Super Size Me: A Little
Documentary, Burgers Out to be a Cheese of a Great
McMovie by The Blonde and
The Maven Film Columnists
Remember recently, the two girls who tried to sue
McDonald’s Corp. for becoming overweight from
eating their food? This movie-documentary is a result of
that lawsuit. Writer, director, and star Morgan Spurlock
becomes obsessed with the fact that 60 percent of
Americans are overweight. After Morgan discovered the
girls lost the suit due to lack of proof, he decided to
see for himself.
Morgan puts his own body
through a scientific test. He decides to consume three
square meals a day at McDonald’s for thirty days. He
gives himself only three stringent rules. One: No
options, he is only allowed to eat foods that he can get
over the counter, delivered, or at the drive-through at
McDonald’s, including water. Two: He must ‘super-size’
when asked. Three: No excuses. He must eat everything on
the menu at least once. No biggie, right? It sounded
like great fun to us at first too. Morgan ventures into
this experiment with very well thought-out plans. He
places himself under the strict supervision of a
cardiologist, a gastroenterologist, an internist, and a
nutritionist to monitor his health for the entire month.
He begins this documentary at 185 pounds, six feet two
inches and in absolutely amazing health. All his tests
are more than perfect and very impressive to all the
doctors. Without giving too much away, at the end of the
month, Morgan gains 25 pounds, has a diminished sex
drive (oh my, not good at all), depression, highs after
eating, unhealthy pallor, flagging energy, his liver
metastasizes into a state of shock (as bad as alcohol
would cause), heart palpitations, trouble breathing, and
all his test results were in such a state of emergency
that all the doctors demanded he stop the experiment
immediately or he could die. Dant, dant, dant, dant,
dun! At this point of the experiment, he has over a
week left to go, with a major life threatening decision
to make. We won’t tell you what he does. Go see the
movie to find out for yourselves; it is well worth your
time.
Morgan wrote the documentary with humorous
overtones and very funny scenes amidst all the reality.
Super Size Me also touches on many important facts,
statistics and data on the food industry, brainwashing
commercials geared toward unhealthy eating suggestions,
horrendous school-lunch programs, gluttonous addiction
toward overeating, and a disgraceful lack of physical
educations programs in the school systems cut back by
our government. You will be astonished at the amazing
facts you will learn in this film.
The
Blonde: Well, what can I say? Not super size me. That’s
for sure! This incredibly important documentary was like
a double cheeseburger, meets a Big Mac, meets
French-fries, meets a fish fillet sandwich, meets a
fried chicken sandwich, meets McNuggets, meets a
chocolate shake and a large Coke meets I need a
McBathroom like quick to McVomit!
The
Maven: Morgan Spurlock sure put his money where his
mouth was. This documentary was an entertaining as well
as sobering journey into the world of fast food. The
implication here is that he’s experiencing quickly what
one out of every four Americans experience over a longer
period of eating fast food. Being the one out of four
who often super sizes my order, I felt the movie was
actually directed at me and my ever expanding
waistline.
The
Blonde: Yo, speak for yourself.
The
Maven: Yea? Who ordered double quarter-pounders with
cheese and extra pickles for her last four months of
pregnancy?
The
Blonde: Alrighty, you got me! But, pregnancy eating
doesn’t count! Anyway, before I watched the movie and
heard about the lawsuit with those two girls, I thought
it was preposterous. It made me stop and ponder. Just to
let you know, pondering can be quite painful for a
blonde. Subsequently, and amazingly even to me, it was
actually an extremely important lawsuit about social
awakening. Had they won, it would have forced the fast
food industry to have a moral conscience. Laws would be
made to force the industry to inform the public of
crucial nutritional facts. This would give the average
consumer power to protect themselves and to make wiser
eating choices. The same type of laws is now mandatory
for the tobacco industry. Had the suit been done
correctly and not just for their own “get rich quick
benefits,” it would have made a huge difference to our
naïve society. I can scare you even more by reminding
you that a blonde is saying all this!
The
Maven: Do you really think that this problem is
corporate responsibility or is it up to consumers to
inform ourselves?
The
Blonde: That is the whole point. We are not adequately
educated enough to make that decision for ourselves.
Hence, why we have become the obese country we are
today. Only the nutritionally educated have the chance
to make that informed decision. Now that it has
become a national crisis, it has to go back to the seed
level of corporate or government responsibility. They
now need to protect us. If nothing else, teach it in the
school systems and put back physical education.
The
Maven: You might have a legitimate point there. It’s sad
that it took a documentary, director/guinea pig to put
his own life on the line to expose this dangerous health
risk to our society, caused by the fast food industry.
Too bad though, I’ll never think the same way about
those two all beef patties again. Spurlock managed to
make this movie laugh-out-loud funny, persuasive, and at
times horrifying, while undergoing his unpleasant
changes.
The
Blonde: Funny, before this film, the phrase “Super Size
Me” was something that I told my children they must
learn to say if they didn’t improve their school grades.
Without getting too political, I can’t emphasize enough
how crucially important this film is to society. I feel
it should be mandatory for all schools to show their
pupils. I feel everyone must run out to see it. We all
need to wake up, and the sooner the better. Overeating
is the second preventable cause of death in this
country, first being smoking. One out of every four
Americans is obese. McDonald’s accounts for 43 percent
of the fast food business. There are 83 McDonald’s in
the city of Manhattan alone. Obesity has doubled in the
last 25 years and in children as well.
The
Maven: The most intriguing part of the film was
Spurlock’s interview with Baskin’s son, of Baskin and
Robbins ice-cream. Isn’t it ironic that Baskin, Robbins,
and Ben, of Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream all died young of
heart related illness or diabetes. The
Blonde: By the way, not to change the subject, don’t you
just hate those people who can eat all they want and
never gain weight? Okay, back to you….
The
Maven: They may not gain weight. They may just die from
health problems instead. The Blonde: Oh!
Ok! I feel so much better then.
The
Maven: I thought that might make you feel
better!
The
Blonde: In closing, this was the most important film I
think we have reviewed up to date. It had everything
that should be important to a filmmaker. It was
fascinating, witty, charming, important content,
constructive, informative, educational, intelligent, all
tied together in a funny and hilarious knot. Do not miss
this picture! Take your whole family especially your
children. I give it an A. In addition, I
also advise that you don’t eat anything before or during
this film.
The
Maven: Morgan Spurlock puts a human face on questions
that should concern the nation as a whole. As a mother,
I recommend Super Size Me and hope its “unhappy meals”
convince you to think before heading to any convenient
fast food drive-through again. I rate this film an A
also. The Blonde: Okay, but that doesn’t
include Kentucky Fried Chicken, does it?
The
Maven: Don’t be ridiculous!
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