the corporation movie essay

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The Corporation Documentary – Summary – Analysis

The documentary film titled The Corporation (2003) attempts to present to the viewer different facets of this institution.  The points of view presented in the mainstream media are quite different from the actual realities associated with business corporations.  The documentary is based on a book written by Joel Bakan titled The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power , and is made by the team comprising Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott.  As the title of the book suggests, business corporations are all too often guilty of pursuing profits over the interests of people and the environment.  This thesis is suitably demonstrated in the documentary through a compilation of interviews, film clips and case studies from the past.  Divided in three one-hour episodes, the documentary succeeds in showing to the viewer the various negative aspects of a business corporation, which often gets little attention in the mainstream media and popular discourse.

One of the major themes of the documentary film is the damage done to the environment by large business corporations.  With commercial profitability being their primary motive, many large corporations neglect to address the negative impact on the environment.  For example, many paper mills in the U.S.A dump toxic effluents from their processing plants into the nearby stream or river, causing irreparable damage to the local ecosystem and also increasing risk to human beings.  The other criticism leveled against corporations is their tendency to exploit cheap labor in Third World regions.  A classic example of this is the substandard wages paid to workers of Nike in Indonesia, who get less than one percent of the marked price of the goods they manufacture.

Another well-publicized case is that of Monsanto Corporation, which introduced into the market a bovine hormone injection which had proven unsafe for both animals and humans during the testing stage.  Cognizant of this risk factor, Health Canada had banned the injection in Canada – a move that was repeated in many European countries as well.  Only in the United States was the injection allowed to enter the markets, which eventually caused much suffering for the animals and put the safety and wellbeing of consumers at risk.  In the case of Monsanto, the Fox News network refused to broadcast an investigative story about the company due to fears of loss in advertisement revenue.  The essence of this situation is concisely captured by Grant Ledgerwood in his book Environment Ethics and the Corporation as follows:

“The 1,000 largest corporations in the world drive international investment. Thereby, these businesses have a more direct impact on planetary environment than do governments.  Reflecting a growing awareness of this impact, leaders of international business must accept responsibility for the environment. Moreover, business has an impact on cities and human habitats which are ever more urban; therefore, exploring the urban dimension of how business manages the environment is also important.” (Ledgerwood, 2000, p.2)

The other important theme covered in the documentary is the psychological assessment of a corporation’s traits, since they are given legal rights and privileges on par with that of citizens.  The conclusion drawn by this psychological profiling is quite astounding, for it was ascertained that the corporation is psychopathic in nature.  This psychopathic nature is by no means inevitable, but was rather devised by corporate lawyers wanting to please their clients and a judiciary that lacked foresight and restraint. Noam Chomsky, a noted public intellectual who was interviewed in the film, draws attention to this mistake made by the Supreme Court when in the late nineteenth century it granted corporations all the rights that a flesh-and-blood human being was entitled to.  This crucial event would have a profound impact on twentieth century history as the corporation would displace the nation-state as the most powerful institution in world politics.

Sufficient evidence is provided in the documentary from published reports, firsthand accounts of employees, interviews of industry leaders, public intellectuals and social activists.  Hence it can be stated that the documentary has been effective in conveying its message in an objective manner without compromising on facts and evidence.  It’s central arguments and conclusions arrived thereupon are both logically sound and persuasive.  What makes the film even more convincing is the fact that people from fields as diverse as the academia and the industry are interviewed, which otherwise would have constituted bias on part of the film makers.

Activists like Noami Klien, Joel Bakan and Noam Chomsky have raised these issues in their speeches, interviews and written articles.  As a result of these efforts, the general public has become more conscious of the ‘social responsibility’ side of business corporations and has become more demanding of them.  This claim is becoming more vociferous by the day, as the world endures through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.  This sentiment is neatly captured by Barry Zigas as follows:

“The idea that private enterprise should be harnessed to the creation of social capital is an old claim given new resonance by the financial crisis. After beggaring millions of people and threatening the global economy with ruin, banks and other credit providers surely have an obligation both to run their businesses soundly and to meet a higher standard of social responsibility. While some argue this could hobble, distract, or damage corporate focus on the bottom line, let’s be clear. It was not an excess of attention to social needs that caused the near total collapse of the world’s financial system but almost every other kind of excess.” (Barry Zigas, 2009, p.29)

