Thursday, December 02, 2004

Hell NO I don't want fries with that!

(Click on the post title to go to the film's website.)

So, tonight I settled down after dinner and getting Ruth to bed. I had a beer and a small (snack size) bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. I warmed up the DVD and popped in Lulu's copy of Super Size Me, a film that I have been really wanting to watch for a while now and she graciously lent to me.

Dude . . .

I had previously seen interviews with film-maker and guinea pig Morgan Spurlock. So I knew the basic premise of the movie:
  • Morgan sets out to eat nothing but food from McDonald's for 30 days.
  • He will eat everything on the menu at least once and will only Super Size if the employee asks him.
  • He gets a full physical and dietary advice from three doctors before he starts out and has weekly weigh-ins and regular blood tests, etc.

None of the doctors could foresee what would occur--I won't get into all of the details because it is better if you see it for yourself and much of it went by quickly so I can't remember it all, but suffice it to say--DON'T EVER CONSIDER EATING LIKE THIS!!

The film itself is extremely effective and Spurlock does a great job. I wasn't prepared for how personable and funny he is. It helps that he has no shame and will discuss anything, including how this diet negatively affected his sex life--even though his girlfriend (the good soldier Vegan, who remained concerned about this entire affair) insisted that the experience remained good even if he got tired faster.

One of the best moments--about day 2, I think--he eats a Double Quarter Pounder w/ Cheese and acquiesces on the request to Super Size. The 1/2 lb. of french fries (!) is just massive as well as the huge soda. It takes him about 30 minutes to eat this meal. I swear he got the meat sweats half way through--and then he threw it all up when he was done.

Clearly, his healthy stomach wasn't ready to accept all that stuff quite yet.

Spurlock targets McDonald's but makes sure that he implicates all of the fast food places equally, along with the food lobbyists of all shapes and sizes that keep whatever government radicals that might hope to do something about this in check. He cautions that McDonald's is targeting children and programming consumers. He also places equal responsibility on everyone (including me) that doesn't have the will power to resist the Big Mac attack and then wonders why they aren't as healthy or as slim as they might want to be.

The film is excellent, provocative, thought-provoking, VERY funny, educational and motivational.

Trust me, I am gonna remember stuff from this film the next time I want to eat at a fast food joint.

2 comments:

lulu said...

I seem to remember a time not so long ago when I was the lone champion of an ads-targeting-children-free universe, freakishly anti-corporate, concerned about the damage done to children by greedy corporations hell-bent on getting our kids addicted to whatever toxic waste they were pushing.

Hopefully, as more people see this documentary and stay abreast of other, similar, information, they will see that marketing these foods to children is WRONG and will negatively impact the children now and ALL of us in the not-so-distant future.

It's time to get that crap out of our schools, and severely limit if not ban marketing to practically defenseless children.

David said...

Sorry. I wanted to get the dvd back to Lulu and skipped over the extras. Maybe I'll check them out again on another visit.
And, yes, FFN is on my list. I had it in my hands once, but library time ran out and I sent it back. But trusty Lulu is letting me borrow her copy. (Since I am getting nowhere with "Reader's Block" and DFW's math book, maybe this will jumpstart something.