Last night, I went to see Michael Clayton. I do like a thriller in which a lone figure takes on the evil force of the dark corporation and George Clooney, in the title role of the lawyer-fixer who gets an attack of conscience does not disappoint.

It made me think about why corporations and corporate executives are almost always villains in Hollywood films. There is a grand tradition of the sinister corporation reaching back to Soylent Green, a sci-fi tale about a company that makes biscuits out of people. Sorry if I have just given away the plot, but you have had 30 years to see it.

No doubt the tradition reaches back much further but I cannot think of examples off the top of my head. I do not count Citizen Kane, for example, because he was individually sinister. In any case, it seems to me that the corporation as villain is essentially a creation of the 1970s, when disillusionment with capitalism was at a height. Blade Runner (see below) also dates from that period.

More recently, we have had The Insider, about a Big Tobacco whistleblower played by Russell Crowe, and Erin Brocovich, about a woman who takes on a utility company that is poisoning the water supply.

Given that the small man taking on a big and apparently insuperable enemy before emerging victorious is an archtypical drama, I suppose the corporation has to be cast as the villain.

Maybe it also has to do with the liberal bent on Hollywood writers and actors - including Mr Clooney. This is, after all, a town where the "creative" is the hero and the "suit" is the villain (see the HBO series Entourage for confirmation).

Mr Clooney and Steven Soderbergh, the co-producer of Michael Clayton, are the leading exponents of the corporate thriller at the moment. Mr Soderbergh directed Erin Brocovich and Syriana, one of their recent joint efforts, featured Big Oil as a villain.

Still, it is odd that the Hollywood view of any utility, food or drink company or biotech company (in the case of Michael Clayton) is that it is either out to poison you, or to cover up the fact that it has already poisoned you.

Does anyone else have a favourite evil corporation film?

October 22nd, 2007 in Entertainment | Permalink