Wow! This was premiered in 2020, but has only just come to my attention. Lamentably, it was/is unavailable for purchase, or streaming, & the motherfucker who runs the promotional department never even responded to my email. The fact that such an important & excellent documentary has been hidden & hindered is indicative of the kind of suppression & sidelining that befall creative efforts of hard scrutiny on the “corporate” abuse model (why did the Guardian Newspaper not review/feature/cover/mention this documentary? Oh yeah! Bill Gates sponsors the rag, & quietly curtails selected content).
So this is the sequel to one of the strongest documentaries I have seen, a classic & mortifying film that has still not lost any of its power, ability to shock, inform & horrify; 2003s The Corporation. As relevant today as it was back during its issue date, it remains a classic of the genre along with peers such as Four Horsemen, Inside Job, Gas Lands & others.
The sequel emerges at a time of catastrophe … crisis swarmed, bedraggled & an epidemic of emergencies.
Everything has amplified, now further accosted by techno totalitarianism, cyber entrapment, corporate surveillance & an extending digital dystopia that have all augmented & expanded the original catastrophe.
It is time that corporations are outlawed & ousted.
The wreckage, doom, contamination, crisis abundance & unabating onslaught they inflict proves, without dispute, that these Goliaths of destruction, disease & death are the largest active threat, menace & all assaulting agent that is very literally racing us towards an extinction or near extinction event.
& all it seems, so a few of the lowest members of the species can suck champaign in the skyline pluto-tower or choke caviar with sex-trafficked underage playthings on super-yachts off the coasts of Monaco or the Gulf of Dubai.
We don’t need this shit.
This near twenty year follow-on is very strong indeed, generally revising the same excellent format.
We are now in an even worse state, & an almost entirely different selection of commentators are present to provide brilliantly edited critiques, including excellent provisions from Anand Giridharadas (author of Winners Take All), Vandana Shiva (Oness vs the 1%) & Chris Hedges (American Fascists).
It is very bleak & alarming viewing, & considerable stoicism & stamina are required to withstand analysis of this immensely disturbing emergency.
We are dealing, very, very literally, with a death machine, & a death cult, following (fanatically) a necrotic ideology with extinctionary outcomes.
It is about as “heavy” as it gets, & the fact that these entities & threatening phenomenon have been “tolerated” to this point is mind-fuckingly distressing.
Perhaps the last 15-20 minutes tries to foster a more positive discourse, & focus on the resistance, success & unity in the face of such morbid atrocity, industrialised extremity & extinction advocacy.
For me, the production flags a little here, or fails to live up to the brilliance of the films bulk. Perhaps less time was spent on this section? Or other circumstances depleted the quality & consistency. Still, after such a terrifying & profoundly disturbing penetration into the enhanced psychopathy of “the corporate caliphate”, the alternative airing was important, albeit somewhat stilted (an independent production or greater effort may of worked better).
The only other minor problem I had with this feature is the intrusive & constant soundtrack. It seems to insist on accompanying every single comment or frame, & some of the “mood music” is just too instructive (let the shit talk for itself, don’t impose).
Irrespective of any smaller shortcomings, this extremely important film is vital, critical & essential viewing. Despite the obviousness of it, corporations & structures favourable to corporations control, fund, sponsor, own or edit far too much of our outwardly independent media platforms (not to mention politics itself). Hence no doubt that this documentary is not adequately publicised, distributed or available.
They just don’t want you watching productions that accurately clarify or scrutinise this insane, murderous menace & the dangers this failed model engulfs us in & the necessity of their immediate removal & prohibition.
A death machine & a death cult.
Joel Bakan & Jennifer Abbott, 2020