The Yes Men are a post-modern political hoax duo whose mission is to expose corporate greed and fraud through elaborate public pranks. Their targets are the traditional big-meanies of the multi-national corporate landscape, from Halliburton and Dow to the wrong-headed mosaic of government agencies that work in New Orleans re-building after Hurricane Katrina. This film, written and directed by the pair themselves, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, is a tongue-in-cheek look at some of their more famous and powerful works that brought them the largest amount of attention.
Their most successful act began with them setting up a website that appeared to look like an 'ethics' arm of Dow Chemical. Approaching the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster (where tens of thousands of people were killed from a massive chemical spill and then thousands more died in the following years from the damage) the Yes Men, posing as Dow executives, were invited on to BBC to speak about the company's reaction to the situation it created.
Bichlbaum, under an assumed name, spoke on camera about how sorry the company was that the event occurred, and how they were going to accept full responsibility for their actions and pay the victims and their families with several billions of dollars. Of course, Dow has never admitted to any amount of responsibility and has been totally unhelpful to the Indian city.
Moments after the interview, top headlines around the world reported this gigantic turn-around in message and unparallelled restitution money. Of course, it was only a matter of minutes before Dow's real spokespeople contacted news media to say that in fact the Yes Men were pranksters and that they still don't take responsibility for their actions and still will not pay any money to the Indians who were hurt.
This, in the end is the real art of the Yes Men - getting big companies and government bodies to specifically defend indefensible beliefs, policies and messages.
This film is a much more successful indictment of corporate greed and capitalism run awry than the recent Michael Moore movie, Capitalism: A Love Story. The Yes Men know that there are not two sides to every story (as Arriana Huffington has been saying for a few years now). There is not real scientific *debate* about evolution or climate change - so it's foolish for news reports to give 'equal time' to both sides. There is not a real moral pro and a con to Dow paying back victims of their chemical spill - they messed up and they should help the victims of the accident. That there are corporate suits and apologists who would defend the faceless company is sickening and, simply, bad. The Yes Men try to expose these problems.
They are not shrill, rather they are funny and friendly. In the film, they hatch their next 'attacks' from their modest super-hero den, as if they were poor, kitschy Batmans. This is a very funny and clever doc that leaves you feeling empowered by these modern-day Davids versus Goliath. I can't wait to see what they do next!
Stars: 3 of 4
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