"The Corporation" (Documentary) (2003) - Movie Review

After watching this documentary, honestly I did not know what to do. The sudden gush of guilt and confusion engulfed me on what I need to do. Something is terribly wrong all over the world and I am out here watching every movie a day and then posting my reviews. I work as a contract for a “corporation”. I felt so small and panicked miserably. I was so up on my toes that I did not know how am I going to write a review for a movie, which puts me as a culprit too? I slowed down for a while and loosened up. I started to think back and steadily see what this movie has done to me. It is highly informative and educational but in the process heavily panics and leaves people clueless. As it says, there should be actions, but how are we going about it? This is what “An Inconvenient Truth” did with perfection. It showed or at least asked to explore the ways in various directions. While many might not believe in those, they at minimal will go for other options and read to perform it. “The Corporation” directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, helps in identifying the human conscience getting crucified but does not clearly give a picture on the next step. It is an awakening though, vehemently.

The film takes on the big corporations which has grown so enormously and out of proportion that the conditioning of it seems like a mere marketing word of short lived identity. They go on the roots way back in the century. It goes through the details of how the entity identified itself as “person” under the 14th amendment. There is no doubt about thriving to profit and being first in the race to make behave as a dog eat dog situation. The competition runs high and the disregard for anything not exploding in their hands is true. The concept of “greater good” is posed as an excuse for minting money. It has formed some kind of ecosystem that the corporations have assumed themselves as the predator and the consumption forming the cycle. The facts and the points laid down as that of getting onto a book and flipping the chapters is a nice approach. It is always good to show the text on what exactly you are trying to tell the audience, especially in a documentary film. And it is even more important in this film, because of the terms which are being used and its remote connectivity attaching the huge weight it is imposing on the world.

It is a heavy shaking at the end of the movie. Thanks to the astounding and compelling ending point, Michael Moore makes, it hits you hard and flat. The underlying point of the film though is the individual responsibility. Most of the documentaries addressing social problems come down to this, because it is truth every one knows but does not apply. While elaborately concentrating on the big time capitalists, I felt it is more of an approach of the individual encircling them into a boundary. The boundary which only runs to the fences of their home and does not runs in to their minds or hearts. The moral and social responsibility has become a politician’s word. The utilization of those is applied by them and the movies which try to invoke those. The system designed in most of the countries is the dependency and reactions of others on the action of others. The constant judgmental and prejudiced system of ours is a funny one. When one takes extreme care and pain to get a perception from an outsider, the very same person does not care about the negligence and convenient ignorance of the harm he is causing to others through various identifiable means. The documentary high lights and blames mostly on the corporation rather than the people.

In a manipulated media world, it is indeed extremely tough to come out of the circle and see the real picture. The enigma and fairy tales are all over pointing out the flaws but still the average person does not want to connect those to the reality. Thinking about it, the average person forms the corporation too. It is also said in the documentary that while CEO can be a great nice person, his personal convictions does not necessarily translate into the arena of the corporate world. It is truly depressing to hear that. When one’s personal values and conviction gets brutalized by the manipulation of unethical and harmful behaviour of a firm or company or corporation he/she is working in, how can they live with that? But yes, life goes on and the habit of dealing with it gets accustomed to them. It is reflective in couple of their points said.

The documentary is hard hitting and highly original. It is a definite must watch to understand the dynamics of a corporation. To understand how it has dangerously evolved out of a loop hole in the law and is questioning the existence of co-ordination and helping each other. The privatization and the fear of having something as an “asset” is revealing in the manner every one can realize. And also exposing the life of living within the fence of our home is brought out threateningly. They do it with lot of explanations, stories and people. There were many of them with their view and analysis over this world of corporation, but one struck me really hard. It is Ray Anderson, founder and chairman of Interface, Inc, the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet. His total admission of being in the list of the heads wanting to “plunder” the Earth and coming out of it is the exemplary action of learning from mistakes and the attitude of “it is never late”. His actions and words are the ones which should ring upon the ears of the individuals high up on the ladder to work ethically and responsibly. The film is the words to every other human being in this planet to have the awareness. I am an individual with social responsibility not being executed to my fullest conscience and actions which this movie identified it stunningly and blunt. I am trying to do my level best but there is always room for improvement. The movie does not guide or ask on what to do but definitely pushes your buttons to explore and act on it.