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CreepyT |
Date: 2004-10-22
The current trend towards obesity in the US is not a difficult one to notice, and yet so many people turn their backs on it. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock does just the opposite. He throws it in the faces of the movie-going public with a unique and intelligent fervor, akin to that of Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation. Spurlock states "Super Size Me is one man's journey into the world of weight gain, health problems and fast food. It's an examination of the American way of life and the influence that has had on our children, the nation and the world at large." Furthermore, "It's a film about corporate responsibility and personal responsibility," and indeed this film is just that.
Spurlock spends 30 grueling days eating nothing but McDonalds food, and exploits the health risks accompanying such a lifestyle in the process. Under the supervision of three medical doctors and a nutritionist, Spurlock's health steadily declines, his weight steadily increases, and his cholesterol skyrockets. All the while, his vegan chef girlfriend, Alex Jamieson, is in the background rolling her eyes.
Interspersed throughout the documentation of Spurlock's McDiet are highly intriguing facts regarding the food industry and its somewhat less-than-benign ventures, as well as interviews with key people who have attempted to urge the public to change their eating habits for the better (such as author John Robbins and former Surgeon General David Satcher). Though this film is chock full of facts and statistics, Spurlock is not without witty repartee and humor. In other words, this is not your average snore-inducing PBS special.
I must agree with the criticism this film has received for not being as scientific as it could have been, as his personal results may not be representative of what others would experience (the Big Mac fanatic Eric Gorske is a prime example of this). Nonetheless, his results are still rather eye-opening and almost vomit-inducing. The public should be aware of the things they are placing in their mouths everyday, and the effects those things could potentially have on them.
This is definitely a movie worth buying and watching over and over again, particularly when you get the urge to go grab a meal from a local fast food joint. This film caused McDonalds to put an end to Super-sizing before it even entered theaters, and that in itself should say something. For more information on the malevolence of the fast food industry, go and read Fast Food Nation as well!
Manny Hernandez |
Date: 2006-03-15
I highly dislike McDonald's. No, wait. I really find McDonald's disgusting! I used to feel that way before I saw "Super Size Me". But the movie actually super-sized my feelings about the world's biggest chain of bad food there is.
As strongly as I feel about them, when the lawsuits against them came out I couldn't help but feel that they were a bit frivolous, by not acknowledging the level of responsibility that we all have as individuals for what we put into our bodies. But worse than the lawsuit was the way it was dismissed, which was beyond laughable, putting the burden of proof on the people who sued McD, by partly saying that they had failed to demonstrate that the food McDonald's served was unhealthy.... Just see the movie, and you will be able to decide for yourself if this makes sense or not.
At the end of the day, the disappointing thing that becomes patently obvious after you see "Super Size Me" is that the consumer's health and best interests are not typically at the top of the agenda of the food industry as a whole, and social responsibility is a concept that seems to elude them when the interests of the shareholders and Wall Street expectations start to knock on the door.
What do I think about "Super Size Me"? It is a great documentary that puts the facts about this critical issue on the table, in a balanced way (actually attempting to incorporate McDonald's comments into the movie, without success). Hopefully a heads up and a call to action: watch what you eat and don't entrust your health to the food places. They owe allegiance to their owners, not to consumers.
Brett D. Cullum |
Date: 2004-06-11
Living on nothing but McDonalds for 30 days?
Spurlock says this is an extreme excercise - a bad idea. He purposefully limits his excercise to reflect the AVERAGE American (who gets little). The point of the experiment revolves around a court case where two girls sued McDonalds for making them fat. The case was thrown out saying they could not prove McDonalds was bad for you, or did anything to entice them. McDonalds claims its food is nutritious. He wanted to show the truth in an entertaining way. This is only about half of the movie!
Beyond the grand experiment lies a look into the culture of food in America. How McDonalds entices young children by marketing squarely at them, how Supersizing has lead to a lot of extra calories at little cost to the restaurant, and finally how all of this comes to play out in the schools where kids pick fries as a vegetable and candy bars to go with them. Why are we as a country fat? What are the ramifactions of obesity?
