Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (Video 2005)

A look at the impact of the retail giant on local communities.

Director:

Robert Greenwald

Stars:

Lee Scott, Don Hunter, Jon Hunter

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lee Scott	...	Himself - President & CEO of Wal-Mart (archive footage)
Don Hunter	...	Himself - H&H Hardware Owner
Jon Hunter	...	Himself - Son of Don Hunter
Jeremy Hunter	...	Himself - Son of Jon Hunter
Matt Hunter	...	Himself - Son of Jon Hunter
Johnny Faenza	...	Himself - H&H Hardware Employee
Frank Mormino	...	Himself - Owner of Middlefield Tire
John Bruening	...	Himself - Owner of Geauga Vision (as Dr. John Bruening)
Tom Glassburner	...	Himself - H&H Hardware Employee
Weldon Nicholson	...	Himself - Wal-Mart Store Manager Trainer
Al Norman	...	Himself - Founder of Sprawl-Busters
Grace Thibodeaux	...	Herself - Hearne, Texas Resident
Diane DeVoy	...	Herself - Wal-Mart Employee
Cathy Nemchik	...	Herself - Wal-Mart Employee
Stan Fortune	...	Himself - Wal-Mart District Loss Prevention Manager

Storyline

This documentary takes the viewer on a deeply personal journey into the everyday lives of families struggling to fight Goliath. From a family business owner in the Midwest to a preacher in California, from workers in Florida to a poet in Mexico, dozens of film crews on three continents bring the intensely personal stories of an assault on families and American values.

---

Plot Keywords:

big business | protest | department store | retail trade | consumerism | 

---

Taglines:

It will change the way you think, feel - and shop...

---

Genres:

Documentary

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 November 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Wal-Mart - Der Hohe Preis der Niedrigpreise

Filming Locations:

Belmont, North Carolina, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Brave New Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min 20 min (shortened)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The parodies of Wal-Mart ads that appear in the film, and were used as trailers, which appear to have been shot in Wal-Mart stores are actually greenscreen shots in which the performer has been composited.

---

Goofs

At the start of the section where a market trader in London, England is leading a campaign against a new ASDA store, the map has has both Wales and England labelled as 'England' - the 'Eng' is written over Wales. Wales and England (and Scotland) are part of Great Britain; Great Britain, Wales (and Scotland) are not part of England.

---

Connections

Spoofed in The Boondocks: The Hunger Strike (2008)

---

Soundtracks

"This Land Is Your Land"
(1940) (uncredited)
Written by Woody Guthrie
Performed by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (Live 1975-85)

User Reviews

Important Subject, Ham-Handed Presentation

I'm a liberal, anti-big-bully-business bleeding heart. Nobody dislikes Wal-Mart, and the amoral, vicious corporate attitude of which they certainly are the apotheosis, more than I. So I was more than a bit disappointed to discover that this film wasn't made for me and my well educated friends, nor does it invite its perhaps less well versed viewers to think fully and carefully about the issues from the ground up. It is a hammy, manipulative, awkward screed, that takes an important issue and shoves it through the left-wing version of a right- wing low brow attack ad.

The pacing is clumsy. The editing is herky-jerky, the real-life victims are presented in a mawkish, stereotyped fashion, the music is jarring, syrupy, preachy, melodramatic and frequently too loud to hear the simultaneous dialogue. The fragments of conversation with interviewees are sometimes hard to decipher - expressed in sentence fragments and mumbling disconnection. The statistics are too often presented without adequate context, without appropriate reference points for comparison. An isolated total dollar amount or employment number is not revealing without some reference data, and that is most often missing here.

All I can think is that the producers want to appeal to the right-leaning, flag waving, rural America crowd by pushing all the buttons that the new GOP does, to get their atavistic outrage going and impel them "into the streets" - instead of appealing to the sober intelligence they actually can display when given a fair chance and a dignified explanation of the facts. It is, ultimately, a shallow and condescending film.

With our allies imitating the worst tactics of our adversaries, what are we to say? Well, for one, see the "Frontline" documentary. Then "hit the streets."