Joseph Campbell wasn't just blowing smoke from his ivory tower when he said you could tell what a society worships by looking at its tallest buildings — first churches, then state edifices and now corporate towers.

The myth scholar wouldn't find much heroism in "The Corporation" (Zeitgeist, $29.99, unrated), the award-winning and infuriating documentary about the force currently driving ... well, almost everything. Its clever conceit: If corporations are legally considered the same as a person (which a loophole of the 14th Amendment allows), then many of them behave like a prototypical psychopath in their sharklike pursuit of the bottom line: no empathy, morality or feelings of obligation to obey the law or social conventions.

Co-director Mark Achbar was also responsible for "Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media." And with Chomsky and Michael Moore as two of the talking heads here, don't expect a corporate love fest. But other experts — such as a CEO who had an environmental-guilt epiphany — add balance. You don't have to be a big pinko to find the wide-ranging material eye-opening.

There are familiar touchstones — pollution, exhaustion of natural resources, exploitation of Third World workers, diabolical child-targeted advertising.

Other whoppers include a corporate plot to overthrow FDR, and a Fox reporter sacked after allegedly refusing to lie about a Monsanto bovine growth hormone story.

Skillful crafting that employs vintage cartoons and clips makes for a bracing 145 minutes. And the double-disc set has more extras than a downtown block has Starbucks: deleted scenes, assorted media interviews with the filmmakers (including a long, interesting one on Air America radio), two audio commentaries, and more than five hours of extra footage. I zeroed in on info about IBM's punch-card machines used in concentration camps — and gave a second thought to the milk in my iced mocha.

Mark Rahner: 206-464-8259 or mrahner@seattletimes.com