Such examples gathered from additional research, go on to reinforce the validity and merit of the core arguments presented in the documentary.  In sum, it is a very well made documentary film that does not deviate from standards of objectivity and balance, although in this particular case there is hardly anything praiseworthy about the modern corporation. The flaws inherent in business corporations can be set right to an extent by sincerely adhering to corporate social responsibility principles.  But for every corporation that is earnest in this regard there will be ten others which are not.  Hence, a more viable solution to protecting the interests of the environment and human health is through the enactment of strict regulations.  But this is not going to be easy as long as the powerful business lobby continues its propagandist work in the corridors of the House of Representatives and the Senate.  There is renewed hope, however, in the form of grassroots activism and localized community action.  On the legal front, legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 are much welcome as they tighten some of the existing loopholes in corporate governance laws.

Secondary Resources:

Culp, Christopher L., and William A. Niskanen, eds. Corporate Aftershock:  The Public Policy Lessons from the Collapse of Enron and Other Major Corporations.  Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2003.

Green, Scott. “The Limitations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.” USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education) Mar. 2005: 66+.

Ledgerwood, Grant, and Arlene Idol Broadhurst. Environment Ethics and the Corporation. Basingstoke, England: Macmillan, 2000.

Maignan, Isabelle, and David A. Ralston. “Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe and the U.S.: Insights from Businesses’ Self-Presentations.” Journal of International Business Studies 33.3 (2002): 497+.

Pollard, George. “Gabriella Turnaturi, Betrayals: The Unpredictability of Human Relations.” Canadian Journal of Sociology 34.2 (2009): 560+.

Smith, Ian G., and Yaw A. Debrah, eds. Globalization, Employment, and the Workplace:  Diverse Impacts.  London: Routledge, 2002.

Smith, Roy C., and Ingo Walter. Governing the Modern Corporation:  Capital Markets, Corporate Control and Economic Performance. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Wright, Patrick M. “Corporate Social Responsibility at Gap: An Interview with Eva Sage-Gavin.” Human Resource Planning 30.1 (2007): 45+.

Zigas, Barry. “What Does Financial Capital Owe Society? Corporate Social Responsibility Is a Worthy Goal, but It’s No Substitute for Regulation Subsidy, and Government Sponsorship of Social Institutions.” The American Prospect July-Aug. 2009: 29+.

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The Corporation' Documentary: Analysis and Review

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Psychopathic personalities at work in ‘Corporation’

A bar code serves as a symbol to a protester at the Summit of the Americas, held in Quebec in 2001, in the impassioned documentary "The Corporation."

Land agent: “It ain’t anybody. It’s a company.”

— The Grapes of Wrath

I was at a health ranch last week, where the idea is to clear your mind for serene thoughts. At dinner one night, a woman at the table referred to Arizona as a “right to work state.” Unwisely, I replied: “Yeah — the right to work cheap.” She said, “I think you’ll find the non-union workers are quite well paid.” Exercising a supreme effort of will to avoid pronouncing the syllables “Wal-Mart,” I replied: “If so, that’s because unions have helped raise salaries for everybody.” She replied: “The unions steal their members’ dues.” I replied, “How much money would you guess the unions have stolen, compared to corporations like Enron?” At this point our exchange was punctuated by a kick under the table from my wife, and we went back to positive thinking.

“The Corporation” is not a film my dinner companion would enjoy. It begins with the unsettling information that, under the law, a corporation is not a thing but a person. The U.S. Supreme Court so ruled, in a decision based, bizarrely, on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. That was the one that guaranteed former slaves equal rights. The court ruling meant corporations were given the rights of individuals in our society. They are free at last.

If Monsanto and WorldCom and Enron are indeed people, what kind of people are they? The movie asks Robert Hare, a consultant who helps the FBI profile its suspects. His diagnosis: Corporations by definition have a personality disorder and can be categorized as psychopathic. That is because they single-mindedly pursue their own wills and desires without any consideration for other people (or corporations) and without reference to conventional morality. They don’t act that way to be evil; it’s just, as the scorpion explained to the frog, that it’s in their nature.

