Is Speed Racer anti-capitalist?
The word was that Speed Racer is the most anti-capitalist movie to appear in many years, so of course I walked in the theater ready to rip apart its thematics. Well, what a disappointment. It scores no points against capitalism as a system of economics. If you consider the core institutions of capitalism as private property, consumer sovereignty, competitive rivalry, and the like, this movie actually heralds all of them.
So what makes people say this about the movie? It demonizes the big business that rules the racing sector, which in the film is Royalton Industries, which is ruled by the evil Roger Allam, who manipulates every outcome and cheats and cheats to shore up his profits.
Somehow it just didn't sting. What we really have here is the universal, conventional sports-movie plot, which has been repeated ten thousand times: the underdog with no money or power goes up against the well-funded and well-connected champion machine and prevails through guts and determination, etc., and, in the course of it refusing to be bought out or to sell out. The crowd goes wild. So far as I know, this is the most typical plot device one can imagine. Maybe it could be otherwise: the poor and unconnected upstart gets beat by the rich and well-connected champion, but as much as I like big business, this strikes even me as slightly boring.
Besides, big business isn't always saintly. In a mixed economy such as ours, money does lead to a form of corruption, and there is a scene in the movie that really makes this clear. An attorney for Royalton shows up at the Speed Racer household to announce a lawsuit for infringement of intellectual property. The father protests and the lawyer says, we'll let the jury decide. That was a great scene that actually highlighted the ways in which patent law is really used in the real world!
Might the film makers have had a score to settle against the capitalist rich? Probably, but that hardly makes them different from just about every other living human being these days (or so it seems to me). In any case, there were plenty enough other reasons not to like this film (that annoying brother and his chimp and the goofy girlfriend, for example), so better to save the free-market fire for other more well-suited targets.
As for the CGI, yes, it is unbelievably great.
Comments (14)
Neo-socialism equates capitalism with big corporations. They consider corporations to be monopolies so powerful that they dictate policy to states and choices to consumers while destroying Mother Earth and earning obscene profits. Corps are the evil Republic in Star Wars, the Borg in Star Trek, and all the bad guys in Batman, Superman and Spider Man rolled into one. Free markets, and goodness, exist only between mom-and-pop shops. That’s why they think any movie that trashes big corps is anti-capitalist. You get an earful of that nonsense in the history books by Fernand Braudel, but only in the conclusion; his details are amazing.
Published: May 19, 2008 11:13 AM
I rather liked Speed Racer's particular take on big business. Usually, we see the rival star player and maybe the coach getting pissed off at the end. If "big business" is the nominal villain, you certainly wouldn't know it from the ending, where we see nothing about why big business would care about this particular sports victory. Sure, the general plot of Speed Racer is pretty typical of sports movies, but I thought the precise form of comeuppance suffered by the bad guy was rather elegant given the genre. First he's forced to honor a buyout deal despite stock prices having jumped; then he finds that a monopoly he paid a lot to acquire is worthless because the technology has gone out of fashion. Both of these are due to Our Hero winning at his chosen sport, but we're shown the actual business effects of those victories. (Though maybe it only seems clever to a layperson?)
Published: May 19, 2008 12:04 PM
As a mathematical model, capitalism can only lead to socialism as once corporations eliminate their competitors they look to solidify and maintain their positions by shutting down the economic system that got them to the top in the first place. One thing people in power hate more than anything is losing it.
Published: May 19, 2008 2:00 PM
Yes, that is what Marxians aver. They've never proven that contention.
Published: May 19, 2008 2:54 PM
"As a mathematical model, capitalism can only lead to socialism as once corporations eliminate their competitors they look to solidify and maintain their positions..."
In a free market, corporations can never "eliminate their competitors," certainly not permanently. New competitors can always arise at anytime, from anywhere--and the more profits earned by the existing company, the more entrepreneurs and investors will be drawn into that industry by the lure of high profits.
The only way companies can eliminate their competitors and establish a monopoly is through the use of state power against competitors (through regulations, special licenses or charters, etc.). At that point, you've left the realm of free-market capitalism and are into mercantilism or socialism.
Socialism can only be instituted through force, while capitalism is what people do when they are free of force.
Published: May 19, 2008 6:47 PM
Unfortunately, the unwashed masses don't understand the nuance. To most American "liberals" and "conservatives" big business = capitalism, and attribute their own goodness or badness to that idea.
Educating on the true nature of capitalism is an uphill battle indeed.
Published: May 19, 2008 7:47 PM
The only thing that struck me as real nonsense was the assertion that the bad guys should go to jail for the rest of their lives.... all this for cheating on car races???
Of course this was properly antilibertarian rather than anticapitalist.
Published: May 19, 2008 11:24 PM
Anti-capitalism being espoused by a multi-million dollar production, with very wealthy actors and directors and being released by one of the biggest movie studios around that itself relies on a government granted monopoly on 'intellectual' property? Oh, the hilarity.
Published: May 20, 2008 4:17 AM
This from the Wachowski Brothers who gave us 'The Matrix' and the excellent 'V for Vendetta!!!'
Published: May 20, 2008 10:39 AM
Jeff, free markets do exist.....in the heads of idealists. Free markets and fiat currencies are impossible by definition.
Published: May 20, 2008 11:29 AM
"The only way companies can eliminate their competitors and establish a monopoly is through the use of state power against competitors (through regulations, special licenses or charters, etc.)."
You don't need a state to kill off your competition.
Published: May 20, 2008 2:11 PM
"You don't need a state to kill off your competition."
But it certainly helps if they are more efficient and you love your high profit margin.
Published: May 20, 2008 6:04 PM
I noticed some of the cliche evil big business guy things in the movie, but I didn't think of it as all that capitalistic since the main characters parents are obviously capitalists and also the scene with the IP supoena immediately brought the Mises Institute to mind with many of its articles about IP.
Published: May 21, 2008 12:31 AM
An Alternative to Capitalism
The following link, takes you to a "utopian" article, entitled "Home of the Brave?" which I wrote and appeared in the American Daily which is published in Phoenix, Arizona on March 14, 2006.
www.americandaily.com/article/12389
John Steinsvold
Published: June 29, 2008 8:32 PM