Stats:
Writer: Morgan Spurlock
Director: Morgan Spurlock
Executive Producers: J. R. Morley and Heather Winters
Producer: Morgan Spurlock and THE CON
Year Release: 2004
DP: Scott Ambrozy
Original Music: Steve Horowitz
Runtime: 98 Minutes
Rated: PG-13
Did you ever pontificate as to why so many of us Americans are overweight and obese? Well, Morgan Spurlock did just that, to the point where he filmed a disturbing and fascinating investigative reporting exposé called Supersize Me. Spurlock decided to eat only from the McDonalds fast food chain for 30 days straight to see what would happen to his health.
What would propel someone to take on such a self-destructive task? To prove a point of course. This experiment was spawned by a recent lawsuit where two obese American adolescent girls sued McDonalds, claiming that McDonalds caused their obesity.
Writer and director of the film Morgan Spurlock points out that the fine print of this lawsuit states that if the lawyers for the obsese girls could show that Mcdonalds intends for people to eat its food for every meal for every day, and that doing so would be unreasonably dangerous, then they may be able to state a claim.
This lawsuit brings up a good point: where does personal responsibility stop and corporate responsibility begin? Sure we can choose not to walk into McDonalds and other fast food conglomerates, yet if these fast food chains are bombarding American culture with hypnotic advertising and undeniable accessibility (which Spurlock proves in this film), then the choice certainly becomes much more difficult for people to make.
This was the premise for his filmed self-destructive study of eating only McDonalds for 30 days straight. His vegan-chef girlfriend thought him mad. The several doctors he consulted before his experiment all concluded that he was in very good health. Spurlock created several rules for the month’s endeavor:
1) He can only Super Size his meals when asked.
2) He can only eat food from Mcdonalds, water included.
3) He has to eat everything on the menu at least once.
4) He must eat 3 meals a day.
During the film, Morgan drives across the country eating all of the McMeals that McDonalds has to offer: big macs, happy meals, quarter pounders, fries, sodas, and shakes. Along the way, he interviews scores of interesting people who help prove his point, everyone from fast food customers and McDonalds employees; to the former Surgeon General David Satcher; Nutrition Professors; the lawyer involved in the fast food lawsuit; health advocate John Robbins, an heir to the Baskin Robbins ice cream fortune; an “Artistic Genius” named Ron English who paints dark McDonalds social commentaries; among many others interesting interviewees.
The approach the narrator Mr. Spurlock takes is both factual, churning facts at the viewer throughout the film, while at the same time quite humorous. There are some great interviews in the film. Morgan visited school lunchroom cafeterias throughout the country, and it was dismaying what he discovered our nation’s school kids are offered each day: chips, candy, fries, Gatorade, sugar-filled lemonade, and other various forms of junk food. He interviewed a rep from Sodexho, a company which it seems it concerned more with profit than nutrition. At the time of the filming, Sodexho was the major supplier of food to both the nation’s school cafeterias as well as the nation’s prisons. Another interesting interview was with John Robbins, the Baskin Robbins ice cream heir who talks about how he had an unlimited ice cream diet as a kid which is any child’s dream, yet he became very physically sick from this sugary diet. His uncle Burt Baskin who was one of the founders of the company died of a heart attack when he was only 51, also a result of an ice-cream heavy (in other words, completely unbalanced) diet.
Morgan does a Roger and Me type exposé where he tries to schedule an interview with Jim Cantalupo, the CEO of Mcdonalds (similar to when Michael Moore tried unsuccessfully to contact General Motors CEO Roger Smith in Roger and Me. Unsurprisingly, all of Morgan's phonecalls remain unreturned. When the one-way communication of corporations becomes so apparent in such instances, it makes corporations truly feel like dictatorships where their customer’s opinions are truly the last concern for these multi millionaires.
As his month-long experiment weened to a close, there are several montages of split screened McDonalds ads and familiar McImagery as he eats and eats and eats and gets sick. This bit of the film was quite effective, yet there were other segments where he moaned and groaned into the camera, telling us how very sick and depressed he felt. While this may have been very true, for some reason it felt forced and a bit melodramatic to me.
By the end of the 30 days, Spurlock gained 24 1/2 pounds; his cholesteral raised 65 points; his body fat increased from 11-18 percent. He felt depressed; had intense mood swings; was exhausted; and according to the doctors he consulted he had doubled his risk of coronoary diease.
If you like investigative exposés like, Fahrenheit 911, Outfoxed, The Corporation, Roger and Me, and Bowling for Columbine, then you will most certainly enjoy Super Size Me.
This is a call-to-action film. It makes you think about what food you consume, and it certainly makes you think twice about slapping down a few bucks for your next fast food meal. This film both educates while it entertains.
Using his own body as a living experiement, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock explores today's school lunch programs, declining health and PE classes, food ad...More at eCOST.com
In "Super Size Me", filmmaker Morgan Spurlock unravels the American obesity epidemic by interviewing experts nationwide and by subjecting himself to a...More at HotMovieSale.com
In this hilarious yet informative documentary debut director Morgan Spurlock makes himself the victim of a cruel experiment: he puts himself on a 30-d...More at Family Video
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.