By now, everyone knows that corporations rule this country. This movie explains why. To put it simply, every politician spends most of their time begging for money. The thing they want most is to be re-elected, and that costs a lot of money. The only groups that have the kind of money they need is big corporations. So the corporations hire lobbyists who bribe politicians to pass laws that help the corporations make bigger profits.
Jack Abramoff is the subject of this documentary. He is a very interesting figure. We see how he began his political career, and at one time he even dabbled in movie making. He wrote and produced Red Scorpion (1989) starring Dolph Lundgren.
The thing that stayed with me the most from the movie is the segment about the Mariana Islands. They are a US territory, but they aren't subject to US labor laws. Which means they can pay employees far below minimum wage, they don't have to provide a safe work environment, and it's the perfect place for sweatshops.
Human rights workers tried to get congress to pass a law that would grant these rights to sweatshop workers in these islands. When that happened, Abramoff brought a bunch of senators there on a vacation, wined and dined them, and took them on one brief scheduled tour of a sweatshop. They came back and said everything was fine there, and nothing happened. The sweatshops continued.
One problem with the movie is it is too long and tries to pack too much information in. By the end, I was pissed off, but I also felt overloaded with information. But still definitely worth seeing.
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