Cheap McLibel (DVD) (Franny Armstrong, Ken Loach) Price

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Customer Reviews of McLibel

A decent film, nice follow up in 2005 edition.
This film tells the tale of 2 people in London who got challenged by Mcdonalds for slander, and actually fought back. I thought this film was a decent look into British law, and to think that a coperation could squash the voice of decent by threatening to sue, unheard of in the US unless gross neglegence is in play. Besides, the effort corperation would have to go through to get all the little guys would be difficult in this country, I guess it must have payed off in Britain. Essentially, the two people were able to fight a big expensive legal team and win About half of the claims filed against them, not bad. But also, they proved a bigger point that the british system was flawed, and legal representation needed to be provided to these civil actions. The 2005 follow up show them at the European court aguing this point, and winning it. Neat story, worth a watch.

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When Corporations Attack
What happens when two environmental activists come head to head with McDonalds in court? One side has billions of dollars (or Pounds since this is in England), unlimited human resources to produce evidence, witnesses, and lawyers, and the other side has... two environmental activists. It doesn't necessarily turn out as you'd expect. <
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>McLibel is the story of just such a scenario. Beginning with events as early as 1988, this low-budget documentary unfolds the tale of two activists (Dave Morris and Helen Steel- a postal worker and a gardener, respectively) who refused to bow to McDonald's demands, and instead ended up facing the fast food giant in court for a libel case over an anti-McDonald's pamphlet they had handed out. <
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>The footage is fairly low-budget, but it hardly matters because it is edited together in such an expert story-telling fashion. With almost 20 years of footage unfolding bit by bit, it's hard to look away. The audience watches as the case that was supposed to end in 4 weeks ends up lasting 2 and a half years. Through the introduction of the internet, the two defendants are given a broader audience and thus able to call in more expert witnesses to help them. <
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>Interviews with Fast Food Nation scribe Eric Schlosser, and several other experts on the subject help move the plot along and add substance to this delightful documentary. The court reenactments are a bit forced, considering they have actors playing the roles of the characters in court, but I guess it would be difficult to reenact the court testimonial in any other way. Also, it feels a bit as if the defense is over-playing their hand when they try to lay the blame on McDonalds for the McDonalds litter lying around the streets and the overly mechanized qaulity of a McDonalds kitchen. They are a business after all. <
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>Also, even the defendants themselves acknowledge that they almost feel bad for McDonalds for being so singled out in the trial. For, as they say, McDonalds isn't the only business that's having a negative impact on the world, they're just the only one that tried to sue them for libel. <
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>Overall, though, the audience will find themselves cheering for the two unlikely heros, Steel and Morris, as they plough through hardships in their personal lives and make a firm stand against almost insurmountable odds in a case that ends up breaking the record for the longest trial in English history. Later they go on to trial with the English government itself, which is a separate story altogether. <
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>The DVD extras include a painfully exposing 27 minutes of a secretly taped meeting with McDonalds executives trying to settle out of court. This 27 minutes alone is enough to convince anyone that McDonalds is not on the up and up. That may seem like old news now, but without such people as Dave Morris and Helen Steel, it might not be.

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Great film, low budget
I agree with many of the reviews here that this is a VERY low budget film, but when you watch it and consider what this "low budget lawsuit" did to earn international freedom of speech, it's well worth it. <
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>This is not a thrill ride docu, but the facts that it covers are fascinating and important. It interviews Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Colin Cambell (The China Study), and it covers nearly 15 years of footage (the lenght of the case being covered here alone makes it worth the ride). <
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>The extras are really good, too. Even a thirty minute version of the secret tapes with the meeting with the McD's execs are included here. If you enjoyed Fast Food Nation, you should give this a go. It's low budget, and yes the court room scenese are bad enough to be funny, but they are all read from the acutal court transcript. All in all, this is a very important docu about the most important subject facing many of us today--corporate and governmental abuse of power and wealth.