Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott and Joel Bakan have crafted an informative, amusing and unnerving overview of the history and consequences of corporations.
The Corporation (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:106
Fresh:96
Rotten:10
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: The Corporation is a satisfyingly dense, thought-provoking rebuttal to some of capitalism's central arguments.
Theatrical Release:Jun 4, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $1,350,094
Synopsis: THE CORPORATION is a well-organized and deeply fascinating documentary about the growing prominence of large global businesses, and the way that their decisions are impacting the world. The film... THE CORPORATION is a well-organized and deeply fascinating documentary about the growing prominence of large global businesses, and the way that their decisions are impacting the world. The film shows how corporations have ballooned in size and power since the industrial revolution, and explains the laws and loopholes that allow them to remain nearly unaccountable for their actions. If they break a law, they are willing to admit guilt and pay the fine, because the profits outweigh the penalties. Therefore, they continue to cause serious environmental problems by dumping waste into rivers and oceans and by depleting natural resources, resulting in irreversible damage to the earth which also poses a serious threat to human life. Beyond environmental issues, the film shows how corporations exploit underpaid laborers in third world countries, violate basic human rights, make deals with foreign countries who are known enemies of the U.S., and in some instances perpetuate fascist regimes. Valuable, informative talking-head commentary comes from a diverse group including Ray Anderson, CEO of carpet manufacturer Interface; Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell; Dr. Vandana Shiva, feminist and ecologist; Milton Friedman, Nobel prize-winning economist; Marc Barry, corporate spy; Joe Badaracco, professor of business ethics at Harvard; and activists Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Michael Moore. Providing useful references to major news stories that illustrate various corporate developments, and good information about how the system works, THE CORPORATION empowers viewers and shows them that they can realistically enact change. For that reason, this documentary makes real progress, encouraging viewers to take the world's future into their own hands and away from corporations whose sole interest is profit. [More]
Starring: Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Howard Zinn, Chris Barrett
Starring: Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Howard Zinn, Chris Barrett
Director: Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott
Director: Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott
Screenwriter: Joel Bakan
Producer: Bart Simpson
Composer: Leonard J. Paul
Studio: Zeitgeist Films
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Reviews for The Corporation
If the movie had stuck to its initial thesis ... it would be a great film. Unfortunately it's merely a good one, as it goes off on various tangents and falls in love with its own rhetoric.
Some thorough research, a clear presentation and a nice knit with America's ongoing corporate scandals should prod uninformed viewers to think more deeply about the role of big business in the world.
A dense, complicated and thought-provoking film, but it simplifies its title character.
A surprisingly cogent, entertaining, even rabble-rousing indictment of perhaps the most influential institutional model for our era.
If corporations are protected under the law as living, breathing people, then this enthralling Canadian documentary sets out to tell us what kind of people they are.
A leisurely, never boring, grimly amusing, and not entirely hopeless disquisition on the contemporary world's 'dominant institution.'
Running 145 minutes, the film barely has enough time to get its main points in, and it could have gone on much longer and still remained fascinating.
Since I've seen The Corporation, not a day has gone by that I haven't thought of one of the film's lessons.
Both exhausting and exhaustive, this epic investigation looks at the trans-national behemoths that dominate the globe in ways the old robber barons never dreamed of and the impact of their rapacious appetites on the way we live.
It's coolheaded and incisive, a thorough and informative study of corporations, their origins and their place in the modern world.
For all its hysterical bleating about the pervasive evils of corporate control, The Corporation is itself a conformist piece of propaganda that has its own corporate mindset.
Canadian doc is a great look at the business of being a business -- even if it's a smidge overlong and made to confirm more than convert.
Latest News for The Corporation
February 10, 2008:
WashingtonPost.com: The undercurrent of this exhaustive critique is really all about good and evil, and in what ways often sordid human history is determined, not as a product of malice, but by the most typical people who could care less. ![]()
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January 25, 2006:
SUNDANCE: Wintertime For The Producers
When Sean Covel brought a low budget indie film he produced to Sundance in 2004, he had no idea how it would be received.
“We had no barometer, he said. “When it first... More...
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