The Corporation which is a movie directed by Mark Achbar critically analyzes what is referred to as ‘the dominant institution of our era.’ (Joseph 1) In a very satirical manner, it exposes the recent upsurge of corporate crimes and loathes the portrayal by the media of the crisis as being caused by only a few people. The media calls the individuals the bad apples who are otherwise contaminating corporate America which is healthy. The early sequences of the movie show how corporations were accorded the legal person status after the end of the civil war in the US. This was an irony since the status was accorded through changes made in the constitution whose endeavor was to give equal treatment to the African Americans who had been released from jail.
The movie brilliantly exhibits the behavior of the corporate persons by using valid records from the World Health Organization. The record is a checklist of things that were being done in the wrong way or other wards failures. Noam Chomsky puts forward a description of tyrannies who were characterized by unaccountability. He gives the institution the equivalent of slavery that defiled good-intentioned slave owners. The movie, therefore, does not only present a superficial explanation of bad corporations but also critically analyzes the nature and structure of corporations. It gives an analysis of the general impacts of corporations in addition to being a thrilling movie that exhibits creativity and excellent production. It is full of personal interviews but edited brilliantly.
The major concept of this movie is its criticism of the rogue impacts of business links between corporations and a third party who is not consulted. The movie explicitly presents how the different areas such as the environment are exposed to corporate attacks. It brings up another reality that those who perpetuate the attacks are ironically not willing to do it. The movie emphasizes the unaccountable nature of corporations and the external harm caused by the corporations as opposed to the internal repression they practice in their premises. This movie has the quality of having diverse perspectives but, notably, corporate insiders do not feature in the movie. The movie restricts itself to interviewing only managers and CEOs apart from two media reporters.
As the movie comes to an end, it looks at the successes that have been achieved by mass action in the developing world against the extremes of corporate organizations. It focuses on the triumphant mass movement that was against the privatization of water services. Although this movie shows a lot of resistance from the local people such as witnessed in countries like Canada and India, I would have expected it to focus on political strategies. I also think that we need to have a broader perspective of corporations but not just look at them as legal institutions just like Chomsky does.
In my view, the movie opines that the political system has failed to table a solution to the corporate problems. Although the movie does not propose the concrete measures to be taken in rectifying the situations, it clearly shows the need for having political systems that deal with the problems of corporate organizations rather than being there and doing nothing.
Works Cited
Joseph, Ramsey. The Corporation. Directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbot. 2005. Web.