麻豆社

Corporate America has an image problem. And Robert Greenwald's Wal-Mart: The High Cost Of Low Price, a searing documentary expose of the US mega-retailer that posted $11.2 billion profit last year, isn't going to make things any easier. Allegations of employee exploitation, dodgy environmental practises, and use of Chinese sweat-shop labour come thick and fast, and while this movie could have been argumentatively more organised, and 20 minutes shorter, it tells a story well worth hearing.

Greenwald opens with footage of Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott whipping a huge crowd of employees into a feel-good frenzy, before segueing into a collage of extended interviews with shelf-stackers and managers that presents an altogether less flattering picture. Wal-Mart, say these former insiders, illegally spies on employees to prevent them joining unions. It arrives in small towns determined to drive local shopkeepers out of business, and pays poverty-level wages to many of its 1.7 million employees. And - we get to see this for ourselves - its all-American apple pie and soda adverts are totally cheesy.

"EXPERT REPORTAGE"

Pretty soon you'll be greedy for the next Wal-Mart-bashing factoid. Only problem is, this documentary can feel a little threadbare - it's essentially a series of interviews chopped up and pasted back together - and suffers, at times, from clumsiness. Halfway through a voiceover surfaces, stays for a minute, then leaves, never to be heard again. What was that? Still, the segments on alleged inhumane working conditions in Far East factories combine compelling human stories with expert reportage. So who cares if this film is rough around the edges, when its heart is in the right place?