Zoolander first appears to most people as a sit back and laugh comedy. However, there is a much deeper meaning inside of all of the comedy. Large companies will often value profits more than human life and rights. The fashion corporation in this film attempts to do away with child labor laws and minimum wage in third world countries, uses murder to help out their profits, and are so corrupt that they can not just make a good product to make a profit.
The newly elected prime minister of Malaysia publicly announces that he will make child labor laws and raise the minimum wage in Malaysia. This hurts the fashion company because most of their products are made in sweat shops in Malaysia or other third world countries. They fear that if Malaysia starts this trend of no more child labor and higher wage then the company will be losing millions of dollars, trying to pay for all of the higher wages. In retaliation the company sends Mugato on a mission to kill the prime minister without revealing their evil plot. In the end, Zoolander does not kill the prime minister and Mugato is taken off to jail. This shows that the writers did not believe that child labor and low minimum wages is a good thing because the corporation does not win and Malaysia abolishes child labor for good.
According to the move, male models have been behind every political assassination for the past 200 years. Abraham Lincoln wanted to abolish slavery but the slaves made the powdered wigs for all of the rich people. Without the free labor they would lose lots of money so they had model/actor John Wilkes Booth kill Lincoln. John F. Kennedy put a trade embargo on Cuba raising the prices of a common clothing item they got from Cuba. So, they hired the two male models on the grassy knoll to kill him. Now with the prime minister of Malaysia because of the child labor laws. This is an example of big companies that value profit over human life.
This movie shows that companies can become so corrupt that they rely on unethical practices to ensure success. You can see the crooked ways in the move such as using employees as scapegoats to cover for their own crimes. One example of this is framing Derrick so it looks like he killed the prime minister out of his own will. This is a funny depiction but a problem with real world companies like ENRON and WorldCom.
Even though this is a great comedy, Zoolander shows a real problem in our modern society. Companies today can become crooked and forget about human life and rights so they can make a profit. This movie shows that we need to put an end to the evil and corrupt practices in our modern society.
