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Corporations are a driving force behind almost every part of American life—including the movies we watch. It sometimes feels like they hold all the power, and, actually, they kinda do. But if the power of capitalism can’t be overcome, it can at least be checked once in a while. And it can be extremely satisfying to watch a crusader standing up for the rest of us.
Here are 15 movies about heroes defying big corporations, most of them at least inspired by true events. Usually, reality is at least as wild as what made it to the screen. As The Constant Gardener author John le Carré observed in the afterward to (and the end credits of the film adaptation of) his almost entirely fictional novel:
Nobody in this story, and no outfit or corporation, thank God, is based upon an actual person or outfit in the real world. But I can tell you this. As my journey through the pharmaceutical jungle progressed, I came to realize that, by comparison with the reality, my story was as tame as a holiday postcard.
Erin Brokovich (2000)
Real life provides plenty of examples of individuals standing up to corporations—with varying degrees of success. This is one of the more inspiring ones: Steven Soderbergh's crowd-pleasing legal drama was a box office triumph and an Oscar season contender, and it made a star of its titular real life activist. Julia Roberts plays Brokovich, who in 1993 was an unemployed single mother who couldn't keep out of her own way. Given a pity job as a paralegal by the man who served as her lawyer in an injury case, she stumbles onto some troubling medical documents while researching a real estate case. It soon becomes clear that Pacific Gas and Electric Company is hiding something in Hinkley, California—specifically, they've been dumping chromium-contaminated waste into several ponds around the town, and cancer incidents are way up in the region. It's here that Erin's dogged determination (and utter refusal to keep her mouth shut ,even when she'd be better off to do so) come in tremendously handy for the people of Hinkley, who now have an unlikely champion. You can stream Erin Brokovich on Netflix or rent it from Prime Video.
Dark Waters (2019)
Dark Waters, from director Todd Haynes, kicks off with farmers discovering that their livestock are dying by the hundreds from exposure to waste in the water produced by a local DuPont chemical plant—which is just the beginning, as cancer rates among humans are also unexpectedly high. Mark Ruffalo stars as lawyer Robert Bilott, who takes on the farmers' case. It's based on the New York Times Magazine article "The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare" by Nathaniel Rich, and Haynes and company do a masterful job of dramatizing the high-stakes legal battle, as well as the problem of buy-in—parties to the legal action become pariahs in their community because many would rather take their chances with cancer than risk losing a big employer. This all happened within the last decade, so many of the issues related to so-called "forever chemicals" (those that never leave the bloodstream once exposed) are very much ongoing, and will only become more prominent in the current era of deregulation. You can rent Dark Waters from Prime Video.
The Insider (1999)
Michael Mann's account of tobacco industry shenanigans did only middling business at the box office, but nonetheless earned seven Oscar nominations—including one for Best Picture. It comes at the story from a smart, sideways angle: The focus is on the 60 Minutes piece that broke wide open the story of big tobacco's malfeasance over the risks of smoking—a story that made clear that these companies knew the true dangers of smoking, and lied about it to keep their customers addicted. In the movie's largely accurate telling, CBS producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) coaxes former tobacco-company chemist Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) to reveal what he knows, only to face pushback from fearful executives and threats from the tobacco industry. The narrative makes clear the high cost of telling even the most straightforward of truths. You can stream The Insider on The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video.
Even the Rain (2011)
In 1999, a group of investors lead by the American company Bechtel invested in a dam near Cochabamba, Bolivia. The thus contained water was then sold back to the locals at vastly higher rates. The resulting protests saw tens of thousands of people take to the streets. In director Icíar Bollaín's wildly ambitious film-within-a-film, a crew, led by director Sebastián (Gael García Bernal), comes to Cochabamba to make a movie based on Christopher Columbus' first voyage. His thoughtless executive producer Costa (Luis Tosar)stirs up trouble with his lack of consideration for the locals as the water protests simmer in the background. Weaving in themes that consider the long history of colonization, the film isn't shy about drawing clear lines between past and present. You can stream Even the Rain on Netflix.
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