Super Size Me
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DVD details
Actor: Bridget Bennett (II), Don Gorske, John Banzhaf, Mary Gorske, Ron English (III)Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
Published: 2004
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-28
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of Super Size Me
DVD Review: Helpful for some
Summary: 3 Stars
I have a master's level education in biology, I am a USDA employee ( I don't have anything to do with livestock or slaughterhouses, believe it or not)and I have been a vegetarian for over 10 years. I'm not saying this to suggest I have some superior view. But this is what I went into this movie with, and if someone is going to take anyone's opinion seriously, they might want to know a little something about the experiences of the writer.
Spurlock created what I could only consider an entry-level documentary. I cannot say I didn't learn anything at all from this movie. There ARE a few interesting facts, such as learning that Sodhexo is the name of the company that sells a lot of sodas and other fast foods to schools; the amounts of money spent by Mc'Donalds and other companies like Pepsi on advertising versus the pitiful amount spent by the "5 fruits and vegetables a day" group; and the exemplary schools of Wisconsin that bucked the system and provide nutritional foods to troubled kids.
This factoid sprouts out of the point our director makes about the harmful role of the schools in cowtowing to the funds of Frito Lay, Hershey's and other such companies. After all, bad habits start in childhood. I only wish more details would have been delivered on the relationships between school board members and food politics and business. This is one of the points I was most drawn in on, and the ball was dropped too soon.
Too bad the adults were entirely ignored. I suppose kids are bigger heartstring pullers, and it's only in childhood where the problems really take hold. Right?
Not necessarily. How many people do you know who find that the increased demands at work ( often at sit-down desk jobs) combined with attending to family afterwards leaves too little time or desire for exercise? Isn't THIS a big part of the problem? Aren't THESE the adults raising the next generation of fatties? Isn't it worth investigating how the modern way of fitting us working-stiff cogs in the cubicilized wheel of a few financial fatcats is killing us? Our bodies AND our spirits?
This is a HUGE part of the issue that I would have liked to see investigated with more depth, and it was completely bypassed, except for one 5-second segment where some woman aid "Exercise? Who has time? I have to work and care for the kids!"
The big trouble with this movie is, the detailed information that people should, and usually do, expect from documentaries, are few and far between. The narrated statements about things like money spent on advertising by Soda companies and the like, school programs, and so forth, could have used more elaboration as to specific facts. We needed more names, nutritional facts, etc.
There were also a few very short interviews with nutritional and corporate execs. Some had tidbits to offer, and when it comes to corporate trash-food execs, we all know their bottom line is the almighty buck, so who can trust them? But without more context of the conversation, there are just too many holes left in Spurlock's show where legal defense can be made.
Even worse than perhaps leaving facts out due to a filmmaking style in need of improvement, the corporate bigwig interview clips are SO brief, Spurlock's effort to paint a one-sided picture becomes painfully transparent. MORE fuel for the fire of corporate retaliation!
Worst of all is that you pretty much seal any corporate fatcat's defense when even the few complete statements you attempt to make on any so-called fact are wrong! After interviewing several people on the street who don't know what a calorie is, Spurlock tries to give us the answer with an interview from a nutritionist. Too bad she gets the answer wrong too! She said a calorie is the energy needed to heat a liter of water by 1 degree centigrade. It's one GRAM of water, dear! Go back to chemistry 101!
Having come this far, I felt that maybe 40%, if that much, of movie time was taken up by a collection of mostly incomplete, often rudimentary information, while the remaining 60% of time was wasted spent on watching Spurlock execute his elementary experiment. What would happen if he ate nothing but McDonald's for 30 days?
Sure, you can say you already know the answer. Even Spurlock says at the end you already know it - fast food is a nutritional horror - and then he reminds us he was only trying to bring a bigger point home; that the consumption of all the fat, salt, sugar and empty calories of fast food can have a way bigger impact on you than you ever imagined!
