2005
Director: Robert Greenwald
Runtime: 95 Minutes
Distributor: Brave New Films
Rating: Unrated

After giving both Rupert Murdoch’s singular approach to journalism and The Bush Administration’s case for the war in Iraq his own special attention, political activist and filmmaker Robert Greenwald takes aim at the world’s largest corporation. While the policies of Wal*Mart are no longer exactly news, they still make for fascinating and frightening examination. Greenwald takes us on a tour of grass routes American and shows the thundering impact the retail giant has at ground level for people in the community, the workers and those who manufacture and supply its goods.

A good portion of it does simply retread old ground. Going over the circular argument of free market verses monopoly and adds little to what people already know. But while everybody is well aware what happens to employment rates and small businesses when a Wal*Mart comes to a community and that the pay is garbage, few people probably know just how garbage that pay is. So much so that most of their employees are so poor as to be on welfare or some other government assistance program and live well below the national poverty line despite being in so-called full-time employment.

Other segments focus on areas that are perhaps less well known and this is where things really turn quite sinister. Greenwald book ends clips of corporate rhetoric from Wal*mart CEO H. Lee Scott with a veritable galaxy of ex-Wal*mart “associates” (the fancy company name for employees) who make the man look little more than a bald-faced liar as the damning testimony piles up. Managers and loss prevention officers offer up a bounty of jaw dropping indictments; such as fabricating time sheets to prevent overtime. Forcing employees to work extra hours off the clock. Falsifying factory compliance reports. Firing any staff member suspected to be engaging in any union like activity of any kind. Profiling staff to guard against organizing behavior, illegal surveillance, harassment etc etc…

While the majority of the doc might be talking heads, the non stop cringe-inducing revelations just keep on coming and make this simple expose genuinely compelling. One thing though is missing. Greenwald talks to everyone effected by Wal*Mart, but at no point does he tackle the most important part of the equation, the shopper. The customer is conspicuous by their absence as Greenwald seemingly refuses to point the finger at the one group that has the power to force the behemoth to change its despicable practices, the customers who spend their money there.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 10:36 pm and is filed under Documentary, Feature Films, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.