The True Cost

"The True Cost" is a documentary by Andrew Morgan which explores the whole network of clothe's production and consume, unlatching the concept of fast fashion and his implications. Approaching the social and envirement impacts, the film shows the true cost of the fashion consume in this age, including the physical and psiquic ills caused by the chlote's production in poor countries without labor laws, ground's contamination caused by the agriculture required for the sector's industry and the social problems related to the economic policies and globalized production chain. The great problem of this film is the attempt to investigate all the issues intrinsic of the fashion cost. When treating multiple questions, the documentary ends up becoming a shallow investigation, without deepening and solidity. This desorganization is allied to a lack of interactions with the viewer and boring interviews, besides not including important social actors of the fashion production.

"The True Cost" is a professionally-done documentary by Andrew Morgan which covers many of the multiple problems caused by America's current clothing gluttony. Going to thirteen separate countries, the viewers visually get a small taste of some of the devastation caused by "Fast Fashion", whether it is drenching of farmlands with pesticides and the resultant birth defects in India to the following of a Bangladesh single mother and garment worker who knew people in the Rana Plaza building collapse which claimed more than 1100 people. Although the topics are,at times, heavy and thought provoking, the overall tone of the documentary is neither gloomy nor preachy. "The True Cost" is an ambitious project that opens your eyes to many of the ills caused by our current economic policies and our addiction to spending. It is a great springboard for further discussions and movie projects. -Jack A

This movie is biased. A lot. But that doesn't mean that what it isn't saying is right.

Because it is.

"The True Cost" is a movie about the clothing industry and the costs the fast fashion world we live in today has, with uncontrolled consumerism and a total lack of understanding of the processes behind the clothes we wear.

And the movie does a great job in showing many aspects behind the product you are wearing. It tells the story of many of the workers, and also owners of industries, and brings home many points, from how the workers labor is made cheap, or how they have to work in horrible environments, to the illnesses people get because of the way the industry works or the consequences for the environment.

The movie unashamedly points to out-of-control consumerist capitalist society as the big reason behind what is happening, with people just buying for the sake of it, and society sending constant messages about the need of buying and changing clothes constantly. It is, as said above, a movie that doesn't hide its agenda. But, at the same time, it is absolutely true that the work conditions of the workers of the industry are terrible, that the environment is suffering because of the industry, and that we buy too many things we don't really need.

This is a movie necessary to think a little bit about what's behind the clothing industry, what we don't see/don't want to see, and how we should care about it because we should care about other humans and the world we live in.

The True Cost documents filmmaker Andrew Morgan's efforts to understand the world of fast fashion (with it's "fifty two seasons a year" marked by $5 shirts and $20 pairs of jeans), a world that's only existed for a few decades and has had enormous impacts on people's lives in both high- and low-income economies. It's a well-traveled and wide-ranging film, sometimes so much so that you get a bit lost for it's jumping from one place to another. But the economic systems that connect garment workers in countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia to North American, European, and Asian consumers are complicated, often intentionally obscure, and they affect people and ecosystems all over the globe, so the film's wide angle view makes sense. To covers so much means that the film sometimes jumps quickly from topic to topic, without digging very deeply into any one issue for long (towards the end of the film, for example, its critique of consumerist / materialist capitalism follows logically from all we've seen, but the discussion can't do justice to the complexity of the questions posed). But for a documentary meant to introduce the topic, that's a reasonable directorial choice to make. Beautifully filmed, with passionate, informed, and compassionate interviewees, The True Cost is worth watching.

This documentary clear shows the exploitative methods used by Big companies and owners and how the slavery has been outsourced to 3rd world countries. This documentary also invokes the responsibility of an average citizen towards our environment. Being a citizen of a 3rd world country like India, i completely understand the situation of the workers in india and the neighboring countries and how our people are being exploited in every industry.

One thing we need to understand is our role in the society. Everyone's role is being reduced to a role of "consumer". Think about it.

Don't worry about the Metascore and Critics reviews. They don't understand how important this film is.