Having more or less avoided the corporate world by living in my little movie critic corner, I’ve been struck by the way classmates and friends identify with their corporations. They are loyal to an entity that exists only to perpetuate itself. Any job that requires you to wear a corporate lapel pin is taking more precious things from you than display space. Although I was greatly cheered to see Ken Lay in handcuffs, I can believe he thinks he’s innocent. In corporate terms, he is: He was only doing his job in reflecting Enron’s psychopathic nature.

The movie assembles a laundry list of corporate sins: Bovine Growth Hormone, Agent Orange, marketing research on how to inspire children to nag their parents to buy products. It is in the interest of corporations to sell products, and therefore in their interest to have those products certified as safe, desirable and good for us. No one who knows anything about the assembly-line production of chickens would eat a non-organic chicken. Cows, which are vegetarians, have been fed processed animal protein, leading to the charming possibility that they can pass along mad cow disease. Farm-raised salmon contains mercury. And so on.

If corporations are maximizing profits by feeding strangelovian chemicals to unsuspecting animals, what are we to make of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that living organisms can be patented? Yes, strains of laboratory mice, cultures of bacteria, even bits of DNA, can now be privately owned.

Fascinated as I am by the labyrinthine reasoning by which stem cell research somehow violates the Right to Life, I have been waiting for opponents of stem cell research to attack the private ownership and patenting of actual living organisms, but I wait in vain. If there is one thing more sacred than the Right to Life, it is the corporation’s Right to Patent, Market and Exploit Life.

If I seem to have strayed from the abstract idea of a corporation, “The Corporation” does some straying itself. It produces saintly figures like Roy Anderson, CEO of Interface, the largest rug manufacturer in the world, who tells his fellow executives they are all “plundering” the globe and tries to move his corporation toward sustainable production. All living organisms on Earth are in decline, the documentary argues, mostly because corporations are stealing from the future to enrich themselves in the present.

“The Corporation” is an impassioned polemic, filled with information sure to break up any dinner-table conversation. Its fault is that of the dinner guest who tells you something fascinating, and then tells you again, and then a third time. At 145 minutes, it overstays its welcome. The wise documentarian should treat film stock as a non-renewable commodity.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Harold Crooks

Directed by

• Jennifer Abbot
• Mark Achbar

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The Corporation

• Film Format: 35mm
• Origin: Canada
• Runtime: 145
• Language: English
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Jennifer Abbott

Jennifer Abbott is a documentary maker, cultural activist and editor with a particular interest in producing media that shifts perspectives on problematic social norms and practices. In addition to co-directing and editing THE CORPORATION, she produced, directed and edited A COW AT MY TABLE, a feature documentary about meat, culture and animals, which won 8 international awards. Her other past works include the experimental short and video installation about interracial relationships SKINNED which toured North America and Europe including New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Abbott has also edited numerous documentaries, installations and performance works including TWO BRIDES AND A SCALPEL: DIARY OF A LESBIAN MARRIAGE, produced by Mark Achbar. She is the editor and a contributing writer for the book Making Video œ“In”: The Contested Ground of Alternative Video on the West Coast . She lives on Galiano Island.

Mark Achbar

Working for almost 30 years on films, videos and books, Mark Achbar endeavors, through media, to challenge apathy around issues of nuclear lunacy, poverty, media control, East Timor, human rights, the religious right, U.S. hegemony and corporate power. Achbar is best known for MANUFACTURING CONSENT: NOAM CHOMSKY AND THE MEDIA, which he co-directed and co-produced with Peter Wintonick. The film was honoured with 22 awards and distinctions, screened theatrically in 300 cities and aired on 30 national TV networks. The 2 hour-45 minute epic is the top-grossing feature documentary in Canadian history. Achbar received a Gemini nomination for Best Writer on The Canadian Conspiracy, a cultural/political satire for CBC and HBO's Comedy Experiments. It won a Gemini for Best Entertainment Special and was nominated for an International Emmy. In 1999 Achbar worked with editor Jennifer Abbott to direct and produce TWO BRIDES AND A SCALPEL: DIARY OF A LESBIAN MARRIAGE, the comi-tragic story of Canada's first legally-married same-sex couple. The film has played world-wide in festivals and has aired in Canada on PrideVision TV and Knowledge Network.

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• Cast & crew
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The Corporation

Documentary that looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history up to its present-day dominance. Documentary that looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history up to its present-day dominance. Documentary that looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history up to its present-day dominance.

