jennifer Abbott alluded to- if only this were a mini series, and each box passed by (factory farming, toxic waste, etc) could have been explored more fully. However, as the directors say in the commentary, their film encompassed the world, and their task was monumental and they should be extremely pleased with their creations.
The filmakers include interviews with the likes of Noam Chomsky, Niaomi Klein, Michael Moore, Howard Zinn, Milton Freidman as well as CEOs, corporation shills, corporate spys, right wingers and privatizers, as well as third world activists from India and Boliva, as well as industry insiders along the lines of covert advertising experts and commerical psychologists. I have to give a shout out to Noam Chomsky who is so clear and decisive in his exposition, so percise in his moral positions and informed in his knowledge, I likewise command that those of you reading this purchase Mark Achbar's likewise brilliant, informative, moving, inspiring, visually dynamic, paradigm flipping masterpiece of a documentary Manufacturing Consent- Noam Chomsky and the Media.
The extras on this 2 disk set were obviously put there with much thought and care. 2 highly recommended commentary tracks, one in particular by writer and cocreator and author of the book Joel Bakan which is so engaging and informative it is an education in and of itself, and it is very moving to hear someone speak who is so passionate about his topic, at the same time so knowledgable, I can only envy those lucky enough to take some of his courses.
There is also a mammoth section (five hours worth) which includes many additional interviews with everyone (40 persons) whom were in the film.
This is a muscular, dynamic, lovingly and carefully crafted work of art made by persons whom are passionate about this topic, passionate about social change and ending what one interviewer calls "intergenerational terrorism," not to mention what I call interspecies terrorism.
The most important function of the film is that it helps the viewer create a "cognitive map" of our current place in history, and it helps to place this stage within a larger framework of historical change. This helps create the understanding that contemporary economic reality is not monolithic, not inevitable, and not beyond transformation. It was created and it can be changed. It helps the viewer locate the driving motors within society which create our situation as we currently know it, to comprehend how things are and why they are the way they are. If one learns where we came from, and where we are, then perhaps we can use this information to understand the potential futures that are possible. Without this map, one is a feather in the wind, blown about without any understanding of what is forcing this change- and just like wind, capitalism is invisible to most people, it simply is and there is no-way to conceive beyond it. If we fail to understand history, we will almost assuredly be utterly anihilated.
The time has come to step up, so buy the dvd, buy 2 or 3, share them with friends and enemies, watch it again, and then change the world.
Movie Review: Stunning Food for Thought, Whatever Your Politics
Summary: 5 Stars
Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan have collaborated in THE CORPORATION to produce a documentary version of Bakan's book of the same name (subtitled "The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power"). In doing so, they have outlined the legal history of corporations in America and compiled a litany of concerns over the increasingly unregulated and growing power of that institution.
There can be no doubt that THE CORPORATION takes a left of center view of American business, as witnessed by the film's featured "talking heads:" Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Howard Zinn, and Michael Moore. Viewers can argue over balance or the choice to "diagnose" the legal personhood of the corporate institution as pathological. Nevertheless, this movie raises important issues that deserve consideration regardless of the viewer's political leanings. When an organizational form accumulates as much power and influence as the corporation has, and when that institution is legally bound to consider first and foremost its profit maximization over all other factors, the consequences of disregard and lax regulation (and popular unawareness) may be dire indeed.
Achbar and Abbott begin with a brief history of corporations, noting that the origin of corporations' rights as "legal persons" arose out of judicial interpretations of the equal protections clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was written to end slavery. This interpretation granted corporations the rights of individuals, but overlooked many of the responsibilities and accountabilities of citizens. "Corporation as person" opens the door for Bakan's psychoanalysis, from which he deems the institution to qualify under DMS-IV as psychopathic.
