Review of Super Size Me

Introduction

So back in 2002, an independent filmmaker called Morgan Spurlock from New York was laid on his couch over Thanksgiving when he saw a news item about two teenage girls who decided to sue McDonalds for making them fat. Initially thinking that this was possibly one of the most stupid things he had ever heard, the idea germinated in his mind and he came up with a premise that if, as the McDonalds PR stated, their meals were as nutritious and healthy as claimed, then surely no harm could be done if he ate a McDonalds meal as a meal substitute every day for 30 days.

He laid down some rules to follow as well:
· He must fully eat three McDonald`s meals a day.
· He must sample every item on the McDonald`s menu at least once over the course of the 30 days.
· He must only ingest items on the menu, including bottled water.
· He must eat a McDonald`s salad every tenth meal.
· He must "Super Size" his meal whenever, and only when, the option is offered to him.
· He must only walk 4,000 steps per day.

And so the experiment began in February 2003. Before he started he consulted three doctors with different specialities who recorded the results pre-experiment and continued to monitor him throughout. He also enlisted other help as well in terms of logging his weight and the nutritional value of his meals. He then had a slap-up and completely unappetising last meal with his vegan girlfriend Alex before starting the following morning.

What then follows is both the effect on his body and health of what is quite frankly the result of stupidly eating McDonalds meals for a full month and an examination of the fast/processed food culture in US society.

One other important thing to note is that whilst the `sandwiches` are exactly the same size and recipe everywhere, the US portion sizes are considerably larger than here in the UK. The largest drink and fries portion sizes in the UK would only be a medium size in the US with another size available prior to the Super Size...

Video

Um, yeah the picture`s ok. Far too many close-up`s of eating for my liking, and it wouldn`t matter to me whether it was McDonalds or haute cuisine, it would still look gross. The less said about the promotional still for the film of Spurlock`s mouth overflowing with `fries` the better…

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack with English HoH subtitles.

Features

Commentary - Spurlock and his girlfriend Alex in a fairly relaxed and enjoyable commentary.

Deleted Scenes - 4 in total that really add nothing substantial to the feature.

UK Premier footage - essentially a couple of minutes of complimentary footage…

Director`s Interview - 19 minute interview with Morgan Spurlock that is quite informative and interesting

Chip Shop - interview with Englishman Chris Sell, owner of Chip Shop (a franchise? I don`t know…) who seem to fry anything that`s suggested to them from Twinkies to Bounty Bars. Sounds gross but actually tastes pretty good according to Spurlock`s mate who gets to taste all that deep fried goodness…

P.E 4 Life - effectively an advert for the P.E 4 Life program that is featured in the film at the Naperville school.

Don Gorske (Big Mac Expert) - prison guard who is effectively a Big Mac addict, generally eating between 2 and 3 Big Macs a day (without fries) and is still quite healthy looking. He once ate 25 on a Sunday!!!

Eric Schlosser - interview with the author of `Fast Food Nation` who talks about how one burger is made from the meat of up to a thousand cattle due to the way that the fast food industry produces ground beef. Schlosser also discusses the way the US agriculture has changed due to the fast food culture.

The Smoking Fry - quite gross but interesting experiment where Spurlock gathered a number of items from the McDonalds menu as well as `home-made` food from a different restaurant to see how long it all took to break down. The `home-made` stuff went pretty quickly and the McDonalds sandwiches (why do they call them that?) followed shortly after. The McDonalds fries, however, still looked as they`d just been bought that day after 10(!) weeks with no signs of rotting.

Conclusion

I`ll admit up front that I had severe reservations going into this film. So you think that eating McDonalds three times a day for a month is unhealthy? No s***, Spurlock. I`m no fan of McDonalds in particular, prefer Burger King myself if I have any at all, but surely there`s a wider argument to be made about personal choice and the sorts of food we eat in general in a world full of processed food. To be fair, Spurlock does kind of make the argument, particularly about the former. He states in an interview, but not in the film, that he chose McDonalds purely because it was the market leader and whatever changes it deemed necessary to make would then be imitated across the market. He could have chosen any of the other big US franchises or even some of the lesser known ones, but went for the biggest bang for his buck. Fair play, can`t argue the logic on that one.

On the face of it, the experiment seems to work, although there is a huge amount of trust that you have to place in Spurlock that he isn`t cheating or faking the effects. I was pretty dubious about the extent to which he suffered in the first few days, and overall, but I have this hope that documentary makers have an affinity for the truth and to be quite frank, I`m not about to attempt what he did in order to prove him wrong. For one thing, what went affected him may not affect me. For another, it would appear that he already inspired a couple of experiments where actually the results were quite different to those he recorded. I can`t say if those results are as valid or more valid than Spurlock`s as it doesn`t really interest me that much; it`s just a bad thing to eat so much `fast` food, even McDonalds knows that.

Where his message does strike a chord though is in the general lack of balanced diet and exercise these days. Modern life is rubbish said Blur, and it`s rushed and processed as well which means that in general modern parents find it hard to find the time to cook for themselves and their children every night of the week. Most families no longer eat together and thus we live in the age of oven-ready meals. Schools also see a change in school meals where now the sub-contractor with the lowest bid will provide our children with the meals they eat, which then prompted luv-able cockney Jamie Oliver to step in and try to do something. School playing fields have all been sold off and exercise is almost completely off the curriculum. The computer generation is here. People have to work more, sometimes second jobs, in order to either sustain their standard of living or both parents have to work in order to afford to buy their house. Time is of the essence and no one seems to have the time to take their time any more.

Some people (lucky ones) see that as an excuse, some find it convenient to believe this, whilst others find it a reality. What`s to be done? I have no idea. All I know is that time is getting more precious, it costs more to live now that it seemed to and taking the easiest options are now much more tempting than they ever were. Would a return to the family sitting around a table every night for their evening meal contribute to solving the current obesity problem in this country and the world? Quite possibly, but again it`s a simplistic answer and there are many many other things that you need to factor in, such as whether the food you cook or buy in your local restaurant is nutritiously healthy. Not just a `fast` food problem you know, despite all the hype.

Morgan Spurlock comes across as a pretty likeable guy and his experiment was worth doing as it highlighted some issues in society. It also `coincidently` led to McDonalds introducing `Premier` salads to their menus, as clear an admission as you`re going to get that this film really scared them. Of course, we`re told that even these salads are high in fat, but then the viewer is missing the context of comparison between any manufactured or home made salad (which may still used processed foods).

Useful but not as stunning as the hype would have you believe.