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Description

One hundred and fifty years ago, the corporation was a relatively insignificant entity. Today, it is a vivid, dramatic and pervasive presence in all our lives. It is the dominant institution of our time. A complex, sobering, yet darkly amusing documentary, The Corporation takes its audience on a graphic and engaging quest to reveal the corporation's inner workings, curious history, controversial impacts and possible futures. Mark Achbar, co-director of the influential and inventive Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, teams up with co-director Jennifer Abbott and writer Joel Bakan to examine the far-reaching repercussions of the corporation's ascent. Based on Bakan's best-selling book, "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power", the film has achieved international critical and box office success. Winner of 10 audience awards, including Sundance, and 26 awards in total from prestigious festivals around the world, it stands as the top-grossing Canadian feature documentary of all time. The Corporation includes encounters and interviews with CEOs and top-level executives from a range of industries: energy, pharmaceutical, computer, tire, carpet, sporting goods, public relations, branding, news, advertising, and undercover marketing, as well as the first management guru, the first corporate-sponsored university students, a Nobel-prize winning economist, a corporate spy, and a range of academics, critics, historians and thinkers. The Corporation reveals that legally, a corporation is granted the status of a "person", and asks: "If that's the case, what kind of person is it?" To assess the "personality" of the corporate "person," a checklist is employed, using diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organization and the DSM IV, the standard diagnostic tool of psychiatrists and psychologists. It turns out the operational principles of the corporation give it a highly anti-social "personality": it is self-interested, inherently amoral, callous and deceitful; it breaches social and legal standards to get its way; it does not suffer from guilt, yet it can mimic the human qualities of empathy, caring and altruism. A disturbing diagnosis is delivered: the institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism meets the diagnostic criteria of a psychopath. The Corporation depicts numerous, inspiring, corporate harm reduction strategies employed by individuals and organizations working to regulate, re-write and reform this formidable societal force.

iTunes Store: Customer Reviews

Scare tactics

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IndieMan100
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2016-02-12
Scare tactics to replace free markets with corrupt government. No thanks. Businesses can't FORCE you to work for them, buy from them, or invest in them. Only government can force people, at the point of a gun, to do anything.

The solution

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SushiRobot
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2014-01-11
Important movie, very accurate description of the problem.
Of course they have no clue what to do about it, as the guy says at the end "I'm just hoping people will get off the sofa and do…ummm anything". In other words no plan. That won't work.
The solution isn't very difficult to understand. The corporation has to be placed under the control of humanity, rather than humanity under the control of the corporation. That simply involves re-writing all the laws. The government which could write the laws however is controlled by the corporation.
Which means revolution, bloodshed is the only path to success here. Humans however still don't grasp there is a war on against them and remain largely confused by the corporate propaganda.

Very Informative!

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KCnatureboy
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2012-02-29
Very good information about how "the corporation" has morphed over the last 200+ years in America. Both pros and cons are presented in the documentary, but I found it to be somewhat biased at times. Overall, its worth checkin out. Definitely an "eye-opener"

a little ironic

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ainmosninsomnia
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2012-02-23
you know.. this movie used to be free. thanks, iTunes.

Great movie

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jkane24
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2012-01-30
This movie is meant to show the need for regulation in business. People who are saying this movie wants to destroy business are missing the true point of this movie. Must see.

Purchase/Rental Options Are Grayed Out - Can

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Truth_Seeker_:-)
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2011-03-27
I want to buy this movie (The Corporation) but both the Purchase and Rental options are grayed out, making them inaccessible links. Please advise.
I LOVE this movie! It confirms what I've suspected about the corporate model for a long time. Having worked in both large corporate offices and a large university clinical psychology training program, I could relate with the personality test setting for a review of a corporate "person's" mental state. Although the "person" implied in "personhood" is actually made up of lots of different people, each with their own agenda and personal issues, it's a good illustration of the non-sensical "personhood status" granted to corporations. But not all of today's corporations are sociopaths. It would be an interesting contrast to apply the same testing situation to the corporations listed in "The 100 Best Companies to Work For in America." Does being a great place to work also mean they treat their clients and the rest of society better?
PS: How do I retrieve a movie that was lost from my iTunes library when I shared my library with my husband's. Everything else was just copied and sent, but one movie was actually moved to his computer. (We're no longer together.) I paid for it and would like it back. Thanks. (Can't find anywhere else to ask this specific question.)

collection of whiners

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stsimons
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2010-10-26
not worth the price of admission. just a collection of ranting rather than proposing. come on people. we'd be 3rd world if it were not for corporations. few are bad, most are good. the real problem are lawyers. get rid of them and michael moore. teach positiveness not negative whining.

THE CORPERATION

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LIVE FREE OR DIE 1111234
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2010-09-27
complete everybodys out to get you conspiratorial nonsence. SOCIALIST GARBAGE!

Pablumistic Approach to a Complex Topic

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TikkiTom
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2010-09-24
Another one sided progressive (e.g. left) documentary limited by its ability to juxtapose the positive and negative impacts of a corporation. This could have been a fantastic documentary if it was not so one sided. Yes, many bad corporations abound (I despise Monsanto and the oil companies) but how do the producers attibute the overall increase in US per capita net worth and productivity during the same period of explosive corporate growth? Scant on hard data (very touchy feely) but did do a good job on highighting the government-corporate axis of evil.

