He had a change of heart.
Corporate Bad Guys
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First of all:
Secondly, is it wholly because of his actions or was it also to do with his condition of needing the electromagnet?
Iron Man works because they exaggerate the "millionaire playboy" thing to humorous effect, because RDJ lays on the charm and bad-boy appeal, and because they gave him a bad heart to balance out all his wealth and advantages . . . .
Meanwhile, while we're looking at Robin Hood and all, let's not forget Zorro, who came from wealth, but spent all his time defending poor peasants and laborers from wealthy land-owners and corrupt authorities.
(The one genuinely anti-populist hero is possibly The Scarlet Pimpernal, who was all about rescuing endangered aristocrats from the excesses of the French Revolution.)
One thing to remember is the international box office has become more important than it had been in previous decades. Where they could make the Soviets or Chinese or any other nationality a villain and no one complained, they now need those markets and cannot afford to take the chance of alienating a potential market. So they rise above nations and suddenly the corporation is evil, for all the reasons given in the posts above mine.
It will be a rare film not based on real world events that will make the enemy another nation.
It will be a rare film not based on real world events that will make the enemy another nation.
Is this the reflection of the filmmakers idea of who the bad really are in the real world, or is it something else?
More like the reflection of modern audiences of percetions of what bad guys are. And, are you really suprised after the great economic meltdown the largest since the since the Great Depression - largely caused by speculation with the large banks and investment firms - that audiences want the bad guys to be evil corporate titans?
Quoted for truth. Anyone who doubts it should see the documentary The Corporation.
I think one of the funniest and most ironic examples of that is Apple. Tree hugging, "lilly livered liberals," happily tote around their iphones and ipads like they are some great example of aultruism and coprorate responsibility but when you dig deeper they dodge taxes and exploit Chinese workers with the best of them - if not more so.
I had to laugh during the, occupy Wall Street program - many people were carrying their ipads seemingly not even realizing that Apple is right up therre with the rest of the worst.
Another case in point:
http://www.westlibertyindex.com/article.php?viewID=3992
Henry’s Turkey Service is a Texas labor broker that for 40 years paid developmentally challenged workers about 41 cents per hour...Iowa State Fire Marshal deemed the living quarters unsafe due to fire code and other safety and health violations....
“Verbal abuses included frequently referring to the workers as ‘retarded,’ ‘dumb ass’ and ‘stupid,’” the EEOC press release reads. “Class members reported acts of physical abuse, including hitting, kicking, at least one case of handcuffing, and forcing the disabled workers to carry heavy weights as punishment. The Henry’s Turkey supervisors, also the workers’ purported caretakers, were often dismissive of complaints of injuries or pain.”
And their apologists in talk radio ask for tort reform, to prevent this:
The lawsuit comes a month after state work force officials imposed a $1.1 million penalty against Henry’s Turkey Service for violations of state labor laws.
First thing to do--outlaw temp services.
Second, disallow the whole LLC category.
Double tractor trailers with dollys welded together were sent out in one of Alabama's worst wenter storms by an employer here. The trucks are not actually owned by the company man, but by a near bankrupt shell company, so you have to sue only that and the poor drivers, who get harrased if they say they work for other than the lawsuit shell.
Now the arguements the right-wingers make is that we don't need regs, that lawsuits alone should suffice. But when you outsource this, shell over that, and elect folks who don't believe in their own gov't positions, you get disasters, like the texas ferilizer plant explosions http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=19816
A lot of the anti-gov't folks who have jobs in gov't are thus the political equivalent of professional wrestling referees. They never see anything--are on the take from the manager, and go after the wrong guy.
http://www.westlibertyindex.com/article.php?viewID=3992
Henry’s Turkey Service is a Texas labor broker that for 40 years paid developmentally challenged workers about 41 cents per hour...Iowa State Fire Marshal deemed the living quarters unsafe due to fire code and other safety and health violations....
“Verbal abuses included frequently referring to the workers as ‘retarded,’ ‘dumb ass’ and ‘stupid,’” the EEOC press release reads. “Class members reported acts of physical abuse, including hitting, kicking, at least one case of handcuffing, and forcing the disabled workers to carry heavy weights as punishment. The Henry’s Turkey supervisors, also the workers’ purported caretakers, were often dismissive of complaints of injuries or pain.”
