NOTE: if you\’re in OZ, you can see parts 2 and 3 of the corporation on SBS, Weds 12 and 19, 8.30PM.

Full kudos to SBS in Australia for making a 3-part series of the movie \’The Corporation\’. Just like in Supersize Me, when they challenge people on the street and ask \’What is a calorie?\’ the responses are equally scary. How can such a salient household term be so tragically misunderstood?

This doco chases the origins of the corporation, which trace back to the industrial revolution in the UK and how the seppos (Americans) used their fourteenth ammendmant as a precedent to make the corpration be regarded by law as an individual. Just like you or I. Except whilst the corporation is ultimately responsible to the law, it\’s sole responsibility is to make a profit for it\’s shareholders.

Yup you guessed it baby, 0.5 percent of the US population max are shareholders of any corporation, so where does the benefit for the populous lie? That\’s right, there isn\’t any! No morality in actions!

The movie is kind of triptich(?) for lack of a better word. It starts out with the typical chat to experts, anti-capitalist diatribe, then suddenly takes a huge depressing nose dive with some South America horror stories, and ends on the positive \’here\’s what you can do!\’ note.

Anti capitalist diatribe reference may not be completely fair though. There\’s a reasonably broad sprectum of people being interviewed. From the token Michael Moore appearance, to the brazen NYSE stock trader, to the staunchly British chariman of Shell. There\’s also Noam Chomsky (sound familiar? He\’s one of the most quoted people ever) and one bloke who runs a corporation that\’s now a CEO environmental evangelist.

If by now you\’re wondering whether it\’s worth seeing, absolutely! If only just to get a perspective on what a corporation really is, does, why they don\’t care and just how many mistakes are being made. It has its bone tingling scary moments where you think there\’s no hope for man kind, then shows you just how easy it is to kill the behemoth by not buying his icy cold can of Coke.

I\’d sing Happy Birthday here now, but as the movie tells you, it would cost $10,000 in royalties to the AOL Time Warner Corporation that owns the copyright!