VERY hard to read little white letters on black background

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SJ-
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2010-07-27
little white letters on a black background = VERY hard, basically impossible, to read this page

Amazing

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Hi+
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2010-07-19
The psycopathy of corporations, even individual participants such as the woman who found ways to manipulate... yes actually manipulate the undeveloped minds of toddlers with the end goal of altering their behavior... she was aware that what she was doing was 'off' but she was totally and complicit, not unlike a religous estacy in her demeanour as she described her role within the corporation... it's a job and that justifies anything. a terrifying film

MUST SEE !!!!

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Maj Wood
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2010-05-30
Informative, witty, and well casted documentary. Giving a clear understanding and direction to the underpinnings of the modern corporation. Diverse viewpoints illustrate the social and ecological devastation that come about when a group of people with a "bottom-line" mentality form a corporation.

micheal more is ruining this country

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3456345634
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2010-05-20
this guy is brain washing all of america, the fact of life is we need businesses. that you will always have other people making more money than you. face it, dont blame others for your faults for not doing better in school or working harder in college if yuo even went to college....

Another broadside at globalization...

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fiv45
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2010-05-15
This title is misleading. Instead of being focused on the corporation, the movie quickly devolves into a sometimes interesting but in the end unpersuasive attack on globalization writ large. The usual suspects are attacked for the usual reasons... there is a bit of insight into why a corporation might be a particular problem in our society, but the producers/writers choose not to delve too deeply into an issue that I guess might be too dry for their target audience.
I was really hoping to gain a deeper understanding of how the facets of the corporate structure impact our lives but instead I spent two hours enduring another disappointing one-sided rant against all things capitalist and that is too bad since I think there is much fertile ground to be plowed when it comes to discussing the problems that corporations can cause society. Not saying there arent valid points within the movie, but chances are if you stay abreast of current events and are educated then this movie will not prove very stimulating.

Not preachy / just the facts

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Salvaticus
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2010-04-12
Honestly.... history has plenty of evidence. No need for spectacle. This is a great film and a must see for every citizen of a capitalist democracy.

MUST SEE!

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BAN MONSANTO
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2010-03-23
This is truly an excellent documentary. The director was kind enough to post it on you tube to watch for free. I liked it so much, that I am definitely going to either donate money to this movie or buy it. the only criticism I could give this film, is that it felt sometimes that they jumped around with the topics/information. This wasn't a major point of contention. For the majority of the film I felt as though it all flowed together seamlessly. If I could sum this up in one word: Enlightening.

One of the Best Documentary for this time!

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CalebbenBekke
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2010-02-20
I watched almost 300 documentaries last year for my project.
This one goes to the system level and explains pretty well. Though not one documentary was able to diagnose the root cause of the worlds biggest problem.
This was one of the top two. The other one is "Century of Self".

moving

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Boodiba
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2009-11-28
I am SO glad this movie wasn't available for renting and that I actually bought it. I found it both moving & inspiring.

If you do not want to buy check your library or your local video store....

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bodistar24
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2009-10-24
Dear people,
This is a must see movie and if you don't want to buy it, get it at your library for free! Sometimes it takes calling one or more libraries to see who has it but come on... its FREEE. Also it is available to rent at most of the video stores, maybe you just aren't looking hard enough - its okay to ask questions if you can't find something!! i'm just trying to tell you all that you have to see this movie and anyway you can get your hands on it just do it! The download on itunes is only 9.99 thats way cheap if you ask me!!

Meh..

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KevinHeaven711
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2009-08-30
This movie is kinda boring, it is eye opening but I think they could have presented it more interestingly. Its is very dull. I do like how they interveiw people who are leaders of big corporations as well as people who are oposed to them. This film is only a good buy if you are really interested in the subject matter.

Must See

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jdig
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2009-08-21
Everyone should view this documentary.

Brilliant. Period. (And I am sure it will annoy a lot of people, specially in the US)

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Ant Marching from Canada
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2009-07-11
Yes, it is thought provoking and opinion-altering. Like in the "The Matrix"; watching this documentary is like taking the Red Pill. It is hard to the keep seeing the world and capitalist societies in the same way: one could become a depressed cynic after watching this film.
It can be somewhat simplistic as mentioned by some but one cannot deny the real message of the film: to illustrate the greed and callousness of corporations and that of what many people are willing to do for money/employment. This is one of those films/topics that can make or break a conversation.
(And yet, ironically we are here throwing money at Apple once again. But what can us, simple mortals do?)

The most important movie you'll ever see

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YetiConfetti
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2009-04-24
If you watch any documentary, watch this one. It's more valuable of an education than anything you'd ever find in a classroom.
Revealing startling and disturbing facts about our world, nation and society, The Corporation is enough to get you and even apathetics out of your seat and wanting to know,do, and say more to fix the problems highlighted.
Watch it!

Capitalism??

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intricatic
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2009-02-21
No, no.... corporations are almost entirely subsidized - the government is the reason big corporations exist. This is the skeleton in the closet of liberal American politic.

Excellent Documentary!!

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punkmeow85
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2008-10-31
Extraordinary film! A real eye-opener! Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbot do a great job revealing the corporation's inner workings through footage from pop culture, advertising, and the news. Very enlightening!

The Corporation is not human

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Marinell
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2008-10-28
This is a must see film to help people better understand the pros and cons of the corporate entity...not the people behind it, but rather the infrastructure of one of the most powerful man-made forces on earth. Highly enlightening.