
I know there are summer blockbusters (Spider Man 2) and documentaries (Fahrenheit 9/11) out there that are getting a lot of press — but last night we went to see Super Size Me, which is billed as “A Film Of Epic Proportions.” And it was.
When it first came out, we thought it sounded interesting, but were a little reluctant to spend $20 to hear that McDonald’s food was bad for us, a fact our mothers had already instilled in us. So last night, bored, we saw it was still playing in our local second-run theater, and decided to head over (after, appropriately, gorging ourselves on barbecue).
The movie was REALLY good. I can’t stress this enough — it was totally entertaining, even though of course we already knew the punch line. Morgan Spurlock, the guy who made the film, enlists the help of medical professionals before taking on the experiment of eating only food served from McDonald’s every day for a month — within which he must eat every item on the menu at least once, and will eat 3 meals a day. Spurlock isn’t repulsive like Michael Moore often can be, and comes across as a normal guy — somebody you might know (not that I know anybody who would eat only McDonald’s every day for a month — or do I?). And the point isn’t how bad McDonald’s is — it’s how bad America’s eating habits are, and McDonald’s is simply the biggest manifestation of that. And it isn’t that McDonald’s is evil — it’s that they’re a company beholden to their stockholders, making money through marketing.
Seeing the movie is really making me reconsider the types of food I eat — which I think is the goal of the movie. Even though I haven’t really been eating much fast food lately, it made me never want to eat it again — or at least VERY rarely. Despite the fact that you think it might be a downer of a movie, or that you might not want the nutritional information of McDonald’s shoved down your throat, go see it. Even though it’s sad, you’ll enjoy it. And of course, wonder if you could eat only McD’s for 30 days…