And their apologists in talk radio ask for tort reform, to prevent this:
The lawsuit comes a month after state work force officials imposed a $1.1 million penalty against Henry’s Turkey Service for violations of state labor laws.
First thing to do--outlaw temp services.
Second, disallow the whole LLC category.
Double tractor trailers with dollys welded together were sent out in one of Alabama's worst wenter storms by an employer here. The trucks are not actually owned by the company man, but by a near bankrupt shell company, so you have to sue only that and the poor drivers, who get harrased if they say they work for other than the lawsuit shell.
Now the arguements the right-wingers make is that we don't need regs, that lawsuits alone should suffice. But when you outsource this, shell over that, and elect folks who don't believe in their own gov't positions, you get disasters, like the texas ferilizer plant explosions http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=19816
A lot of the anti-gov't folks who have jobs in gov't are thus the political equivalent of professional wrestling referees. They never see anything--are on the take from the manager, and go after the wrong guy.
I completely agree. I love Apple's products, but its corporate culture is just as awful as anyone else's. Corporations cannot help but be morally corrupt.
I am at an absolute loss to imagine how anyone can be effective in pushing for corporate change without using a computer. Are you honestly saying that a customer doesn't have a right to demand change from a corporation?
Of course they should. [Apple pc's are hardly the only game in town] I just don't personally see people outside the Apple Stores [at least in the US] demanding that Apple stop making ipadsd at Chinese factories that use sucide nets to stop employees from jumping because of the horrible working conditions.
Nor do I see protests in front of Apple stores because they sheild their huge earnings overseas from taxes.
Did see however this last Presidential election huge outcries from often the same groups who thought Mitt Romney was a shameful and awful person for doing exactly the same thing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Apple_Inc.
http://usuncut.org/targets/apple
http://www.complex.com/tech/2012/04...i-coal-protests-in-apple-stores-with-balloons
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/09/07/uk_users_prepare_antiapple_protest/
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/final-note/protests-against-apple-nyc-call-ethical-iphone
http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2012/09/21/protests-outside-apple-store-in-paris/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/09/apple-store-protests_n_1265406.html
http://www.macstories.net/news/group-plans-protests-at-apple-stores-over-proposed-tax-breaks/
http://www.world-newyork.com/2012/02/occupy_apple_protest_urges_transparency
https://www.google.com/search?q=Protests+against+Apple&sugexp=chrome,mod=6&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
.... so you're saying Occupy Wall Street should have been based outside an Apple store instead of Zuccotti Park?
They were protesting an entire corporate culture, not any one particular company. They weren't directly outside Goldman Sachs Tower, but that doesn't mean Goldman Sachs wasn't one of their targets of protest.
What exactly are you referring to? Which specific persons made which specific allegations? Which of those making such allegations indicated that they feel Apple Inc. is innocent?
And when did Apple Inc. run for president?
ETA:
And for that matter, how is the relative prevalence of criticism against one particular company relevant to the overall question of whether or not corporations are institutionally immoral and therefore fair targets for fiction to depict as villainous? I mean, you might as well complain that a free speech advocate hasn't spent enough time protesting censorship in Russia: It's only tangentially related to the topic at hand.
The Apple CEO was running for president? Damn, I must've missed him in the debates. Knew I should've stopped watching only Biden's reaction shots...
Apparently you're only allowed to criticize a candidate if his supporters think you've met your protest quota for other people you object to.
No but Apple often gets a pass on its business practices from many people. Reference Congress kissing their ass during hearings on their tax sheilding.
In any case, the overall thread topic is about coprorate bad guys. I agree they are the new villians for Hollywood.
Just pointing out that Apple often gets a pass on this with the general public.
Weylan(d)-Yutani edges it for me, but OCP are a close second
Both had to wrestle control back from 'bad' billionaires within their respective movie franchises so they were hardly immune from the evil corporate dickhead trope.
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Y'know I never actually realised that I'd been calling them that for years until now. Yes, OCP is what I'd meant.
Actually I'm pretty sure that Soviets aren't the villains in most films these days because with the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent end of the Cold War.
As bad as OCP could be, I think I would have to agree WY is worse.
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