This is a film I will watch if I get the chance, although I seriously doubt some of its conclusions. How does anyone own your DNA? Kind of reminds me of when a foreign body 'owns' something in the US- when push comes to shove, the US property is still in the US, subject to closure or confiscation.
"I think The Corporation is a good movie, and I think it's an important one; but it isn't a great movie. It could have been if the filmmakers were more disciplined or more focused, and willing to let the audience draw its own conclusions. Watching this film is like listening to an impassioned preacher deliver a long sermon; you enjoy the sermon, you mostly agree with what you hear, but eventually you just become worn out. The preaching just goes on and on and on. You just want to wrap things up, and the minister keeps pulling out another three chapters to read.
"Perhaps the overall tone of the film brought this about. The Corporation serves as a laundry list of corporate abuses and crimes in the name of relentless profits, and the damage wrought over the past century. We see Bovine Growth Hormones, pollution of land, air, and water, third world sweatshop labor, cruelty to animals, chemicals on the farms, chemicals in our hair, chemicals in our food, strip-mining, fossil fuels that cause global warming, genetic manipulation, genetic mutations, birth defects, the explosion of cancer.
"We learn the history of corporations, from its humble roots to the infamous Supreme Court decision, argued in the name of the then-new 14th Amendment to the Constitution, that declared a corporation a legal person. Only these persons have resources far beyond any of us, um, people. And we witness global corporations evolve into the fiefdoms and robber barons of our time, looting resources, abusing workers, and always obsessed with profit, profit, profit.
"One great moment – visually the best moment in the film – shows a stack of legal documents in an office. The camera pulls back, and it slowly reveals row after row of boxes and documents. The room becomes a warehouse, and its sheer size overwhelms you. The rows of shelves just go on and on.
"You watch all the evidence, and you listen to CEO's, activists, and progressive heroes like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomski, and you end up feeling, well, helpless. The mood of The Corporation is almost one of despair. There's that sadness and anger you felt when watching Fahrenheit, but this time you feel so much smaller, almost helpless. What else can you feel when you realize that a handful of international businesses will soon own the DNA to all human life, and then all life on Earth? When you confront poisons in our food, mass extinctions, and global warming, you have to wonder if we even have a future."