The Corporation
The Corporation | |
| Rated: | None |
| Studio: | Zeitgeist Films |
| Director: | Jennifer Abbott, Mark Achbar |
| Cast: | Jane Akre, Ray Anderson, Maude Barlow, Chris Barrett, Noam Chomsky |
| Screen Writer: | Jennifer Abbott, Mark Achbar |
| Music Score: | Leonard J. Paul |
| Release Date: | 2004 |
| URL: | http://www.thecorporation.com/ |
| Genre: | Documentary |
So you saw Fahrenheit 9/11 and thought: Yeah, and? I already knew all that. We’ve got a movie for you. The Corporation begins with a very real and very troubling concept: Many crooked CEOs and other corporate criminals evade legal responsibility for their actions because corporations are considered people under the law, not things. Really. Viewers new to this idea might wish The Corporation provided more background info about this bizarre, insidious legal loophole’s history. However, directors Jennifer Abbott and Mark Achbar (Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media) develop their film posing an interesting question—If corporations are people, what kind of people are they?—and offer fascinating case studies that provide a resounding answer: They are psychopaths. Although The Corporation spends time with several CEOs and other pro-globalization voices, the filmmakers’ hearts clearly reside with the progressives they chat with, including Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein, Chomsky, and yes, Michael Moore. The convincing case they mount manages to feel both academic and lively, and even at two hours-plus, you’ll probably find yourself hungry for more. Most unforgettable scene: A CEO who has had an environmental epiphany scoldingly addresses an audience of his peers, beginning “Fellow plunderers . . . ”