Dir.
Morgan Spurlock, 2004, USA, 98 mins
Cast:
Morgan Spurlock, Daryl Isaacs, Alexandra Jamieson, Lisa Ganjhu
Morgan Spurlock, a healthy, educated, liberal and affluent New Yorker, decides to put the facts in a recent and famous McDonald's lawsuit to the test. Two young girls unsuccessfully tried to sue McDonald's, claiming that fast food had led to their morbid obesity. McDonald's won the case based partly on the grounds that processing food does not make it any more dangerous than when fresh, and in part on the grounds of personal choice. No one has to go and eat at junk food restaurants every single day. In a stroke of high-concept, publicity-savvy genius, Spurlock vows to eat nothing but McDonald's meals for a month. That's breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. If they ask him to super size, he must accept. Nothing else can pass his lips.
Of course, the immediate reaction from sensible people that aren't welded to the couch with their own fatness is - that's going to be unhealthy. Perhaps what we aren't braced for though is just how unhealthy. Spurlock puts on an obscene amount of weight for such a short time, has blackouts, heart palpitations, cold sweats and is memorably informed by a concerned doctor that his liver is turning to pate. Strangely though, despite the engaging drama of this cheeky experiment turned dangerous folly, a short while after watching Super Size Me a curious feeling bubbles up from the stomach. Was that just the cinematic equivalent of empty calories?
Spurlock's style is almost carbon copy Michael Moore. While Moore cops flack regularly for parading his ego by appearing in his own documentaries too much, Spurlock goes one step further and makes a film pretty much about its director. He uses familiar Moore-ish rhetorical devices such as carefully phrased questions in voice over, hyperactive montages and visual trickery to keep the audience entertained and to massage their faltering attention spans. There is even a brief animated scene, more than a little reminiscent of the South Park interlude in Bowling For Columbine, or the Bonanza riff in Fahrenheit 9/11. In short, Spurlock has an obvious stylistic hero. Beyond this though, you might be forgiven for thinking that the barrage of info distracts us from the fact that the central argument is rather tatty. Eat junk, don't exercise: get fat. No shit, Spurlock.
Not that Super Size Me doesn't present us with a series of powerful facts and interviews. Scientists, nutritional experts and lawyers all line up to give their account of the cynical methods fast food chains use to get us to eat more junk. However, ultimately Spurlock's gimmicky experiment detracts from some very pertinent points that end up vanishing into the chip fat. As Spurlock says, " For me, the most terrifying thing in the movie is what we're feeding kids in schools in America ". It's true that he uncovers some disgusting truths about school lunches, but he doesn't really take it any further. Without wanting to take aim at easy targets, surely much of the blame has to be squared at the government, whose consistent education budget cuts have left schools needing to take advantage of the cash offered by vending machine companies and fast food advertisers? This avenue remains pretty much unpursued. Perhaps this is where Spurlock crucially differs from the tub-thumping Michael Moore.
Even the notion of how horrendous fast food itself actually is gets glossed over. Apart from the camera sadistically lingering over a pile of fresh post-McDonald's Spurlock puke, and a few choice facts about the processing procedure, there really isn't anything particularly revealing about the practices of fast food giants. I f it's a penetrating look at the junk food industry you want, Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation has enough disgusting facts to fill a jumbo gallon-sized soft drink container.
The current renaissance in American documentary filmmaking is producing some excellent and provocative works. Soon to be released is The Yes Men, another documentary ostensibly about the people who made it, but lampooning serious issues (in this case the policies of the WTO). The extra baggage that comes with making a polemical film though, is that they are judged on how convincingly their case is argued as much as the style used to engage. While Super Size Me has plenty of entertainment value, and more than its fair share of hideous, shocking facts and lifestyle suggestions, it's flawed at the level of coherent argument. Like the hamburgers it mocks, Super Size Me takes a whole batch of fresh, wholesome and delicious ingredients and mulches them into an unrecognisable patty. Do you want fries with that?
Paul Mallaghan
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