If a single entertainment item could defibrillate our socially ambivalent culture into taking action against the corrupt state of the corporate world, The Corporation (2004) might be it. In this fast-paced and thorough documentary, filmmakers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott cross-examine the management of corporate America, as well as its victims and critics, and leave us with a sense of paranoia and distrust that only a library of conspiracy books could match.
Photo:alex-s, Creative Commons, Flickr
Through interviews with professors, CEO’s, writers, filmmakers, Wall Street traders and PR execs about what a corporation is (a legal person), we learn what a corporation isn’t (a legal person with a moral conscience). In fact, a corporation is required by law to put its bottom line above everything else, including the public good. The movie argues that the DSM-IV’s Personality Diagnostic Checklist would diagnose a corporation as a sociopath, lacking as it is in honesty, regard for others and remorse.
But social critic Noam Chomsky points out that not all corporations are created equal, and urges us to distinguish the institution from the individuals involved. He doesn’t deny that the institution is monstrous, but he argues that, even within immoral institutions, there can exist decent individuals. A slave owner, for example, might be iniquitous in his institutional role, but honorable as an individual.
No corporate slave driver in the film demonstrates the institution/individual dichotomy better than Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface, whose disappointment in his corporation’s irresponsible practices is both palpable and refreshing. Anderson’s ability to recognize and accept a mistake, instead of lying, spinning and trying to cover it up, makes us realize that perhaps it isn’t the crime itself that incites us, but the refusal to atone. After all, it is the unwillingness of a socially irresponsible company to admit fault that precludes it from inspiring change (not unlike a sociopath).
In its attempts at thoroughness, the film touches on the privatization of rainwater, IBM’s involvement in the Holocaust, Monsanto’s toxic chemicals, Exxon, Enron, Nike sweatshops, and even gay marriage – disparate events that cause the movie to, at times, lose its punch. Perhaps the 145 minutes would have been easier to process as a six-month series instead of a movie meant to be viewed in one sitting. Regardless of its length, however, the film is engaging, informative and illuminating, and should be a requirement for every chief officer, business school student, and public shareholder.
As for the rest of us, Michael Moore points out that, even with limited resources, we can affect change, for the pathology of major corporations is such that they will prioritize profit even above their own self-interest. “The rich man will sell you the rope to hang himself with if it produces a profit,” he says. In this case, that rope takes the form of a documentary.