Itunes / Amazon Prime. 2018. Doc. 95 minutes.
Dupont and 3M are iconic names in the annals of American corporate prowess and the development chemicals for myriad uses, all meant to render the human condition more tolerable. For decades ordinary Americans with no connection to these behemoths of industrial and chemical technologies knew their names and understood – rather was lead to understand – that their advances and achievements, including developing the vaunted chemical coating known as Teflon (which also became a household name) were “miracle products,” a measure of the private sector’s better judgment in all things. As it turns out better corporate judgement was neither a miracle nor better or even safe as it relates to the chemical compound called Teflon. Dupont and 3M, for nearly 60 years, demonstrably ignored, manipulated and distorted what was known about the dangers of Teflon, which is the chemical the film’s title refers to as – The Devil We Know.
Director Stephanie Soechtig has tackled similar thorny subjects before; Under the Gun was her 2016 exploration of the Sandy Hook massacre, Fed Up (2014), dug into the obesity epidemic and Tapped (2009) the lunacies of the bottled water industry. Here Teflon as well as its constituent elements are the subject, but the greater issue is the duplicity and/or incompetence of these corporations (and various levels of government oversight) both here and around the world that have allowed what might be the greatest contamination of the largest number of humans with a known carcinogen in the history of humankind. If you’re under the age of 60 Teflon is in your bloodstream. This is a startling and well documented fact that the film’s antagonists, including various representatives of Dupont and 3M acknowledge in documents and – when pressed – under oath.
The Devil We Know primarily follows a few West Virginia whistleblowers (some former employees others community farmers) who claim that Dupont and 3M knew about the dangers of Teflon for decades, yet they continued literally dumping the chemical and its byproducts into local their environment, and through sells of its Teflon coated products, across the globe. You have never been in a room with a carpet or a modern cloth sofa, or curtains that was not lousy with teflon – never – it’s everywhere.
Unlike a number of films concerned with man made environmental degradation; An Inconvenient Truth and it’s sequel An Inconvenient Sequel, Chasing Ice, and The Cove among others, The Devil We Know is no faux-thriller. It is straightforward and unambiguous in its assertions as whom and what are the culprits of this travesty – Teflon is a dangerous chemical that Dupont and 3M knew was dangerous decades ago. They also knew that any other chemical conceived to do the things that Teflon does would likely be just as dangerous, if not more so, thus, as is written in the corporate memo that gives the film its most appropriate title, “…it’s better to go with the devil we know.”
The Devil We Know is a charge, indictment and conviction, yet Teflon is only one among thousands of equally dangerous, and highly touted (although completely untested for human safety) chemicals Dupont and 3M and many other companies pump into the environment every moment of every day, while claiming they’re are safe and will make the human condition more tolerable.
It would be SNL funny – if it weren’t horrible – and obvious.