Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.
The Corporation is a landmark documentary that cleverly applies a psychiatric diagnostic framework to the corporate entity, using the DSM psychopathy checklist as its structuring conceit — a genuinely novel and intellectually bold approach. The argumentative architecture is well-constructed and builds a compelling, damning case through layered case studies and wide-ranging interviews with figures from Noam Chomsky to Milton Friedman. Novelty scores high for its distinctive conceptual framing that set it apart from contemporaries. The interviews (Acting proxy) are functional but uneven — some interviewees are compelling, others rote — and the cinematography is serviceable but unremarkable talking-heads-and-archival-footage documentary work. The ending offers some hopeful counterexamples and calls to action but feels slightly underwhelming relative to the power of the central thesis, a common documentary shortcoming.