While this isn't a particularly political thread right now, it probably soon will be, which is why I posted it here.
Last night I watched the movie "Unstoppable". It's a story about a freight train that loses its engineer, and is speeding toward a large city unmanned, with tanker cars filled with highly toxic and flammable chemicals.
It's been noted many times that movies almost always depict corporations and government as evil, and this movie is no exception. The good guys are the blue collar workers--the yard chief (a woman), an engineer who's been retired early by the evil corporation, a hippie-type welder, and a guy who's getting a bum rap in a domestic abuse case.
As the movie works its way up the corporate food chain, the players become more evil. The immediate boss of the yard chief won't take her advice. The board of directors is more concerned about the cost of the potential damage if the train crashes than the human cost. The CEO is reached by cell phone on the golf course, of course (everyone I know who's rich got that way playing golf). His only concern is how much a train wreck will affect the price of the company's stock.
This is a constant refrain in movies: corporations bad, little guy good. Individuals within corporations can be good, but the entities themselves never are.
The same goes for government. Whether it's "The Bourne Identity" or "Pelican Brief", government agencies are bad. Jason Bourne can be good as a CIA assassin, but the agency itself is bad.
Presidents can be good, but only when they're not acting in the capacity of the office. "Air Force One", for example. Harrison Ford is the action hero first, prresdent second.
Political figures can be good, but only when they're liberals. If a member of congress is a bad guy, he's invariably a Republican.
I can't figure out if this is just Hollywood and its political bias, or if it's more of a cultural, David vs. Goliath dynamic.
Whatever it is, I can't think of a single movie in which a corporation or government agency is good. Can you?