THE CORPORATION is at its best and most revealing when it tells stories, such as the little-known plot to overthrow FDR in 1934 by a cabal of industrialists, including representatives of Bethlehem Steel, DuPont, Goodyear, and J.P. Morgan. Perhaps only the conscience of General Smedley Butler, the man approached by those industrialists to lead a 500,000-man, militarized march on Washington, prevented America from experiencing a military coup. Stories about GM, Ford, Coca-Cola and IBM under Hitler's regime are equally fascinating, and equally disturbing (did you know, for example, that Coke invented Fanta Orange to keep its German factories open in the 1930's?).
Three particular stories give THE CORPORATION its greatest impact and best serve to humanize the issues. The first concerns child labor in Asian sweatshops, particularly with regard to Kathy Lee Gifford's clothing line. The second story concerns the privatization of water in Cochabamba, Bolivia as a condition for that country's receipt of World Bank loans. Bechtel Corporation comes off as the bad guy here, particularly as a result of the extraordinary greed and hubris the company displayed in managing to make the collection of rainwater illegal in such a poor area. Finally, there is the story of Monsanto's rBGH bovine growth hormone, rejected throughout Europe and Canada for its cancer links but approved by the FDA. The story behind the story here is Fox News's blatantly coercive actions to suppress a report on rBGH compiled by its own staff from ever appearing on the air, presumably in order not to offend a major advertiser. Each of these three stories prove that "little people" can still be heroes - Charles Kernaghan (Director, National Labor Committee) in the first case, Oscar Olivera in the second, and Steve Wilson and Jane Akre in the Fox News story.
THE CORPORATION runs long (145 minutes) and can seem dry at times, but the story is too important to ignore. This movie is two and a half well-spent hours, and you will finish it with a lot to think about. The separate "Majority Report" interview of Joel Bakan by Janeane Garofolo provides a good summary and review of the many different topics covered by the full documentary. It would be nice to imagine NBC or even PBS airing this movie someday, just as it would be nice to imagine students at Harvard or Wharton business schools being required to view it in their coursework. Would that it were so. Hopefully, enough concerned citizens will watch it on their own to raise some consciouses.
Movie Review: The Corporation Is A Sociopath
Summary: 5 Stars
As a small business owner, I am attuned to the impositions of governmental intrusions. I decided to read the book - and then subsequently saw this documentary - in order to get a more balanced view. Although this author definitely has a bias (addressed at the end of this review), he does not come across as overtly fanatical, and has plenty of examples to document his position.
The corporation is compared to a sociopath. The sociopathic personality is irresponsible, manipulating, grandiose, lacking in empathy, has antisocial tendencies, refuses to accept responsibility for its actions, and cannot feel remorse....Many of the attitudes people adopt and the actions they execute when acting as corporate operatives can be characterized as sociopathic.
Moreover, by the legal way a corporation is set up, its only motive is profit. Every action taken, no matter how altruistic it looks, has to ultimately be a search for profits. Otherwise, the corporation is subject to litigation by the shareholders. The corporation is deliberately programmed and legally compelled to externalize (dump) costs (pollution, for example) without regard for the harm it may cause. Every cost it can unload onto the general public is a benefit to stockholders - a direct route to profit.
Many major corporations habitually engage in criminal behavior with records worse than even the most prolific human criminals. GE collected 42 heavy fines over 11 years - akin to a hardened repeat criminal receiving occasional hand slaps while on perpetual parole. Corporations don't mind chalking these fines up as a cost of doing business - then delegating a committee to figure out how to cover their tracks better in the future. Sounds a lot like a sociopath.
Within the past 20 years, corporations have really gotten in bed with government in the United States. Billions in PAC money is spent every year for lobbying and political contributions. A grateful politician must find it difficult to turn someone down who has given a hundred thousand dollars to his campaign. How can virtually unfunded (by comparison) watchdog groups compete with this machine aimed toward sugar-coating their industries and de-regulation?
On the other hand, the corporate structure has provided financing for businesses that otherwise would not have been, providing jobs for workers and income for investors. Corporations have played a major role in the dominant economy the US has developed - an economy that is envied throughout the world. Corporations should be seen for the non-altruistic entities they are, and every effort should be made to make sure they continue to thrive with proper regulation - admittedly a tightrope act.
