Movie Review
"Yes," sir, the WTO may have met its match in brainy, bold agitators

By Tom Keogh
Special to The Seattle Times

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The world is a disagreeable enough place that the idea of a couple of goofballs conning their way into World Trade Organization conferences to treat unsuspecting trade representatives like saps is enough to annoy any reasonable person. No matter how one feels about WTO policies, it's natural to bristle over guerrilla theater tactics by marginal opponents of the global organization, or wonder how confusing conferees with bogus issues actually helps the anti-WTO cause.

And yet ...

There is a method to such contrarian madness in "The Yes Men." For all the ethical quandaries posed by prankster-activists Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, it is hard not to be sporadically impressed by the audacity with which they stir people, some influential, out of complacency about the plight of the world's poor.

This nonfiction feature by Dan Ollman, Sarah Price and Chris Smith (the latter two made 1999's wonderful "American Movie") follows Bichlbaum and Bonanno on a campaign to infiltrate WTO events in Europe and Australia.

Having created a parody Web site supporting the new global economy, the two receive invitations from clueless conference organizers in Austria, Finland and elsewhere, asking them to speak to trade reps and officials.

Wherever they go, Bichlbaum and Bonanno deliver smooth yet increasingly surreal presentations supporting long-distance management of Third World sweatshop workers or elimination of such time-consuming regional customs as the siesta. In their bolder moments, they introduce a fake prototype for a phallic television monitor that allows managers to spy on employees, and they even announce the dissolution of the WTO to a stunned room.

Movie review *** "The Yes Men," a documentary with Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno. Directed by Dan Ollman, Sarah Price and Chris Smith. Rated R for language and a phallic prop. 80 minutes. Harvard Exit.

In some cases, listeners barely react to their pointed nonsense (there is some tittering over that monitor jutting from Bichlbaum's groin), but when they do, emotions run strong and very much in favor of doing less for the rich and more for the poor.

Bichlbaum and Bonanno argue that the WTO has no incentive to alleviate poverty, and that it prevents sovereign governments from enforcing policies against corporate exploitation and human-rights abusers. The two soft-spoken men protest not by debating the WTO but by appearing to champion it to ridiculous extremes, such as a scene at an American university in which they slowly enrage students by claiming poor people can be fed with McDonald's hamburgers repeatedly processed from excrement.

"The Yes Men" ends on an unexpectedly moving note when some accountants at a Sydney gathering react positively to spurious news that the WTO has ended.

While they talk with hope about building a new global trade organization that helps the world's poor, you know they'll soon learn of Bichlbaum and Bonanno's hoax. It's hard not to feel their pain.

Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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