Friday, February 16
The Corporation
dir. Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbot USA 2004

Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.

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If you've gotten mad at any corporations lately--at the way some gobble up smaller businesses, ship jobs overseas and deluge us with cheap-junk products--"The Corporation" may be just the movie for you.

In fact, you may enjoy Mark Achbar's and Jennifer Abbot's exhaustively researched documentary even if you're a corporate booster. It's good stuff: a non-fiction film on weighty issues that also manages to entertain. And though it examines the phenomenon of big business from a skeptical and even hostile viewpoint, conducting a largely one-sided investigation into where corporations came from and how they operate, "The Corporation" provides enough information and insight to make it worthwhile for anybody.

It's a fascinating movie, full of ideas, but we shouldn't be surprised that it becomes a kind of indictment. Achbar and Abbott and writers Harold Crooks and Joel Bakan developed the film from a book by Bakan, and the title of that book, "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power," plainly reveal this film's agenda and theme. - Michael Wilmington, chicagotribune.com