Review: I first learned about Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott’s documentary in a social sciences class I was taking at the time. We watched the first portion of the film in class, and I was excited at the prospect of watching the rest of it. Turns out though, I had just seen the best part in class, and was forced to endure the remaining hour or so the seemed almost painfully long. That of course is the problem with The Corporation, it opens with a high dosage, highly interesting look at the corporate world and its unable to sustain it throughout the entire length of time. Much like most of Michael Moore’s films, this documentary starts out strong and then begins to slide into less focused territory. The directors are unable to right the ship, and by the time the film ends the whole premise has become almost completely unraveled. There are many reasons why a documentary can lose its focus and here it seems Achbar and Abbott suffer from falling in love with all their research. Though the film has excellent interviews and a few shocking investigative discoveries, not all of them really have a place in this film and unfortunately their inclusion makes it uneven- ultimately feeling like a bunch of short segments with no real connection. If the directors had cut out just a few of the parts and worked on creating smoother transitions it would have definitely been a better, tighter documentary. For instance, the story of two Fox News reporters fighting to report the truth and keep their jobs will surely hold your attention and may open your eyes to some significant injustice occurring in today’s media, but in the end you have to wonder if Achbar and Abbott should have helped out the documentary Outfoxed, and given them some of their footage (which brings me to a side note: how do these two find this story while covering corporations, while Robert Greenwald misses it entirely?). Despite the segmented nature of The Corporation, I have to admit that it does a great job of splicing in footage to keep the audience entertained despite its rather lengthy run time. In short, the special effects, camera work and narration are all well done and deserve to be highlighted in any discussion. Unfortunately, like most films that draw on for too long, these technical strengths loose their merit when the audience’s attention starts to wander. Review by Matthew Abshire Informative: 3- What started as extremely informative devolved into pointless complaining. Entertainment: 3- I was enthralled for the first part and then later found myself smashing my head against the wall an hour later due to boredom and pointless talk. Technical: 4- editing and camera work are great, but the film is way too long. Overall: 3- First 45 minutes would have been a 4, the remaining portion of the film is almost a 2, so I took the average.
 
Format: DVD Year: 2004 Running Time: 145 Min Distributor: Big Picture Media Corporation and Zeitgeist Films Producer: Mark Achbar and Bart Simpson Director: Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott Date Reviewed: 4-14-2007 Story: This documentary charts the spectacular rise of corporations as a dramatic, pervasive presence in our lives. Filmmakers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott present a timely, entertaining critique of global conglomerates as they chronicle the origins of corporations, as well as their inner workings, controversial impacts and possible futures. The pros and cons are weighed via interviews with social critics such as Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore (NetFlix).