From Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Rory Kennedy, DOWNFALL: The Case Against Boeing uncovers the extreme negligence and corporate greed that led to two Boeing MAX 737 airplanes crashing within five months.
This isn’t your usual run-of-the-mill documentary about the tried “people over profits” story. This story, in particular, is unique in that it involves the U.S. government, the Boeing company, Wall Street, whistleblowers, death, and those left behind to piece everything together.
Once a budding company in the Pacific Northwest, Boeing was the shiny company on a hill – A gold standard for safety and a company that was synonymous with Seattle. In a city bursting at the seams with engineers, Boeing was the biggest company in the city, and as former employees will attest, everyone loved working there. But as you’ll learn in the film, an upcoming merger would soon disrupt the familial atmosphere that was built over decades and remove the identity of an entire city
Guided by aviation experts, news journalists, former Boeing employees, the United States Congress, and the families of victims, the film reveals a culture of reckless cost-cutting and concealment at the once-venerated company. A fierce indictment of Wall Street’s corrupting influence, DOWNFALL exposes larger questions about the perils of America’s corporate ethos and the staggering human cost.
The film gets a well-earned 9 out of 10. The documentary is so damning that Boeing refused to participate but responded to the film in writing. After drawing a timeline that spanned decades, Kennedy and co. made it easy to piece together what happened and why. If you enjoy documentaries or wondered what happened after the two crashes, this is a great film.
DOWNFALL: The Case Against Boeing is streaming now on Netflix.
-Jon Jones
Photos: Courtesy of Netflix