Film review #1
I had the urge to go to the cinema yesterday, having not been for a while. So I headed down to Wardour Street Odeon, a 3rd floor cinema with tiny screens decked out in the most fantastically awful 70s-brown in the heart of Chinatown, to see The Corporation, a documentary by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbot and Joel Bakan. It is an examination of some aspects of the development of the corporation, its attainment of the legal rights of a person, and then an exploration of what kind of person a corporation would be. The conclusion is that it would be a psychopath. The first half falls somewhere between No Logo and Profit over People, with interviews with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein, Milton Friedman, and numerous CEO's (Goodyear, Royal Dutch/Shell, and most interestingly, Interface, the world's biggest carpet manufacturer).
There is a lengthy exploration of how an investigation by two reporters - who had just been hired by Fox to do cutting edge investigations - in to the side-effects of a drug made by Monsanto to make cows produce more milk (these included cancer) was suppressed after Monsanto threatened to sue Fox if they aired it. There is footage from sweatshops, which is pretty familiar to the No Logo reader, but is nonetheless quite moving at times.
The story of Interface is fascinating. The CEO in 1994 read a book about the environmental effects of industry, realised what his company and others were doing to the world, and vowed to be making carpets sustainably and profitably by 2020. A remarkable example of what can be done when peoples minds are stimulated.
Near the end of the film, it is suggested (I'm not sure by whom) that the industrial age began with the enclosure of common land in Britain and with the advent of steam power. If we want to create a just society that will not extinguish itself within a few generations, it was proposed, we need to consider the effects of these events, and think about how we could alter them. What is being proposed is no return to primordialism, but a different way of allocating and producing stuff. Something to think about.
The film suffered from three things: first, the presence, and unrestrained self-righteousness of Michael Moore, which I have concluded is now irreversible. He may never produce useful work again. Second, the analyses of Naomi Klein, which were even weaker than in No Logo, since here she was trying to summarise. She cannot explain why export processing zones, foreign direct investment, and "capital flight" occur as they do, and another spokesperson on these complex matters should be found. I also refuse to go along with her proposal that in running a transnational corporation, building and maintaining the brand has replaced making the product. She notes in No Logo that Nike directly employs no one to make shoes, only branding ideas, but the fact remains that all corporations rely on goods or services carrying their brand being bought by consumers, and it's important not to lose sight of this in my view, because it reminds people what power they have as consumers on whom these corporations are reliant.
Third, the editor (Jennifer Abbot) was far too afraid to cut lengthy scenes, resulting in a 142 minute film that could have been done in 90, rather like "Manufacturing Consent" (another Achbar film).
All in all, a decent documentary, worth seeing. Does not benefit from being in the cinema in my view, except that it makes you focus on it I guess. Have a caffienated drink on hand before you settle down to it though.
There is a lengthy exploration of how an investigation by two reporters - who had just been hired by Fox to do cutting edge investigations - in to the side-effects of a drug made by Monsanto to make cows produce more milk (these included cancer) was suppressed after Monsanto threatened to sue Fox if they aired it. There is footage from sweatshops, which is pretty familiar to the No Logo reader, but is nonetheless quite moving at times.
The story of Interface is fascinating. The CEO in 1994 read a book about the environmental effects of industry, realised what his company and others were doing to the world, and vowed to be making carpets sustainably and profitably by 2020. A remarkable example of what can be done when peoples minds are stimulated.
Near the end of the film, it is suggested (I'm not sure by whom) that the industrial age began with the enclosure of common land in Britain and with the advent of steam power. If we want to create a just society that will not extinguish itself within a few generations, it was proposed, we need to consider the effects of these events, and think about how we could alter them. What is being proposed is no return to primordialism, but a different way of allocating and producing stuff. Something to think about.
The film suffered from three things: first, the presence, and unrestrained self-righteousness of Michael Moore, which I have concluded is now irreversible. He may never produce useful work again. Second, the analyses of Naomi Klein, which were even weaker than in No Logo, since here she was trying to summarise. She cannot explain why export processing zones, foreign direct investment, and "capital flight" occur as they do, and another spokesperson on these complex matters should be found. I also refuse to go along with her proposal that in running a transnational corporation, building and maintaining the brand has replaced making the product. She notes in No Logo that Nike directly employs no one to make shoes, only branding ideas, but the fact remains that all corporations rely on goods or services carrying their brand being bought by consumers, and it's important not to lose sight of this in my view, because it reminds people what power they have as consumers on whom these corporations are reliant.
Third, the editor (Jennifer Abbot) was far too afraid to cut lengthy scenes, resulting in a 142 minute film that could have been done in 90, rather like "Manufacturing Consent" (another Achbar film).
All in all, a decent documentary, worth seeing. Does not benefit from being in the cinema in my view, except that it makes you focus on it I guess. Have a caffienated drink on hand before you settle down to it though.
posted by UK plc at 11:32 AM
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