This film delves deeper than just the freakshow value of "guy gets fat and endangers liver with fast food diet!" If you are offended by this film check out the book FAST FOOD NATION which addresses all of this and looks at where the meat comes from! We need more documentaries like this! Entertaining and informative! I'm LOVING IT!
Thomas J. Wilson |
Date: 2004-12-12
What can one say besides WOW at the very premise of this film. Mr. Spurlock has done something very foolhardy and dramatic to prove a point... we are killing ourselves with the over consumption of food that is cheap, easy to obtain, grossly over proportioned and harmful in more ways than one. Mr. Spurlock points both barrels at the McDonalds Corp. with this exercise (an obvious and widely recognized target), but it literally could have been any of the dozens of fast food restaurants that populate the urban landscape across North America. To eat only McDonalds food, three meals a day for 30 days is something not even the most die-hard McD's fan would recommend, but to do so under close medical examination is revealing to say the least. And the impact this diet has on his physical condition is stunning. Obesity is a major problem worldwide, and all you have to do is look around you to see the impending health care disaster waddling from meal to meal. I'm 47, and when I was in public school in the sixties I remember perhaps two or three girls who had a healthy amount of baby fat and one boy who was slightly obese. Today, children of this age group are phenomenally large and have already established disastrous eating habits. Eating habits and patterns which will get harder and harder to shed as they get older. The primary difference between then and now? Similar to Mr. Spurlock's experience I can count on one hand all the times my Mother and Father and I ate in a restaurant, and I wouldn't use all my fingers. My Mom made virtually every meal we ate, and there wasn't a fast food joint on every other corner and donut shops on all the others. We were not surrounded by things to eat nor where we bombarded with advertising showing us how happy our lives could be if ONLY we went to MacDonald's and ate things. Our society has been so inundated with the EAT = HAPPY and HAPPY = EAT message that we don't stand a chance when the Golden Arches come into view; "I'm having a cruddy day... but look, happiness is right there on the corner! All I have to do is get a huge hamburger, giant fries and an enormous soda... super size? HELL YEAH!". If consuming enough food to feed four people is clearly not enough to fill your considerable gullet, they'll glad give you two more portions for only 39 cents more.
Bon appetite!
The most shocking moment in this film for me was Mr. Spurlock's interview with the man about to have his stomach stapled smaller to control his adult onset diabetes and lower his body weight. In this interview he reveals the major factor driving his serious health problems was his consumption of three to four two litre bottles of pop a day... and he drank that amount until he was temporarily blinded due to diabetic complications. Whoa!!! Could there possibly be any more compelling evidence that respectable companies in our society manufacture food products that are perfectly legal, produced to government regulated standards, cheap to buy, broadly and readily available... and are highly addictive. Not so you say, it's just soda right? Well then try and imagine yourself drinking 6 to 8 litres of anything in a single day... and then go ahead an tell me it's not addictive.
This movie and the book "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser should be mandatory viewing and reading for all high school age children. If our society took more interest in what their kids where eating before school, at school, after school at the dinner table and then for snacks before bed, perhaps movies of this nature would seem totally ridiculous. Until then watch this movie and learn what "just a hamburger" or "just some fries" or "just a can of soda" can be setting you up for.
bluesman2001 |
Date: 2004-08-20
This is a very, very funny movie. I was lucky to see it in movie form, so I can't tell you about the extras, but it was outstanding. I personally do not see the movie as an attack on mcdonalds, as an attack on the commericalization of fast food. the director does a great job detailing the attraction of fast food. I was also amazed at the damage he did to himself during the movie. eating the number of calories in both carbs and fat was enough to kill a horse!!!! He also made a star out of the gentlemen from nevada who eats nothing but big macs. the guy is skinny as a rail, but he only eats big macs. He skips the fries, and drinks diet coke!!
so remember moderation is a good thing:-)
