German film called Metropolis released in 1927 (mind you that WWI was only officially over around a decade at this point and WWII was on the horizon)
A wealthy young man, son of an influential politician, ventures down into the underbelly of his city trying to track down a woman he met briefly. What he finds is the absolute slave conditions of the workers keeping the city powered, and a terrible explosion occurs, killing many of the workers. He has a vision of the city officials feeding the workers into a massive god-like mask as sacrifices for the power of the city. He goes on to try and make conditions better for the workers, but is constantly being undermined and thwarted by his social equals.
The scene of even rows of workers essentially doing a goose march into the abyss for the company just sums up what corporate America expects from us now.
Highly recommend this movie. It is a silent film so you have to actually pay attention, but it's worth it. Also for anyone who is a fan of the animated film Metropolis (even better) I believe this was the inspiration.