Contrary to the popular belief of the time, Morgan Spurlock’s amateur documentary “Supersize Me” pushed reform in both fast food culture, and eating habits of citizens, being one of the first catalysts in a new movement in America. This 2004 film, being the first of his works to establish Spurlock as a filmmaker, focuses on Spurlock’s 30 day journey in which he vowed to eat solely McDonalds for three meals a day, and track his overall mental, physical, and social changes over this span of time. Throughout the film, Spurlock consults three doctors (a gastroenterologist, a cardiologist, and a general practitioner) as well as a nutritionist to monitor physical change and gather quantitative data supporting his claim. The film often exhibited
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Among this, the film features many disturbingly awakening tests given to a select group of the public, as well as a stop-in at an Illinois middle school, during which the film expressed the limitations on healthy choices children are given at young ages, factoring into the overall “obesity epidemic” (as it was called by A. O. Scott of The New York Times). Although this movie has both persuasive pros as well as large flaws, I feel that the overall idea that there was/is a desperate need for reform in all aspects of the food industry was successfully conveyed, and, at least in my opinion, is also an easy thesis to agree with. In the few years after this film was spread to the public, Supersize Me gained great popularity, and for obvious reasons. For the most part, the straight forward thesis used multiple successful techniques for it’s support. One of these tactics being Spurlock’s combination of different filming styles. He utilizes a large range of film techniques from factual, statistical data to interactive, cartoon-style animations and pop-culture soundtracks. Spurlock also often interviews a multitude of different people, films his own “home-video” style shots from in his car or apartment, and even show clips of an open liposuction surgery to …show more content…
One of these cons of the film being his overall unconventional style. Though, as I noted before, Spurlock does a great job with implementing different film techniques into this movie, I frequently felt that the movie skipped around to different aspects of this issue too quickly, and that it often lacked sequence. Moreover, the few subtitles the film did include often confused me more. From a somewhat out-of-place interview with Don Gorske (record holder for the most Big Macs eaten) to the liposuction surgery, it gave the audience a sense that a few scenes were added just for extra content, and that while they may have made sense in theory, proved to not work out as well in the final product. Additionally, Spurlock’s experiment could be arguably exaggerated at points. For one, decreasing his exercise during this “diet” period to nearly half of what his usual routine was definitely had detrimental effects on his body, just as much so as the food could have had. He also tends to eat more in larger portions than he had before adding additional effects to his body. Nevertheless, Spurlock still brings his point across to the audience, no matter how skewed in one direction his approach to his experiment may have
Among this, the film features many disturbingly awakening tests given to a select group of the public, as well as a stop-in at an Illinois middle school, during which the film expressed the limitations on healthy choices children are given at young ages, factoring into the overall “obesity epidemic” (as it was called by A. O. Scott of The New York Times). Although this movie has both persuasive pros as well as large flaws, I feel that the overall idea that there was/is a desperate need for reform in all aspects of the food industry was successfully conveyed, and, at least in my opinion, is also an easy thesis to agree with. In the few years after this film was spread to the public, Supersize Me gained great popularity, and for obvious reasons. For the most part, the straight forward thesis used multiple successful techniques for it’s support. One of these tactics being Spurlock’s combination of different filming styles. He utilizes a large range of film techniques from factual, statistical data to interactive, cartoon-style animations and pop-culture soundtracks. Spurlock also often interviews a multitude of different people, films his own “home-video” style shots from in his car or apartment, and even show clips of an open liposuction surgery to …show more content…
One of these cons of the film being his overall unconventional style. Though, as I noted before, Spurlock does a great job with implementing different film techniques into this movie, I frequently felt that the movie skipped around to different aspects of this issue too quickly, and that it often lacked sequence. Moreover, the few subtitles the film did include often confused me more. From a somewhat out-of-place interview with Don Gorske (record holder for the most Big Macs eaten) to the liposuction surgery, it gave the audience a sense that a few scenes were added just for extra content, and that while they may have made sense in theory, proved to not work out as well in the final product. Additionally, Spurlock’s experiment could be arguably exaggerated at points. For one, decreasing his exercise during this “diet” period to nearly half of what his usual routine was definitely had detrimental effects on his body, just as much so as the food could have had. He also tends to eat more in larger portions than he had before adding additional effects to his body. Nevertheless, Spurlock still brings his point across to the audience, no matter how skewed in one direction his approach to his experiment may have