Now that you've seen F911, go see The Corporation

[Plaid Adder]

Liza and I went with Jay and his girlfriend to see The Corporation on Friday. We were excited about it because it promised to expand and elaborate on one of Liza's very first and greatest crackpot theories about why the corporation, specifically, is at the bottom of a lot of what's gone wrong with America in the past 50 years. I would say that while The Corporation is not as good a film as Fahrenheit 911 (my review is up at http://www.plaidder.com/f911.htm) , and if possible even more obviously "biased," it is perhaps in some ways more important. Moore has a great deal of anger and he has a very well-developed sense for how to play on an audience's emotions, but in terms of the sustained intellectual critique, that's not his main concern--and of course that's why his films are reaching such a wide audience, whereas if I made documentaries, they would be well-appreciated by about 12 people and have no impact anywhere. The Corporation is better on that front because it least it does have a sustained and specific argument about what is the matter with this particular piece of capitalism and what can be done to change it. I would like to change a lot of things about the way it was made--in particular, I wish I could balance the emphasis a little more so that they spent more time really driving home why it is that the corporation itself as an organizational structure promotes all this destruction, and less time going over individual cases of corporate malfeasance, horrifying as they all are--and at 2 hours and 45 minutes it really is too long. However, it is a good introduction to the issues involved in globalization for those who have heard tell about the concept but are not sure why it's bad, and it does include some truly amazing interviews with corporate CEOs who just have no idea that what they're saying is going to horrify the entire viewing audience. My favorite is the guy who talks about how what corporations really do when they go overseas and set up sweatshops is take "desperate people" and make them "fat and happy"--and then, as soon as the wages reach a certain level, they close that plant down, pull out, and find another group of "desperate people" to exploit (excuse me, fatten up and happify) while the people at their previous location...do what, now that they're all unemployed and their environment has been laid waste?

Because they're trying to show all the ways in which corporations control American life and the world at large, the film suffers from kind of a loss of focus. For instance there is a long digression about corporate control of the media which is certainly interesting and really quite terrifying--the best part is the story of two investigative reporters battling the management of their local Fox News affiliate over whether they can air a story critical of agribusiness giant Monsanto, which demonstrates just how low Fox News is willing to go to keep its corporate masters happy--but which should probably be its own movie. All the same, I would definitely encourage people to go, because the bottom line is that underneath all the bullshit flung hither and yon by the right-wing in this country, power is really all about the money, and Americans would be a lot better off if they understood more about how money works in their own country.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder 9

[GHOSTDANCER]

1. Agreed.............The Corporation Kicks ass!!!

DO NOT MISS THIS FILM!!!!
<>

[Joanne98]

2. Where is it playing?

link?

[Plaid Adder]

3. I saw it at the Landmark in Chicago,

You can get a list of theaters all over the country here:

http://www.thecorporation.tv

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[GHOSTDANCER]

4. Enter Your zip code....................

<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/corporation/>

[Joanne98]

7. Nah. We need to start an e-mail campaign like we did for F/911

[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],


Here's some of the addys I saved from last time. If anyone wants to start one.

[Beam Me Up]

5. Yes! "The Corporation" and also "Control Room" is another must-see n/t

[lostnfound]

9. Agreed on the 'Control Room' (I'm waiting for the Corp to open here.)nt

[papau]

6. In the 80's a movie Head Office was too real - I thought they

had someone on my company's senior staff write the script.

Well acted with name actors, but again - very, very, real if you had to work in or near the Board Room as Reagan gave us the era of greed is good.

But for those of us that loved "Head Office" aka "I.N.C., Inc." - The Corporation based on Joel Bakan's book "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power," is a Canadian documentary that the shows that the problems of the (fictional - but much like my old job) - Head Office - are still here by looking at a few case studies and interviewing former corporate CEOs, investigative reporters and other professionals (w/ Michael Moore).

http://www.thecorporation.com /

And I join with those that have recommended it!

But the Best - IMHO - is still:

Head Office (1985)
Directed by
Ken Finkleman

"Outrageous Comedy About Making It Big In Big Business"

[Joanne98]

8. Now Playing at........

Now Playing

Guild Cinema Albuquerque, NM Now Playing
Charles Cinema Baltimore, MD Now Playing
Act I & II Berkeley, CA Now Playing
Bethesda Row Cinema Bethesda, MD Now Playing
Kendall Square Boston, MA Now Playing
Century Centre Cinema Chicago, IL Now Playing
Inwood Theatre Dallas, TX Now Playing
Main Art Theatre Detroit, MI Now Playing
Renaissance Place Cinema Highland Park, IL Now Playing
Kew Gardens Cinemas Kew Gardens, NY Now Playing
Century 16 Suncoast Las Vegas, NV Now Playing
Westside Pavilion Cinemas Los Angeles, CA Now Playing
Lincoln Theatre Mount Vernon, WA Now Playing
Lagoon Cinema Minneapolis, MN Now Playing
York Square Cinema New Haven, CT Now Playing
Film Forum New York, NY Now Playing
One Colorado Pasadena, CA Now Playing
Ritz 5 Theatre Philadelphia, PA Now Playing
Ken Cinema San Diego, CA Now Playing
Opera Plaza Cinema San Francisco, CA Now Playing
Palm Theatre San Luis Obispo, CA Now Playing
Rafael Film Center San Rafael, CA Now Playing
The Screen Santa Fe, NM Now Playing
Harvard Exit Theatre Seattle, WA Now Playing
Tivoli Theatre St. Louis MO Now Playing
Vashon Theatre Vashon Island, WA Now Playing
through July 26
Embassy Cinema Waltham, MA Now Playing
E Street Cinema Washington DC Now Playing

This is still in the artsy theatres. We need chain outlets. My town has Cinemark.

[TroubleMan]

10. Not in West Palm Beach....dammit!

Unusual. This is a pretty liberal area.

[proud patriot]

11. My dad and his girlfriend saw it

They loved it .