American Factory: What the Must Watch reviewers think

Must Watch reviewers Scott Bryan and Hayley Campbell share their thoughts on American Factory.

It's the first Netflix film made by the Obamas' production company, Higher Ground, and it's streaming now.

Have you watched it? What did you think? Leave your comments below.

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Scott says: “It’s a really fascinating one"

"It’s set in Ohio – there was a car factory that deals with a lot of glass.

"The plant closed in 2010 resulting in the loss of 10,000 jobs. However, a Chinese company then bought the factory and as well as re-employing a lot of the people who were made redundant, they then brought in their own workforce and brought in a Chinese model of working – in the style of what you might read a lot about: longer hours, working weekends, working excessive overtime.

"You start to see this fascinating culture clash between the American way of working which is more unionised and less efficient, and the Chinese form which might not be well-paid, but is demanding and under questionable conditions. It falls to arguments about contracts, and low wages.

"Then they go to China and show how Chinese factories work.

"They had these PowerPoint presentations to the Chinese workforce showing what it’s like to work alongside Americans. It says things like ‘Americans like being flattered…do not start fights with them'.

"This documentary speaks to everyone – those on the factory floor and the CEO. It leaves your own political opinion at home – it shows both sides and lets you make up your own mind."

Hayley says: "It’s incredible to watch"

“It’s fascinating to see the cultural divide when it’s boiled down to a work schedule.

“The Americans are left speechless by the lack of health and safety checks by the new company and how the Chinese workers robotically get on with it.

“There was a bit in it I loved: they were in China, and it was sort of communist propaganda as a ‘work-do’. There were these big dance routines put on by women and children, singing about how amazing the company is, and the billionaire who started it.

“The Americans then get asked to take part – and they did the YMCA in front of all these Chinese people. Everybody knew the moves.

“The Chinese don’t understand why the Americans won’t pledge total allegiance to this company. In my experience, if a company wants your whole heart, mind and soul then they’re probably going to drop you for something cheaper when they can. This is what’s happening at this company. They walk through the factory, pointing at workers, speaking Mandarin so the Americans don’t understand them – and they’re saying the workers will soon be replaced by machines. So they’ve finally be re-employed by this company, but it’s only for a blip.

“There was an amazing point where it says ‘up to 375 million people globally will have to find new jobs by 2030 because of automation.

“The billionaire says at one point: ‘the point of living is to work.’ It’s incredible to watch.

“My only thing with this documentary – I loved everything in it – but it was two hours long. In terms of storytelling, you don’t need that long to tell that story. It could’ve been trimmed without losing out.”

American Factory is streaming now on Netflix.

Must Watch is available as a podcast every Monday evening from BBC Sounds, or through your podcast app.

On this week's episode - Scott told us about the return of 13 Reasons Why and the controversy of the Netflix series; and Hayley explores Carnival Row, starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne, on Amazon Prime Video.

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