To say that Heineken is a little beer is a bit misleading.
Sure it comes in those small green bottles that beer drinkers have come to know
and love. But the company itself is no small thing. Instead it’s gradually
worked its way into becoming one of the biggest world beer companies around.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
THE MAGIC OF HEINEKEN is a documentary about the family
owned brewing company that is responsible for Heineken beer. While some could
call this a propaganda piece for the company I found it instead to be a
fascinating look behind the company from start to current plans. And this is
coming from someone who doesn’t drink beer!
The movie has a back and forth flow to it, opening with
clips of commercials that result in the background song “The Golden Age” by The
Asteroids Galaxy Tour, a song that many will recognize from Heineken’s
commercials a few years back. It then moves into what is going on with the
company and then delves into its history via the use of stop motion animation.
Being a sucker for stop motion animation this got my interest right from the
start. It also says a lot about the company and how they do things. Where they
do indeed use modern machines to produce their product they also continue to
use things from the past as well. The most important of these is a desire for
perfection.
Some people might think they know Heineken but they’d be
wrong. Most people think of it as a German beer but the fact is the company
began in 1864 in Holland. They
still have a main brewery there to this day. What about the green bottles that
are synonymous with the company? Well they weren’t always that way. Those began
when they came to the US
and family member Freddie studied advertising, changing the fortunes of the
family that had been bought out by other stockholders. Enough so that he
regained the family majority ownership.
The movie continues moving back and forth in time to the
current period where we see them opening up a new plant in China.
This intertwines with an explanation of how they became global, purchasing
breweries in other countries and taking along with them the production of not
just their product but long standing recognizable names from those locations as
well. It’s not just about taking over but blending in.
The company also has a long history of family association as
well depicted here. Not just with their own family but with those of the people
that work for them. They attempt to keep up with good wages, health benefits and
donate to causes that attempt to raise people up from poor surrounding into
better ones.
The production values of the film are up to the task at
hand. Not only are the stop motion pieces I mentioned earlier done well but the
combination of stock footage from the past mixed with newly filmed pieces works
quite well.
As I said, the movie could be mistaken for a puff piece on
Heineken but that’s a cynics point of view, a conspiracy lovers dream that
every film that speaks fondly of its center piece must invariably be hiding
something. The fact is that sometimes there are good people in charge of
companies that actually make a quality product. Since I don’t drink beer I
couldn’t say but people I know speak highly of the brand. Knowing what there is
going on behind the scenes past and present makes them seem even better than I
thought before.
Click here to watch or download.
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