Fine. But did we really need SO much time spent on watching Spurlock go through an extremely flawed experiment, all the while attempting to keep us amused with his smugness, so reminiscent of some NYU freshman, overwhelmed with his new-found hipster pseudo-intellectualness? WRETCH!! The vomit that came out of his mouth probably had more to do with not being able to stomach his own ego, rather than the poor quality of his dinner! Or maybe I could have been satisfied with 10%-20% of the movie spent on that sort of..er..personalization?
So he threw up. I guess that was supposed to be some proof that it's bad for you; that too much makes you ill.
Well, sure it IS. But the man showed everyone he was forcing himself to eat ALL that he bought! Maybe he just...I dunno..OVERATE! I could throw up tofu if I ate too much of it!
And without trying too hard to pick out the many other flaws, the most basic one I found, is that if you're trying to prove eating a certain food is a problem, and you normally always exercise, then why stop exercising?? Now, how can we tell if it was the food or just the sloth that made you ill? Even the two African-American kids from one quick interview said "Hey! Just get on the treadmill man!", to paraphrase. Running even 50 miles a day won't eliminate ALL the problems with a McD's-only diet, and it won't make fast food good for you, but when you change more than just the experimental factor in a situation, you discredit the whole trial!
Am I being petty? Perhaps. I mean, this IS an emotional grabber on some levels. And sometimes the big points need to be put in our faces before we listen. Spurlock does say at the end that some people really DO eat a ton of McDs. A lot of critics here wrote critiques that seem to disagree, but I have to say he is all too correct.
In my federal office we employ many welfare to workfare people from impoverished neighborhoods; on a long-term temp basis so as to avoid paying out health insurance premiums ( but that's another story). It is amazing how often they run to McDonald's for lunch, and how often I hear them tell their kids on the phone that they will pick some up for dinner, or Kentucky Fried CHicken, or pizza.
I make dishes for myself like couscous, orzo pasta salads, hummous, and other healthier things. Whatever dish I mention, you can almost always gurantee that 9 of 10 of them have no idea what I am talking about. I don't say these things to be stereotypical, or offensive. But these are my genuine, non-exxagerated experiences, which I find rather disturbing. Before leaving college and then private industry, I would have never believed people had so little knowledge of healthy eating and nutrition in this day and age. So a movie like this, while redundant to some, may be a useful wakeup call to others; and perhaps even a lesson to the cynics that no one should ever take for granted that people's needs or experiences are all the same.
Having said that, say you don't need the emotional wake-up call. Maybe you're looking for something more. If so, the movie offers little. Our sensationalized news environment and overkill advertising these days has proven that you cannot keep emotions on a subject running high for long. After the wind has died down, you need more real facts and reasoning in order to keep any argument credible. This movie just doesn't have enough of that, and so given a few more scares on the news about the obesity problem in America, this film will find its way soon enough, onto the pile of stories that went in one ear and out the other for many citizens. It's an ironic shame that a movie about the dangers of fast food should follow the trail of our dumbed-down, transparent, fast food news problem; stories with very little real substance and a lot of filler.
Description of Super Size Me
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock makes himself a test subject in this documentary about the commercial food industry. After eating a diet of McDonald's fast food three times a day for a month straight Spurlock proves the physical and mental effects of consuming fast food. Spurlock also provides a look at the food culture in America through it's schools corporations and politics. "Super Size Me" is a movie that sheds a new light on what has become one of our nation's biggest health problems: obesity.System Requirements:Running Time: 100 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396085435 Manufacturer No: 08543Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, rejected five times by the USC film school, won the best director award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival for this alarmingly personal investigation into the health hazards wreaked by our fast food nation. Under extensive medical supervision, Spurlock subjects himself to a steady diet of McDonald's cuisine for 30 days just to see what happens. In less than a week, his ordinarily fit body and equilibrium undergo dark and ugly changes: Spurlock grows fat, his cholesterol rockets north, his organs take a beating, and he becomes subject to headaches, mood swings, symptoms of addiction, and lessened sexual energy. The gimmick is too obvious to sustain a feature documentary; Spurlock actually spends most of the film probing insidious ways that fast food companies worm their way into school lunchrooms and the hearts of young children who spend hours in McDonald's playrooms. French fries never looked more nauseating. --Tom Keogh
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