Films today routinely use corporations as scapegoats, villains … or worse.
So when I settled in to watch “Total Recall” for the first time in 20 years I simply gulped down the story of an evil corporate type depriving Martians of precious air and didn’t note in my review.
That’s where K comes in.
He’s a frequent commentator here at WWTW, and his views on the intersection of Hollywood and political ideology are always worth reading. I’m still waiting for his liberal counterpart on this site, a reader as passionate, clear-eyed and willing to dig in for a good debate …
Paul Verhoeven was out front on the trend to turn every movie into a euro-socialist screed. It is enlightening to compare his anti-capitalist future dystopia Detroit in “Robocop” with the even more horrible left government run one today, and his use of extreme excessive gun violence to, ahem, make a point against gun violence.
What elevates Verhoeven over the mere Oliver Stones in the race for lifetime “minitrue propaganda award”, however, was his execrable Heinlein hackjob of “Starship Troopers.” It’s one thing to produce stories with a left slant, it’s quite another to project Heinlein’s work to the popular audience as a fascist tract.
Related posts:
on 
on 
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hard to argue with anything K says here. I don’t mind the occasional corporate villain, but it’s been overdone so much that at this point I just roll my eyes.
I think the point where this cliche jumped the shark for me was when I saw the trailer for The International, with Clive Owen telling us about an evil bank with its own army of assassins. I thought to myself, “self, do they really expect anyone to take this premise seriously?” Oh no! It’s Bank of America, run!