The other fault I find with this documentary is its view on globalization. Every market transaction makes all parties better off. Even Asian sweatshops have full employment because it is the best option their workers have. Antiglobalization protesters say that world trade is something imposed on third world countries by rich countries, but win/lose thinking is wrong when it comes to economics. Trade gives poor countries access to markets in the developed world and the opportunity to work their way out of poverty. The loudest complaints against the antiglobalization protesters come from the developing world. Sweatshops played an important role in the early journey out of poverty by (among others) "asian tigers" South Korea and Taiwan. Have you ever heard of American workers applauding the closing of a factory in the US? It has been suggested that the antiglobalization coalition should be renamed, "The Coalition to Keep the World's Poor People Poor." Every economy that participates in global trade benefits, even when they have to start with sweat shops.
Despite these deficiencies, I recommend this documentary highly. There is no question in my mind that corporations act like sociopaths - it's in their charter (genes). There is also no doubt in my mind that our politicians, in their votes, exhibit sociopathic traits they borrowed from their corporate contributors or from lobbyists representing the corporate mindset. This is a captivating five - star documentary.
Movie Review: An Exposé of Legal Tyranny
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an extraordinary film about the creation of the American corporation, its legal organizational model, its global economic dominance and its psychopathic tendencies, and its incredible ambition to influence every aspect of culture in its unrelenting pursuit of profit.
The Corporation was spawned from Joel Balkan's in depth book, "The Corporation: A Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power". (Due to be released in March this year) The film and book begins in the 18th century, in the establishment of the 14th Amendment. Initially the 14th Amendment was designed after the Civil War to give ex slaves' legal rights, like any other citizen of the United States, but through a maze of legal precedents, the business corporation organization model was now deemed a "legal person" with all the civil rights accorded to a citizen. This highly absurd precedent has paved the way for corporations to literarily get away with murder, because a "corporation" is not an individual that you can put in jail. In effect, a corporation has no moral or social obligations; their only obligation is the pursuit of profit. This film offers numerous examples of unethical practices resulting in death for many people, and because of their status under the 14th Amendment, and endless legal loopholes, have gotten away with terrible crimes against humanity and the environment with no more than a fine, a mere slap on the wrist.
As the law treats corporations as "persons", Balkan thought it appropriate to put the various behaviours of these companies under psychological examination. What this psychological study illustrated is that corporations, as "persons" behave and display the symptoms of the clinical psychopath. A psychopath typically does not have a social conscience, is guilt free after committing heinous acts, and will destroy anything or anybody that prevents them from attaining the object of their particular obsession - in this case, the relentless pursuit of profit.
This documentary took several years to produce with over 650 hours of footage, director(s), Jennifer Abbot and Mark Achbar, had to chisel down this amazing amount of material into a comprehensible film. What is most astounding is the range of people interviewed for this film, that argue from all sides of the "corporation issue": Ira Jackson, Ray Anderson - CEO of Interface, the world's largest carpet manufacturer; Noam Chomsky, Richard Grossman, Howard Zinn, Michael Moore, Milton Freidman - Noble Prize winning economist; Jeremy Rifkin - President, Foundation of Economic Trends; Dr. Robert Hare - Consultant to the FBI on psychopaths, and many more individuals from all sides of the debate.
When Balkan wrote his book and then collaborated with Mark Achbar to produce this film, what they did not want was the film to appear as just some left-wing diatribe, attacking the corporations, but to illustrate to people how the corporation began, how they have evolved and what they could well turn into if the people do not become involved in the democratic process, ensuring our governments take back the reigns of power.
After viewing this film, it becomes all too evident that these large corporations have too much power, whose mandate is not the common good of the people, and who will go to any lengths, legally and otherwise, in the pursuit of profit and the bottom line.
I believe this is one of the best and most important documentary films to be made in many years.