The Political Economy of Inception

I’m with Dana Stevens and Chris Orr in finding Inception a bit too hollow on an emotional level to really be great despite many admirable qualities. But what neither of them mentions is the strange political economy angle.

It’s clear that Saito really wants to see that competing conglomerate broken up. The events depicted in the film are not cheap. Instead of investing all that time, energy, and money in a longshot cinematic dream-busting effort, wouldn’t it make more sense to just launch a PR and lobbying campaign to get anti-trust authorities (or other regulators) to do the job? That’s all even perfectly legal. And the film makes it clear that Saito has a fair amount of political pull as is.