• Mark Achbar
• Jennifer Abbott
• Harold Crooks
• Rob Beckwermert
• Christopher Gora
• 150 User reviews
• 51 Critic reviews
• 73 Metascore
• 12 wins & 1 nomination

Top cast 91

• Self - Narrator
• (as Mikela J. Mikael)
• Actor - Dramatizations

• Self - Investigative Reporter
• Self - CEO, Interface
• Self - Professor of Business Ethics, Harvard Business School

• Self - Chairperson, Council of Canadians

• Self - Corporate Sponsored University Students
• Self - Competitive Intelligence Professional
• Self - Professor of Law, UCLA
• Self - Executive Director of Trade Union Program, Harvard
• Self - Author, IBM and the Holocaust
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia The current running time is distilled down from 450 hours of footage and 100 hours of interviews. The first cut ran to 33 hours.

Robert Monks : Again and again we have the problem that whether you obey the law or not is a matter of whether it's cost effective. If the chance of getting caught and the penalties are less than it costs to comply, people think of it as just a business decision.

• Crazy credits The credits display addresses and descriptions of related websites but they can also be found on the official website for the film.
• Connections Featured in Colpo al cuore: Morte non accidentale di un monarca (2009)
• Soundtracks Bad Apple Written by David Wilcox Performed by David Wilcox Produced by Sadia Sadia (uncredited) Courtesy of EMI Music Canada Published by Teddy Bear Musical Publishing, A Division of Karl Music, Inc.

User reviews 150

• Aug 8, 2004
• How long is The Corporation? Powered by Alexa
• June 4, 2004 (United States)
• Official site
• Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (Gas Town)
• Big Picture Media Corporation
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Jun 6, 2004

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• Runtime 2 hours 25 minutes

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The Corporation

40 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

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Introduction-Chapter 2

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Chapters 5-6

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Summary and Study Guide

Published in 2004, The Corporation , by legal scholar Joel Bakan, demonstrates that corporations often misbehave because it is in their nature to do so. The corporate legal mandate, to pursue profit on behalf of shareholders, impels corporations to take any action, including callous, antisocial, and even unlawful behaviors, so long as they generate a profit.

Because corporations are created by governments, they are beholden to the state for their survival, yet they often manage to co-opt regulators to serve corporate agendas. They have become, in many instances, more powerful than their overseers. Bakan points out that the state retains the power to control, punish, and even kill off corporations, and that citizens should back efforts by governments to revive their authority over the behemoths of business.

Chapter 1, “The Corporation’s Rise to Dominance,” outlines the history and growth of corporations in Western society, especially in the United States, where corporate activity is at first given free rein. During the Great Depression—widely blamed on corporate misbehavior—much of that power is clawed back by the government. In the late 20th century, the political winds change, and power and freedom are returned to corporations, with decidedly mixed results.

In Chapter 2, “Business as Usual,” Bakan explains how corporations will do anything to make profits, not because their managers are evil, but because corporations must by law focus exclusively on activities that benefit shareholders. This results in corporations behaving like psychopaths—unfeeling, antisocial, manipulative, charming—that paint themselves as good and caring corporate citizens only because such a strategy generates a favorable financial outcome.

The third chapter, “The Externalizing Machine,” assembles evidence that corporations often knowingly make decisions that cause harm or death, and they continue to do so in the face of public outrage or legal penalties as long as it is profitable. A number of incidents are presented where corporations display such callousness, including use of dangerous overseas sweatshops, an automobile design that is expected to increase accidental deaths, and safety cutbacks that cause an oilfield explosion—all in the name of “externalizing” costs.

Chapter 4, “Democracy Ltd.,” lists many examples of corporate manipulation of legislators and regulators. The most common way to accomplish this is by paying them to look the other way when companies misbehave. In one infamous case, a cabal of American corporate leaders goes so far as to plot a takeover of the Depression-era Roosevelt administration.

Chapter 5, “Corporations Unlimited,” describes how corporations are changing societies to suit themselves by turning public spaces into vast marketing efforts, putting ads in children’s educational materials, and encouraging people to abandon cherished human values in favor of consumerism.

And Chapter 6, “Reckoning,” makes specific suggestions on how to wrest society and culture back from the corporations and to restrict once again the freedoms those companies have persuaded us to give them.

