Review: When Banana Ruled, by Mathilde Damoisel

When Banana Ruled recounts the story of the United Fruit Company (UFC) as the birth of the modern multinational corporation. The film (perhaps more aptly, “When Banana Men Ruled”) centers on the figures of Minor Cooper Keith of UFC, Samuel Zemurray of Cuyamel Fruit Company, and PR propagandist Edward Bernays, who at the turn of the twentieth century, through their industrial ambitions and marketing schemes, guided the company’s various exploits in Central America and the Caribbean. Following their careers, viewers come to understand how the banana’s transformation into the ubiquitous and beloved commodity it is today was made possible only through histories of land eviction, tax evasion, labor rights suppression, racial and ethnic divisions, and support from authoritarian regimes. By the end of the documentary, the banana is forever recast in the eyes of viewers as “a simple fruit that was capable of conquering an empire,” a trope in commodity...