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Super Size Me film review
SUPER SIZE ME
Running time: 96 mins
Starring: Morgan Spurlock
Thanks to Michael Moore, documentaries have taken on a new power and profile. No longer consigned to the fringes, their appeal has spread to the mainstream with the result that they carry an influence they've rarely enjoyed before. So when Morgan Spurlock's indictment on the fast food industry, Super Size Me, won the Director's Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, McDonald's, the company most heavily under fire, took note. Following the documentary's showing, McDonald's eliminated the Super Size option from their menu. Naturally they didn't state whether the decision was a direct result of the film, but it's difficult to believe it didn't contribute.
It hardly comes as a great revelation to expose the nutritional shortcomings of fast food. Few would ever claim it constituted a healthy diet, but what Spurlock does, beyond underlining the potential dangers by using himself as a guinea pig, is explore the broader impact on a nation reared on junk food.
Like Moore, Spurlock puts himself at the centre of his film. His affable persona provides Super Size Me with an identifiable face and its light tone. But unlike Moore, Spurlock is not exactly hard-hitting or intrepid. Having identified the culprits and the damage they cause, Spurlock doesn't confront them. Instead his efforts to talk to someone from McDonald's are reduced to a few fruitless calls and he doesn't interview anyone who offers an opposing view to the one he is proffering.
Super Size Me centers around Spurlock's experiment to subsist exclusively on a diet of McDonald's for a period of thirty days. Throughout the course of the experiment his health and weight are monitored. As it transpires, what presumably began as a novel hook on which to hang the film almost turned into a fatal undertaking. Starting out in excellent health, within two weeks his liver was showing signs of failure and his weight had ballooned. The detrimental effects of such an unbalanced diet were even more alarming than Spurlock and the army of doctors and dieticians had anticipated.
Beginning with a barrage of facts about how overweight and unhealthy Americans have become, Spurlock later visits schools to see how convenience is the primary regard when it comes to feeding the nation's children rather than a healthy diet. He highlights all the methods employed by the big fast food companies to lure kids, like toys, special menus and play areas, all in the hope that once hooked they will grow up to become future customers.
Super Size Me offers lots of horrifying statistics and information on the perils of fast food, all delivered in an easily digestible form. But in some ways the film reflects the very product it's undermining. In Spurlock's efforts to entertain, he has added a little too much sweetner leaving you temporarily high but ultimately unsatisfied.
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