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“The Corporation”: The Idea of the Movie and Analysis

If there will always be dominating, self-serving institutions, why is the corporate rule today any worse than the alternatives?

The movie The corporation gives us a good and clear description of the main processes peculiar to the economy of the majority of states in the world nowadays. It states the fact that business corporations became the leading power. However, it is not the best possible variant. Taking into account the idea that there always should be the leading power, it is possible to say that business corporation as the dominant institution will lead to the decline of society as only mercantile relations would be appreciated. Moreover, men will take care only about money and benefits, and it will result in the destruction of relations between people.

One person stated that corporations “have no soul to save, nobody to incarcerate. What does this mean?

It is obvious that this statement can be taken as one of the best characteristics of the majority of business corporations nowadays. The first part of the statement means that a corporation does not care about personal feelings, emotions, or some moral aspects of human beings. The only thing it takes into account is a benefit, and that is why all the work of a corporation is subordinated to this issue. Nevertheless, the second part of the statement means that corporations have abilities that are not peculiar to human beings, and that is why accepted norms of behavior cannot be applied to them.

A Monsanto product called Posilac (BST) is an artificial hormone for factory farm cows that increase milk production. How does this product benefit the farmer?

Posilac is a product which is aimed at helping a farmer to obtain more milk. However, as any newly created remedy, it does not function in accordance with the laws of nature. Causing some abnormal changes in the organism of a cow, it, however, also accomplishes its main task. Besides, a farmer should also provide treatment for a cow. This way of increasing the amount of milk seems to be rather strange and not beneficial, however, if a product is still demanded and farmers use it, postils can be called rather efficient and beneficial. This chain of actions can serve as a good example of the functioning of corporations nowadays.

How might capitalists defend such privatizing of the commons?

There is no use denying the fact that nowadays almost everything has turned into a good which can be sold. That is why it is necessary to be ready to protect some things which are of great value for a person. The first obvious method is a public protest. It is almost impossible to go against a giant international corporation alone. However, it is possible to resist it if society supports a person. Moreover, some laws which protect valuable things should be accepted by the government to protect people from claims of business corporations.

The movie describes different advertising techniques such as students who became walking billboards for a corporation in exchange for college tuition, product branding (e.g., Disney and the concept of “family magic”), real-life product placement. What if anything is wrong with these?

Nowadays, we can observe a great number of people who want to earn money taking part in advertising companies of some huge corporations. Usually, they become walking billboards and promote the services of a company in this way. At first gaze, it seems to be a usual way to earn money. However, another question appears. It is the question of human dignity. Sometimes, jobs of this kind can be rather humiliating and unpleasant for people. Moreover, very often, it is not their fault that they have to earn money in this way. That is why all these advertising companies and people’s participation in them should be rethought.

To what extent do companies have a moral responsibility to limit the use of their products?

It is obvious that companies should take into account the moral and ethic norms that exist in society. It should be absolutely unacceptable for them to work in countries where the dignity of a person is humiliated, and his/her life is threatened. Unfortunately, very often, these issues are ignored as companies want to earn money most of all.

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Ethics in “The Corporation” Documentary Essay

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Introduction

Corporation raises a number of ethical issues and discusses unethical aspects that can be identified in the world of business. A list of several issues mentioned in the movie follows.

• Environmental harm (corporations know that their activities are harmful, but they do nothing to stop their growth);
• Questionable sustainability (people who lead corporations cannot be sure of what they do and why they try to do something);
• Legalized destruction (there are laws and legal explanations of the actions and services introduced by corporations, and people can do nothing to stop their activities);
• Externalities (the consequences of industrial and commercial activities that may affect a number of people, without any benefits offered in return).
• A misunderstanding that a corporation is a gift that can serve the public good.
• Doubtful loyalty (people who are not considered necessary are neglected and forgotten);
• Cost-effectiveness (corporations deal with business decisions; nothing personal is observed).
• Undercovered messages (people want to use the information they hear);
• The possibility of using devastation to increase opportunity.
• Manipulating children is a method used by many corporations.

In fact, child manipulation seems to be one of the most unethical entries on this list, because a number of areas of human life undergo considerable changes and challenges. Of course, there are many corporations that base their activities and services on advertising. Still, when corporations start searching for benefits from advertising aimed at children and earning based on children’s needs, the worth and ethical aspects of such situations raise a number of questions.

