Bottled Up: The Battle Over Dublin Dr Pepper

This is a hugely entertaining and sympathetic look at the people of a small town who feel the heavy boot of Corporate America. The filmmakers paint an idyllic picture of the town of Dublin, Texas as it tells the story of the first bottling plant for Dr Pepper, a family run business which provided the heart of the town. Because the plant continued to use Imperial sugar in it's ingredients, instead of the cheaper corn syrup, the drinks it manufactured had a distinct taste to the main product, with a lot of dedicated enthusiasts prepared to travel hundreds and miles and pay higher prices to get their hands on Dublin Dr Pepper. Eventually, in the 2000s, the company suits move to crush the small town maverick and proceed to bring down their full monolithic weight in an unfeeling way. The movie is decidedly anti-Corporate and at the same time very conservative in romanticising the old values and unchanging life of a small community. Better, it is entertaining and filled with warm, passionate people who you would like to be friends with. It does offer a hopeful ending as the townspeople get behind a new, independent solution.