The Corporation (2004) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an extraordinary film about the creation of the American corporation, its legal organizational model, its global economic dominance and its psychopathic tendencies, and its incredible ambition to influence every aspect of culture in its unrelenting pursuit of profit.
The Corporation was spawned from Joel Balkan's in depth book, "The Corporation: A Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power". (Due to be released in March this year) The film and book begins in the 18th century, in the establishment of the 14th Amendment. Initially the 14th Amendment was designed after the Civil War to give ex slaves' legal rights, like any other citizen of the United States, but through a maze of legal precedents, the business corporation organization model was now deemed a "legal person" with all the civil rights accorded to a citizen. This highly absurd precedent has paved the way for corporations to literarily get away with murder, because a "corporation" is not an individual that you can put in jail. In effect, a corporation has no moral or social obligations; their only obligation is the pursuit of profit. This film offers numerous examples of unethical practices resulting in death for many people, and because of their status under the 14th Amendment, and endless legal loopholes, have gotten away with terrible crimes against humanity and the environment with no more than a fine, a mere slap on the wrist.
As the law treats corporations as "persons", Balkan thought it appropriate to put the various behaviours of these companies under psychological examination. What this psychological study illustrated is that corporations, as "persons" behave and display the symptoms of the clinical psychopath. A psychopath typically does not have a social conscience, is guilt free after committing heinous acts, and will destroy anything or anybody that prevents them from attaining the object of their particular obsession - in this case, the relentless pursuit of profit.
This documentary took several years to produce with over 650 hours of footage, director(s), Jennifer Abbot and Mark Achbar, had to chisel down this amazing amount of material into a comprehensible film. What is most astounding is the range of people interviewed for this film, that argue from all sides of the "corporation issue": Ira Jackson, Ray Anderson - CEO of Interface, the world's largest carpet manufacturer; Noam Chomsky, Richard Grossman, Howard Zinn, Michael Moore, Milton Freidman - Noble Prize winning economist; Jeremy Rifkin - President, Foundation of Economic Trends; Dr. Robert Hare - Consultant to the FBI on psychopaths, and many more individuals from all sides of the debate.
When Balkan wrote his book and then collaborated with Mark Achbar to produce this film, what they did not want was the film to appear as just some left-wing diatribe, attacking the corporations, but to illustrate to people how the corporation began, how they have evolved and what they could well turn into if the people do not become involved in the democratic process, ensuring our governments take back the reigns of power.
After viewing this film, it becomes all too evident that these large corporations have too much power, whose mandate is not the common good of the people, and who will go to any lengths, legally and otherwise, in the pursuit of profit and the bottom line.
I believe this is one of the best and most important documentary films to be made in many years.

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Sicko (Special Edition) (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)No matter what people may think of Michael Moore, they will be hard-pressed to counter his film "Sicko" with one of a contrarian view. I suppose "Sickohype" or Sickohypo" or "Let'em all Die" just doesn't have the same resonance as "Fahrenhype" did to challenge his previous film.
Perhaps as landmark as Jacob Riis's "How the Other Half Lives," "Sicko" brings the devastating cost and state of health care in this country to light beginning with people who have lived the American dream and expected to live their retirement independently and in comfort. Early on, Moore shows a working couple forced to sell their home to meet medical obligations not covered, and now depend on the charity of their children. Moore carefully singles out several cases of the twenty-five thousand emails he received that reveal the appalling state of health care in a country that nurtures that dream. (None of the stories or emails are about couples in separate bathtubs looking out over a vineyard).
First are the insurance companies that are out to make a profit. (Nothing's wrong with that). However, the profit is at the expense of the medical coverage and preventative care they can deny. If they cannot deny it outright or claim such care is experimental, they will pour through a patient's medical history to see if any condition occurred that was not mentioned or remembered in the application process. This will give the company the means to deny all claims retroactively. Incidentally, doctors receive bonuses for the most claims they can deny!
The next spotlight is on the pharmaceutical companies which are so expensive that many people must continue working well beyond their retirement years, years they should be enjoying, years when there is the greatest need for medication. In particular, Moore singles out the very new and complicated prescription plan, which is more expensive for seniors than ever before, but benefits the pharmaceuticals. (Thank you, Mr. Bush).
Besides our illustrious president benefitting from the contributions of pharmaceuticals, Moore identifies a host of other republicans who have had their hands in drug company pockets--including the lady who was going to provide universal health care in the first place--Hillary Clinton whose plan the drug companies spent $100,000,000 to defeat. Fourteen staffers who worked on the Seniors' Prescription bill, moved on to lucrative lobby positions with the same companies, and Billy Tauzin was hired as CEO for Pharma at $2,000,000 a year. In any other milieu, that is called bribery, corruption, and conflict of interest. In Congress, it's called the cost of doing business.
But what gives Americans a strong sense of pride is our belief that our medical system and healthcare, while flawed, is the finest in the world. Moore is quick to write "denied" all over that fantasy. We see in Canada, Great Britain, and France, how people receive first rate health care, from first rate physicians without having to sell their homes, decide which finger they can afford to save, and have a higher life expectancy than Americans. (Doctors in Britain are actually paid more for getting people into better health habits and regimens).
Misnamed socialized medicine by its detractors, socialized insurance works in these countries efficiently without people crowding in waiting rooms, being taxed to death (as the health companies would have us believe), or dying because they cannot afford the medication, or because the insurance company denied their claim. Moore implies that paying higher taxes makes more sense than losing your homes or retirement to catastrophic illness in what is now the leading cause of bankruptcy in the country.
Moore's direction is flawless. His graphics and humor are engaging; dry and deprecating. This is a film that may make you well-up with tears that a society could take such good care of its companies and business, and dump its destitute on the street. Moore succeeds in making you feel empathy for those who are poorly treated or not at all. He is able to make you think: "Can that happen to me?" or "If it can work there, why can't it work here?"
The special edition also offers more in-depth discussion of health care that could not be put in the original film. This includes conversations with people on the street, HR 636 brought before the house, Norway which has the highest standard of health care in the world. (Yes, it is free). Sadly it also shows some of the people from the film whose family members died for lack of treatment, or because they were turned away.
The final irony of the film is one of the more poignant. The man who runs the most virulent anti-Michael Moore website announced that he would have to shut down because he couldn't afford the hospital care his wife so desperately needed.
Guess what Moore did.
God bless us everyone.

