"BREATHTAKING"   "MESMERIZING"   "TWO THUMBS UP!"
-Anita Gates, NY Times   -Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com   -Ebert & Roeper  
WAL-MART Documentary Movie

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Reviews

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By Owen Gleiberman November 1, 2005

"With little fanfare, Robert Greenwald has become one of the most incisive activist filmmakers in America. Like his superb eve-of-the-election docs, Uncovered: The War on Iraq and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, Wal-Mart is an investigative outcry driven by stringent reporting rather than attitude. Mixing statistics and employee testimony, Greenwald details business practices that provoke a gathering outrage: the coerced unpaid overtime, the foreign sweatshop labor, the health- insurance packages (now being upgraded) that have left thousands of employees to rely on Medicaid, the sucking dry of mom-and-pop stores." A-. Full Review »

By Kenneth Turan November 4, 2005

"'Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price' is an engrossing, muckraking documentary about the retail giant that's been called "the world's largest, richest and probably meanest corporation." But if you're expecting an angry diatribe, you're going to be disappointed. Instead, the predominant feeling coming off the screen in the latest film from director Robert Greenwald is a kind of baffled disenchantment and sadness." Full Review »

By Anita Gates November 4, 2005

"'The High Cost of Low Price' makes its case with breathtaking force. Mr. Scott of Wal-Mart declined to speak on camera, Mr. Greenwald says. The company is worried enough about this film and growing opposition elsewhere that it has hired high-powered former presidential advisers and set up a public relations ''war room'' to deflect and respond to criticism." Full Review »

By Ty Burr November 11, 2005

"The movie's masterstroke is to avoid interviewing the usual anti-globalist suspects and let solid, hard-working middle Americans speak. These testimonies, taken from towns and cities across the country, are cripplingly blunt. ... By the final credits you may want to picket Sam Walton's grave." Full Review »

By Ken Fox November 2005

"With great irony, Greenwald intercuts such bewildering facts with warm and folksy Wal-Mart ads that ooze founder Sam Walton's bogus populism, as well as clips of CEO Lee flat-out lying about his company's concern for the environment, developing countries and the quality of life of its employees. If this sounds like a horror story, it is, particularly for those former employees — especially the women routinely passed over for promotion — and managers who help tell the story." 3½ out of 4 stars. Full Review »

By John Anderson November 4, 2005

"The feeling of lament that informs the film is relieved, eventually, by a catalog of communities who fought and won campaigns against Wal-Mart. It's never articulated as such, but most of Greenwald's stories come out of so-called red states and from people who would ordinarily call themselves conservatives. When a merchant and Korean War vet starts talking about another American revolution --- he saw his Cameron, Mo., grocery go out of business while the local Wal-Mart was getting tax subsidies --- one has to take the Wal-Mart dilemma seriously." Full Review »

By Tony Wong November 17, 2005

"Sensitive to the fact that the $1.8 million documentary could be crippling to the Christian, family loving image of the retailer, Wal-Mart has struck back at the filmmakers by putting together their own war room of spin doctors to respond to the film ... Wal-Mart says the documentary will have limited appeal beyond the 'special interests' that Greenwald represents. Wal-Mart is wrong." 3 out of 4 stars. Full Review »

By Valerie Kuklenski November 4, 2005

"Robert Greenwald's 'Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price' shows just how Sam Walton's retail empire achieves those prices, even while the company reaps billions in profits and his heirs enjoy the distinction of being among the richest Americans." 2½ out of 4 stars. Full Review »

  November 13, 2005

Ebert: "Thumbs up for me too. I don't go to Wal-Mart because the cheaper prices are not as important to me as the thought that I'm getting those cheaper prices at the cost of the lives and labor of Wal-Mart employees ... Basically, if you look at this movie, balance it off some of the answers and listen to the whole story, Wal-Mart on balance has not been good for America." Two Thumbs Up. Watch Full Review »

By Paul Chambers December 1, 2005

"A new documentary, 'Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price,' is highly critical of the world's largest retail corporation ... the film covers topics like the economic impact Wal-Mart has on Mom and Pop businesses and the way the company cracks down on union organizing activities ... it's story is well-told and offers much food for thought." 3 out of 4 stars. Full Review »

  About the film
  Director's Introduction
  The People
  The Facts
  Movie Soundtrack
  Commercials
» Reviews
 
 Wal-Mart's Response:
  The Attacks
  Manager's Script
  Bad Old Reviews
 
 On Location:
  Princess in China
  Embedded in Florida
  Veteran in Missouri
  Parking Lot Crime
 
  Production details
  Financing & Insurance
  Organizing with film
  Research
  Poking Fun
 
  Meet the Team
  Special Thanks
 
  Buy the book!
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