This one puts big business on the psychiatrist’s couch and asks whether its behavior looks psychopathic.
I moved this one up my queue after seeing it on List Muse’s lineup of the 100 greatest documentaries.
Trailer for “The Corporation”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- In 1933, Marine General Smedley Butler told Congress that wealthy businessmen tried to recruit him to lead an army of veterans against President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It became known as the “Business Plot.”
- Coca-Cola invented Fanta in Nazi Germany after World War II cut off ingredients needed to make Coke.
- Nazi Germany used IBM punch-card technology to sort and track millions of people, including Jews targeted by the regime. How much IBM knew remains debated.
Watch “The Corporation”
You can watch “The Corporation” free on Kanopy and Hoopla. Check the latest streaming options on JustWatch.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 90/100
- IMDB Rating: 8.0/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 90/100 (Users); 89/100 (Critics)
Director’s Note: “The Corporation” was directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott and written by Joel Bakan, Harold Crooks and Achbar.
Release Date: September 2003.
Other Unique Stuff
- The doc spends time on advertising aimed at kids. Marketers discuss how children can be studied not just as consumers but as tools for getting parents to buy things.
- Ray Anderson, founder of carpet company Interface, becomes one of the doc’s most interesting business voices. He talks about realizing how destructive his own company’s model could be and trying to change it.
- The “corporation as psychopath” argument is aimed at the structure itself: if the institution is designed to keep pursuing its own interests, what does its behavior look like when judged by human standards?
- The doc was assembled from an enormous amount of material. The filmmakers shot and collected hundreds of hours of footage and interviews before arriving at the theatrical cut.
Wrap Up:
“The Corporation” is long, dense and very one-sided at times, but I love how many specific rabbit holes it opens up. If you like docs about business, economics and the machinery behind everyday life, watch this.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc