Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5299 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-10-09
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

An excellent documentary
This film shows in chilling detail how corporations have become, on balance, parasites that harm their host - the rest of the planet. Even children are not immune from the harm they do, via manipulative advertising. By their nature they profit from tyrannical regimes that exploit a repressed workforce.
An important contributory factor to this grave state of affairs in the United States is the granting of the legal status of a person to corporations, with a legal obligation on them to put profit for the shareholders above all other considerations, democratic, ethical or patriotic. The result is to create amoral monsters on the scale of the organisations, even though individuals within them may be nice people in the ordinary sense of the term.
But the film also shows how grass roots activism can, sometimes after great sacrifice, overcome some of the harm done by companies in the name of profit. It may also be necessary, however, in the long term, to have an improved legal framework that removes any obligation for corporations to put profitability above all other considerations, replacing it with a democratic accountability to the shareholders, together with responsibilities not to exploit human labour or damage the environment, or even to profit excessively, the excessiveness being decided by a sought democratic consensus in the country outside the company.
Highly recommended.

The movie which 'the establishment' does not want you to see
'The Corporation' is a 2003 Canadian documentary and another one of those films you will not see in any theaters near you, because it touches on a subject which makes those in power feel very uncomfortable.

THE CORPORATION is a well-organised and deeply fascinating docu-film 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 labourers 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.

Corporations = Legal Tyranny
At first, i was a little bored with this doc. Soon enough I was blown away. IBM (a US-based branch) created the machines and punch cards that were used in various concentration camps in Nazi Germany.

Patents on microorganisms have been issued (i.e. on basic life forms, human genome, etc), including the gene for breast cancer. The company that owns it doesn't allow anyone to test potential drugs to cure it without paying suitcases of monies first, which if a drug company can't afford to pay must be astronomical.

The documentary was well-done. It definitely got bogged down in places, but the way it presented the info kept me engaged. It is a sobering look at how big business & big government are not serving your best interests. Their goal is money to the point of unbelievable greed; those in government have the goal of maintaining power and that is a bad combination.

The only downside to 'The Corporation' is that it is nearly two-and-a-half hours long, making it a bit of a snoozer in portions. But considering the original filming consisted of over 300 hours, I guess the production team did okay.