The Corporation (2003)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Directors:

Mark Achbar
Jennifer Abbott (co-director)

Writers:

Joel Bakan (written by)
Harold Crooks (narration) ...
(more)

Release Date:

4 June 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | History

Plot:

Documentary that looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history up to its present-day dominance.

Plot Keywords:

Corporation | Business | Environmental Activism | Corporate Corruption | Advertising

Awards:

11 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Jane Akre	...	Herself
Ray Anderson	...	Himself
Maude Barlow	...	Herself
Chris Barrett	...	Himself
Carlton Brown	...	Himself
Smedley Darlington Butler	...	Himself - USMC, exposes anti-FDR plot (archive footage)
Noam Chomsky	...	Himself
Víctor Hugo Daza	...	Himself - slain student, Bolivia (archive footage)
Peter Drucker	...	Himself
Samuel Epstein	...	Himself
Milton Friedman	...	Himself
Kathie Lee Gifford	...	Herself (archive footage)
Naomi Klein	...	Herself
Susan E. Linn	...	Herself
Luke McCabe	...	Himself
Mikela J. Mikael	...	Narrator (voice)
Robert Monks	...	Himself
Michael Moore	...	Himself
Jonathan Ressler	...	Himself
Franklin Delano Roosevelt	...	Himself (archive footage)
Vandana Shiva	...	Herself
Steve Wilson	...	Himself
Kofi Annan	...	Himself, at the UN (archive footage) (uncredited)
George W. Bush	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Jean Chrétien	...	Himself, with George W. Bush (archive footage) (uncredited)
Winston Churchill	...	Himself, at Potsdam (archive footage) (uncredited)
Mahatma Gandhi	...	Himself, during Salt March (archive footage) (uncredited)
Frank Gifford	...	Himself, behind Kathie Lee (archive footage) (uncredited)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
King George VI	...	Himself, with Queen Elizabeth (uncredited) (archive footage) (unconfirmed)
Martin Luther King	...	Himself, during March On Washington (archive footage) (uncredited)
V.I. Lenin	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Nelson Mandela	...	Himself, after release, with Winnie (archive footage) (uncredited)
Winnie Mandela	...	Herself, with Nelson (archive footage) (uncredited)
Peter Mansbridge	...	Himself, CBC (voice) (uncredited) (archive footage)
Benito Mussolini	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Knowlton Nash	...	Himself, CBC (voice) (uncredited) (archive footage)
Pope John XXIII	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Joseph Stalin	...	Himself, at Potsdam (archive footage) (uncredited)
Ken Starr	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Martha Stewart	...	Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Dave Thomas	...	Himself, in Wendy's commercial (archive footage) (uncredited)
Harry S. Truman	...	Himself, at Potsdam (archive footage) (uncredited)
Eugene Whelan	...	Himself - Senator, chairs Posilac inquiry (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Mark Achbar
Jennifer Abbott		(co-director)

Writing credits
Joel Bakan		(written by)
Harold Crooks		(narration) and
Mark Achbar		(narration)

Produced by
Mark Achbar	....	producer
Maureen Levitt	....	consulting producer: Vision TV
Bart Simpson	....	producer

Original Music by
Leonard J. Paul

Cinematography by
Mark Achbar
Rolf Cutts
Jeffrey M. Hoffman		(as Jeff Koffman)
Kirk Tougas

Film Editing by
Jennifer Abbott

Art Direction by
Henry Faber

Production Management
Larry Di Stefano	....	post-production supervisor
Bart Simpson	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Trish Dolman	....	second unit director
Beth Pielert	....	assistant director

Art Department
Henry Faber	....	lead designer

Sound Department
Hennie Britton	....	foley artist
Stephen Cheung	....	dialogue editor
Ian Emberton	....	sound re-recording mixer
Tony Gort	....	sound effects editor
Jeff Henschel	....	sound recordist
Roger Morris	....	adr mixer
David Novack	....	sound re-recording mixer
Chris Ove	....	dialogue recordist
David Raines	....	dialogue pre-mixer
Velcrow Ripper	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Sandi Higgins	....	additional videographer
Jeffrey M. Hoffman	....	director of photography: documentary