Advertising is a powerful weapon in today’s world, and children, as well as their parents, are in danger of being defeated by such weapons. Child development, a person’s psychological state, and even the perception of this world undergo considerable changes.

The video shows that numerous incidents of napping bother American and Canadian parents day by day. It is hard to visit a shop and not to hear some napping from a child. It seems to be an ordinary thing to observe a child reaching for some products and crying. This is one of the most serious consequences arising from the actions of corporations. Some representatives even admit that if their task is to sell a product; they do not care if children or adults may undergo some influence. Such truth is both dramatic and painful to contemplate.

In fact, with regard to the ideas offered in the movie, it is hard to believe that any kind of company, organization, or corporation could be ethical and follow practices that do not violate human rights. The heads of corporations admit that they have a number of sins, they understand how dangerous their activities could be for multiple generations, and they know that many people could suffer because of the growth of corporations. Still, they cannot or even do not want to do something to change the world.

Their main goal is to achieve some profit. Ethical concerns are superfluities that can be ignored in the majority of cases, or else underlined if attention to ethical issues can bring some benefits. It is a terrible fact, but it is a truth that cannot be neglected.

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• ‘All My Children’ Christmas Movie In Works At Lifetime

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All My Children is eying a return, this time as a holiday movie. Lifetime is in early development on Christmas In Pine Valley , an original movie followup to the long-running ABC daytime drama, a spokesperson confirmed to Deadline.

According to sources, conversations are currently underway on the project, which is in a conceptual stage. There is no writer, and it is unclear yet which characters from the original series may be featured in the film.

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This is not the first effort to revisit All My Children, the Agnes Nixon-created daytime drama which aired for 41 years on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011, originally in a half-hour format before expanding to hourlong episodes in 1977.

Four years ago, ABC explored a primetime sequel series , Pine Valley, about a young journalist with a secret agenda coming to the town of Pine Valley who becomes entangled in a feud between the Kane and Santos families. Popular All My Children almus Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos were attached as executive producers to the project, which did not move forward.

There was also the brief 2013 All My Children revival.

Shortly after the daytime drama‘s cancellation by ABC to make room for talk show The Chew , the rights to it and fellow departed ABC soap One Life To Live were acquired by Prospect Park with the idea to continue the shows as web series. After some major hurdles, new episodes of All My Children started taping in Feb. 2013. By November the show had been canceled again. The rights subsequently reverted to ABC/Disney after a legal battle.

Original movies are a centerpiece of Lifetime’s original programming strategy, with true crime and holiday fare as main areas. Network’s 2023 roster included 12 Christmas movies.

The news of potential All My Children Lifetime movies was first reported by TVLine .

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Chad McQueen, ‘The Karate Kid’ Star and Steve McQueen’s Son, Dies at 63

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Chad McQueen , son of the legendary actor Steve McQueen who played “Dutch” in “The Karate Kid” film series, died Wednesday in Palm Springs. He was 63.

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McQueen is best known for his role as “Dutch” in “The Karate Kid” (1984) and its sequel, “The Karate Kid Part II” (1986). His portrayal of one of the Cobra Kai members was iconic in ’80s pop culture. His character, in particular, exhibited a merciless attitude and encouraged Johnny Lawrence (played by William “Billy” Zabka) to brutally beat up Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) during the night of the Halloween dance.

His character also mocks and threatens the New Jersey native before the All-Valley Tournament. During the second season of the TV series “Cobra Kai,” it is revealed that Dutch has been serving time in prison. Though there were talks of McQueen potentially appearing in the show, scheduling issues reportedly prevented it.

Although he would continue to appear in other films, such as “New York Cop” (1993) and “Red Line” (1995), his film career was not as extensive as his father’s. Following in his father’s footsteps, however, McQueen had a successful career in auto racing, his true passion. He competed professionally in events like the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring and founded McQueen Racing, a company that develops high-performance cars and motorcycles, continuing the family legacy of passion for automobiles.

McQueen was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 28, 1960. He was raised in Malibu.

He is survived by his wife, Jeanie, and his children, Chase, Madison and Steven, a professional actor best known for his role in “The Vampire Diaries.”

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