Doug Henwood wrote:
>We saw The Corporation last night. Yawn. Almost 2.5 hours long, preachy,
>conventional documentary style, superficial petit bourgeois critique of
>"corporations" with no sense of what capitalism's about. Moore appears as a
>talking head in it - and a breath of fresh air. Seeing something as tedious
>as that a week after seeing F911 makes you really appreciate Moore's
>genius.
>
>Doug
This was exactly my response to it when I saw it last winter. As I recall, the lesson it seemed to teach was that corporations are bad because corporate law requires them to make profits -- nothing to do with capitalism itself. I also don't recall much about US workers in it. Further, while it glamorized rebellion in Central America, voting against Wal-Mart seemed to be the most advanced option in the US. The post film discussion went down the road of reforming corporate law.
The film had value for an audience, if they could get through it, of folks who might be ready to learn something about what makes corproations tick, but not likely interesting for people who already know. And the star power was strong but really only for the latter audience. It strove to educate the uneducated in its methods but used a style of argument and people to convey that argument that the converted are used to. Three red stars out of five.
Joel Wendland http://classwarnotes.blogspot.com
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