I've seen a couple of political documentaries lately, so let's write some reviews. First, "The Corporation". As a documentary, it's not the best. For instance, it places the first corporations with freedom to do anything with their money at about the Civil War, while the Manhattan Company was founded with that freedom nearer the turn of the 19th century. However, it does present a decent overview of how corporations have accumulated such powers. Where "The Corporation" does well is in clarifying specific issues. They found actual video footage of the Congressional hearings from the forgotten 1934 pro-Hitler coup, explain the IBM/Nazi connection by alleging that the punchcards the Nazis needed throughout the war were only produced by IBM plants in the United States, point out that the Akre/Wilson BGH firings involved not just the lone Florida station but were led by Fox News headquarters, and show that privatization of third-world water services includes not only the water system but also gives corporations monopoly rights on rainwater.
"The Corporation" is clearly a propaganda piece calling for more regulation on corporations, devolving at the end into a more general left-wing propaganda piece. Leftie documentaries often use the "baffle them with bullshit" tactic, splicing together microscopic clips to throw stuff at the viewer so fast you don't have time to critically analyze what's going on and can't tell if the sources actually support each other or not. Here, while there's a voiceover about people doing good and happy things (I forget the specifics), a bunch of video clips are spliced together and one is of a Greenpeace boat. What are they doing? Who knows? It had no connection to the rest of the movie, but you're supposed to pick up that Greenpeace is good without any reason why. When "The Corporation" relies more and more heavily on quotes from the love-him-or-hate-him Michael Moore, it becomes evident the producers have failed to create a film to persuade people who aren't already in line with their views. On the whole, I'll give it a mild recommendation.
Next on the list is "The Fog of War", filmmaker Errol Morris's interview with Vietnam-era Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. Since I liked this film, I'll start off with its faults. There is a lot of splicing in this film as well, but given that McNamara hasn't come out and condemned it, we might be safe to assume that Morris only cleaned up pauses and unnecessary words while keeping the original meaning. A lot of stock war footage is used out of context where it doesn't seem to make sense. Also, for being 56, Errol Morris sounds like a 20-year-old college student, which actually takes away from the film's impact. Every so often, you hear a disembodied young voice leading McNamara on, telling him to say the Vietnam war was bad and such things.
To his credit, McNamara doesn't let himself be led on, but says what he means to say, and there's where the movie is good. McNamara has a very intelligent, convincing personality and his stories hold your interest. The film doesn't center on Vietnam, though it cannot help but concentrate on such an important part of McNamara's life and career. We also hear about McNamara's experiences in World War 2 and the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as his time at Ford. However, this isn't just a biography. "The Fog of War" is arranged around eleven guiding practical principles, many of which can apply not only to war and foreign policy but to life in general. Through McNamara's experiences, we see how these principles have been applied and how they have worked. Strongly recommended.
Posted by Warrior Tang at June 20, 2004 11:01 AM