Wal-Mart strikes back against documentary
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Politics, Cinematical Indie
We've reported several times on Robert Greenwald's Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, a documentary designed to jab deep at the reigning discount retailer; now comes word that the Wal-Mart camp is supporting another film, to be released around the same time, that shows the opposing side of the story. Ron and Robert Galloway financed their $85,000 Why Wal-Mart Works: And Why That Drives Some People C-r-a-z-y themselves, without help from the chain, but Wal-Mart, who gave the Galloways the kind of access that Greenwald was denied, is pointing to C-r-a-z-y in their effort to denounce Greenwald's expose as "propaganda". Whereas High Cost focuses on Wal-Mart's "unsavory business practices", the Galloway film intends to present evidence that presenting that the Wal-Mart employer-worker relationship is actually a super sunshiney happy one, whilst "examining 'the pathology' behind the escalating attacks on the company". High Cost will screen at the American Film Mart next week; C-r-a-z-y premieres on November 10 in Wal-Mart's hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-27-2005 @ 5:19PM
rjlawrencejr said...
Personally, I would like to see both films to get a good compare contrast. While Wal-Mart may not be the evil empire to end all evil empires, if the Galloway boys don't at least acknowledge why some of Wal-Mart's business practices can be construed as unsavory, then they are not being honest filmmakers. However, when I read they want to examine the pathology, I don't have much faith since that would seem to put the onus on the critics of Wal-Mart instead of looking at Wal-Mart itself.
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10-27-2005 @ 5:12PM
Morgan said...
Love it. Glad they aren't waiting to defend themselves. People like Greenwald and Spurlock like to think most people are too unsophisticated to make decent decisions for themselves, and it's just tired.
Of course, self-important, holier-than-thou types will love his movie and continue bagging on Walmart whether there are objective reasons or not.
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10-27-2005 @ 5:53PM
The Jeremy said...
Hey, don't be knockin' Wal*Mart. What other Corporate American titan do you know of that successfully helps its employees to take advantage of government programs such as food stamps that they qualify for? :)
I just have a feeling that Wal*Mart won't be selling a widescreen edition of the DVD in their stores though, since Joe Sixpack complains so much about those "black bars" on the screen that distorts the image on their television set that is setting atop their older non-working television set.
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10-28-2005 @ 10:20AM
Vejadu said...
Objective reasons --> http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts/
Walmart is under constant attack because they're the largest retailer in the world. Low prices are nice, but take a look how Walmart achieves those low prices. Sub-poverty wages, buying goods primarily from China, etc.
It's easy to say that everyone is free to make up their own mind, but the bottom line is most people simply don't care and sometimes they need a slap in the face to get their attention. They don't realize what the impact of stores like Walmart are doing to our country's economy, our workforce and our communities. Most people don't know that underinsured, underpaid Walmart employees cost taxpayers over two BILLION dollars a year in federal assistance. Most people don't know that 46% of Walmart employees children are uninsured.
Walmart has one intention, to make money and to expand to every streetcornerr in America. Just take a look a the internal memo that was leaked and was all over the news earlier this week. It outlines how they intend to cut costs by pushing spouses off of insurance, hiring more part-time workers to avoid paying benefits and how to discourage older or unhealthy people from applying to work at Walmart. This will make the burden on us, the taxpayers, even worse.
The purpose of this film is to make more people aware of the negative impact of what shopping at Walmart does. When something has this big of a cultural impact, people need to know the consequences of their actions. Is saving 2¢ on a can of corn really worth it?
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