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Following on the heels of his Palm d'Or winning Fahrenheit 9/11 and his Oscar winning film Bowling for Columbine, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Moore's new documentary sets out to investigate the American healthcare system. Sticking to his tried-and-true one-man approach, Moore sheds light on the complicated medical affairs of individuals and local communities.

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Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)"Capitalism" opens with disclaimer from some old film, and then segues into scenes from police videos of people robbing banks and convenience stores. Moore likes to make comparisons. In this case he wants to show us who the real thieves are, and they don't tend to be desperate drug addicts wearing hoodies.
To me that's what Moore's latest film is: a cinematic treatise on crime. Moore uses his excellent skills as an editor to piece together films in a manner that makes you want to scream "Where does he find this stuff?" to paint a telling picture of what America is: a plutocracy. And yes, Mike uses that word and wants us all to learn it, even providing a definition straight out of a textbook.
What Moore also excels at is humanizing crises and the class war by showing us just who's affected by these forces and why. We're shown people, real people being thrown out of their homes, being pushed out of their jobs, being paid meager salaries to do dangerous, complicated work, and being informed that companies profited from the deaths of their loved ones through something called "dead peasant insurance."
He even speaks to various clergy to try and find any sort of modern moral justification for capitalism. He can't. One priest even goes as far as to state flatly that "Capitalism is radically evil."
Yeah.
Speaking of all things radical, Moore puts himself on the line by trying to raid the offices of financial institutions, implores us to do the same, and backs that strategy up by showing current examples of how dissent and popular revolt can turn the tables on the gluttons in power, even if those victories are as small as one family being allowed to stay in their foreclosed home and window factory workers given severance payments after a long sit-in.
However, what "Capitalism" isn't is a mere bleeding-heart piece that is all emotion. Mike tends to do his homework. And that's what makes him a firebrand. The evidence is laid bare for the viewer to see.
There are some who would call Michael Moore and his documentaries "anti-American." He's even told by one Wall Streeter to "stop making movies" when trying to get an accurate definition of what are called "derivatives." Although I would definitely call Moore a subversive, I challenge anyone to find an ounce of hatred towards America in this piece. No, Michael Moore loves America, but his America is made up of those who toil and have little or nothing. His America is being looted by people that can only be described as white-collar sociopaths who would be selling heroin or whoring out young girls had they not been brought up in wealthy families.
You also get a generous serving of Michael's trademark humor to make it all go down easier. It has been said that the best way to take the powerful down a peg or two is by poking fun at them, and Moore doesn't just poke at them, he runs them through with swords of bitingly comedic steel.
If I had one gripe about "Capitalism" it would be that there was so much more ground that could have been covered. That's why I feel that a sequel is in order as well as a prequel since Moore rather glosses over earlier American history. But I suppose that's what he have Howard Zinn for.
Yes, this is a paramount polemic against capitalism and dare I say FOR socialism. Even Bernie Sanders gets some facetime.
As someone who has been identifying as a socialist for years, I can say that it only reinforced my belief that the free market is unsustainable, as if my personal experience as an American worker hasn't been enough to do so. Demons lurk in the details though, and Moore not only shines a light of veracity on them, he also splashes them with holy water, as any left-leaning Catholic such as Moore would.
Christ wasn't a capitalist sympathizer, something Moore also shows us, and neither is Moore himself. So why should you be? It's not in your best interests to be one. Think of this as an intervention by way of motion picture for your friends and family who are thoroughly in love with an abusive spouse that is all take and no give.
Talk about a great candidate for an ABC Sunday Night Movie. If I could hold screenings for "Capitalism" I would. It needs to be seen by far more people than any action/adventure blockbuster.
Thanks for makin' the devils hiss, Mike. And for making socialism taste so good.

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In presenting a “fireball of a movie that might change your life” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone), Moore “skewers both major political parties” (Claudia Puig, USA Today) for selling out the millions of people devastated by loss of homes and jobs to the interests of fat cat capitalists. Moore has “dug up some astonishing dirt” (Brian D. Johnson, Macleans), stories told in the faces of the foreclosed and evicted, in the food stamps received by hungry airline pilots, and in the courage of fired factory workers who refuse to go quietly. But more than a cry of despair, Moore’s film raises the possibility of hope. Capitalism: A Love Story is “The most American of films since the populist cinema of Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life)” (Dan Siegel, Huffington Post ), “a movie that manages shrewdly, even brilliantly, to capitalize on the populist anger that has been sweeping the nation” (Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal ). Capitalism: A Love Story is loaded with over 90 minutes of hilarious extended and deleted scenes, as well as exciting and informative featurettes profiling Americans and American businesses!

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