Editorial Department
Ness Broom	....	additional editor
Larry Di Stefano	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Sarah Webster	....	music clearances

Other crew
Scott Challgren	....	outreach
Bienvenido Cruz	....	layout and motion designer
Corinna Hagel	....	research and clearance
Henrieta Isufllari	....	video to film transfer
Lea Moss	....	research and clearance
Paula Sawadsky	....	archival researcher

Thanks
Sandi Higgins	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Big Picture Media Corporation

Distributors

• Film West Associates (2003) (Canada) (DVD) (educational)
• Films Transit International (worldwide)
• Madman Entertainment (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• Mongrel Media (2004) (Canada)
• UPLINK Company (2006) (Japan) (DVD)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (Finland) (TV)
• Zeitgeist Films (2004) (USA)

Other Companies

• Jeremy Walker + Associates  publicity
• Post Modern Sound  post-production sound services
• Sequence Post  DVD authoring
• Sequence Post  DVD design
• Vision TV  funding

Runtime:

145 min | Argentina:150 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente) | Hong Kong:165 min (Hong Kong International Film Festival)

Country:

Canada

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Brazil:10 | Canada:G (Québec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | UK:PG | USA:Unrated | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Celebration, Florida, USA

Company:

Big Picture Media Corporation

Trivia:

Mikela J. Mikael was called in to lay down a temp track for the narration. Despite repeated efforts, the film-makers were unable to come up with anyone better for the real narrative track, so they stuck with Mikael's.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: 150 years ago, the business corporation was a relatively insignificant institution. Today, it is all-pervasive. Like the Church, the Monarchy and the Communist Party in other times and places, the corporation is today's dominant institution. This documentary examines the nature...

Movie Connections:

Features Daikaijû Gamera (1965)

Soundtrack:

Bad Apple

if there's any film that you roll out of bed to watch this year, please let this be the one.

most people who have an interest in progressive causes will be somewhat familiar with the outline of the film - corporate personhood has essentially led to corporations having an insane amount of control over what we see, eat, drink, breathe and consume in general. corporations have become part of our consciousness at an unshakable and unwashable level. they are ubiquitous, single-minded (profit), subversive parasites that erode our society from within. with this in mind you'd think the film was a marxist commercial out to bring capitalism to its knees. you'd be wrong. the film is remarkably even-handed in its approach.

governmental as well as market fixes are proposed by different interviewees. i'm very much into the work of noam chomsky and michael moore (both are interviewed), i've read fast food nation, i'm a big fan of adbusters, i own naomi klein's "no logo" and korten's "when corporations rule the world" so a lot of this stuff wasn't all that new to me, but some of it was and the film is a perfect amalgamation of all this information. archive footage is used extremely well, like a hip-hop artist melding together samples in ways that create an entirely different tapestry of sound. interviews, archival footage, and good old investigative journalism are used to present a solid case about the role corporations have in our global society; as well as how we've gotten to this point and where we may be going. despite the heavy nature and brutal pacing of much of the film, there are a few moments of ironic comedy.

i do think the film would have done well with a few momentary pauses early in the film to allow things to soak in. in feature films a director might cut to an exterior for a beat or two to allow a bit of a cushion from one scene to the next, something similar may have aided the pacing of this film. it's actually remarkable that i wished it had taken a little more time considering its 2 hour and 25 minute runtime. i think it's testament to the film's strength. i also want to note that the long runtime and heavy nature of the film never came off as dry or overly-academic. in other words, it's not a boring film to watch - quite the contrary, it's a rather engaging and almost fun film to watch. i say "fun" reluctantly because learning about the ways in which a corporation is bilking America and the world out of our natural resources and hard-earned money isn't fun, but if you're interested in learning then it is an exciting film. a quick side note - the narrator had a perfect voice for the material and she reminded me a lot of the narrator in the "second renaissance" portions of the animatrix. generally i don't give films i've only seen once anything better than a B+, but this film blew me away from start to finish on so many different levels...A.