BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

They are the largest corporation in the world. Think about their power in an age when corporations, on such a scale, supersede national sovereignty. ExxonMobil had a net income of more than $40 billion in 2007, and they are well on track to exceed that in 2008. They recently reported the largest quarterly net profit in corporate history.

On April 19th, we posted this piece of news: "Exxon Mobil Corp., which recorded the biggest profit for a U.S. company, raised CEO Rex Tillerson's compensation by 29 per cent last year to $16.7 million (U.S.)....Exxon Mobil Corp., which recorded the biggest profit for a U.S. company, raised CEO Rex Tillerson's compensation by 29 per cent last year to $16.7 million (U.S.)." And God only knows what he'll get as a golden parachute.

In keeping with the content of "An Inconvenient Truth" and "The llth Hour," this low budget short documentary offers a searing and damning indictment of ExxonMobil's role in delaying efforts to save the earth's environment, its indifference to disasters like the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and its overall menacing omnipotence to get what it wants through sheer size and financial clout. It is basically a nation unto itself in terms of setting its own agenda to exploit nations, labor, the environment and us. Opposition to ExxonMobil is like a dead fly on its windshield, as far as its board and management team is concerned -- and just consider Dick Cheney part of their team.

From The Wire :

�Before anyone had ever heard of �An Inconvenient Truth,� Portsmouth-based documentary filmmaker Tom Jackson (�World�s Apart�, �Greetings from Missile Street�) got it into his head to tell the story of the connection between �the largest problem the world has ever faced� and �the biggest private company in the history of humankind.�

...

Like Al Gore�s film, the hour-long �Out of Balance: ExxonMobil�s Impact on Climate Change� details the science and consequences of global warming. Its focus, however, is on ExxonMobil�s financing of media campaigns and global warming skeptics. To tell the story, he interviewed leading writers and scientists on the topic, from Cameron Wake at the University of New Hampshire�s Climate Change Research Center to Rajendra K. Pachauri, chair of IPCC.�

"Imagine Michael Moore with humility. Tom Jackson goes on a personal quest to find out more about climate change and the huge forces that are blocking imperative change. Jackson exposes the most dangerous practice of our time: record profits at ANY cost."

- Norman Solomon, Public Accuracy

From an online reviewer:

The past decade has seen an exciting increase in the accessibility people have to professional filmmaking technology, and director Tom Jackson's "Out Of Balance" illustrates how that technology is providing vital perspectives that the corporate media tend to marginalize. The film is nothing glitzy, but a solid presentation of the ways in which ExxonMobil attempts to corrupt the national discussion of environmental concerns and energy policy. With massive resources to buy advertisements, to subsidize think tanks, and to hire an army of PR agents and lobbyists, ExxonMobil can reach deep into the hearts and minds of countless people. But the best spin efforts sooner or later run up against the realities that "Out of Balance" reveals through interviews with people like Ross Gelbspan Boiling Point and Bill McKibben Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community. One could even put aside concerns over climate change, and simply look at the destruction caused by the drilling and spilling of oil Oil On Ice (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) to want a change in the way we fuel the economy and our lifestyles Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future.

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS