Supersize Me

You only have to walk out your front door these days to put on the pounds. Can Morgal Spurlock's documentary help out?

While bulging bellies is a problem that isn't confined to the United States, it seems that fat people seem to be more prevalent in the USA due to some rather poor dietary decisions. We live in the age of convenience and, if we are to be honest with ourselves, McDonalds is the first company that comes to mind if we think about fast food.

In recent times a court case was brought against the home of the Big Mac alleging that the company was in some way responsible for their ill health. While McDonalds may not be top of your list for healthy eating, most of us till recognise that at the end of the day where we choose to eat is our decision. No-one forces us to eat fast food and I can just as easily pick up a sandwich as buying a Supersize meal; however upon pondering about their lawsuit, a filmmaker by the name of Morgan Spurlock came up with an interesting way to see how bad McDonalds' food really could be for you.

The name Morgan Spurlock probably won't ring a bell for most people however his MTV television show, I Bet You Will, is familiar to most. On the programme a number of hosts go up to ordinary individuals and see how much money it would take for them to do some rather unruly tasks. The concept kind of follows over into Supersize Me in that it sums up the reckless attitude shown by the filmmaker over the course of the thirty days that the documentary spans. For starters it is worth pointing out that too much of anything is bad for you, if modern science has shown us anything it's that a balanced diet is key to healthy living.

Spurlock has thrown out the rulebook however and, for the purposes of Supersize Me, has decided to live off the McDonalds menu for thirty days. The rules of his twisted experiment are as follows: he must eat three square meals a day, all food and beverages must come from the McDonalds menu and if the counter assistant asks if he wants to supersize his meal, he must oblige. On the surface this sounds easy enough, it may not be good for you but almost everyone enjoys McDonalds food. Unfortunately after watching this movie you may not want to see a Big Mac ever again!

Despite the title of the movie and the apparent narrow focus of Spurlock's investigation, Supersize Me happens to be a rather insightful viewpoint of America's eating habits. Through his Jackass comedic style Spurlock actually investigates why fast food is becoming so predominate in the States and ends up taking a special interest into children's eating habits. While critics may question the logic of his experiment there is still a lot to draw from his documentary and it highlights the fact that Corporate America doesn't always have our best interests at heart. The unfortunate consequence of this project is that most people will come away with a bad picture of McDonalds in their minds, whereas a lot of other companies get let off the hook. Despite this criticism, I think it would be a great injustice not to see Supersize Me as it happens to be one of the funniest and eye-opening affairs to be released since Bowling for Columbine or Spellbound. It gives a slice of American life straight off the streets and believe me that is something to behold.

When you think of a Supersize meal, you think that the difference between it and a large meal is like the difference between L and XL. However European viewers may be shocked to see the size of American Supersize meals because the difference between them and their EU counterparts is like comparing L to XXXL. This just goes to show because when Spurlock tries to eat his first mammoth meal it takes him twenty two minutes - and then he throws up! The look on his face afterwards is an absolute classic, the realisation of what he is going to have to go through over the next thirty days has suddenly dawned on him and Spurlock is suddenly an anxious man. As the documentary progresses the depth of choice on the menu also diminishes and as a result thing become rather tedious around dinnertime which only makes the filmmaker's struggle that bit harder. Despite being in an uncomfortable situation, Supersize Me becomes a rather personal offering from Spurlock as he remains honest throughout his ordeal and when he faces lights up on occasions, like upon discovering a new addition on the Texas McDonalds' menu, one can't feel but take a charm to the man.

Watching this documentary you can't help but get drawn in by Spurlock, so much so that it changes from a documentary to a docu-drama. We are introduced to his girlfriend (long suffering by the end of Supersize Me) and she outlines her reservations about his project, as the days pass her mood gradually worsens and your pity grows for her as she details her boyfriend's declining sex drive. The filmmaker even forms heartfelt relationships with the experts he has employed for the documentary as well as those who he has turned to for their insight. His dietician becomes friends with him by the end of the thirty days and despite going out of business, still details his progress over the course of the project. At times some of the experts struggle to maintain their professional composure; even though they know he isn't doing himself any good, they can still see the funny side of things. Spurlock doesn't help matters of course by turning up to his final weigh-in sporting a stars and stripes thong! While the documentary's scientific aspirations suffer as a result of our hero's shenanigans, Supersize Me remains entertaining throughout and you'll leave the cinema with a dopey grin stretched from ear to ear.

For me, the highlight of this documentary was exposing the culture of misinformation that exists in the United States. Some Americans seem to take what they hear and see on television as gospel; Spurlock points out that fast food and beverage companies have a far greater advertising budget, so it no surprise that various food boards struggle to get their message through. One of the results of Supersize Me is that it gets McDonalds to pull its socks up; for example, during filming Spurlock struggled to find any nutritional information in some of McD's restaurants.

Of course if you walk through the golden arches these days you'll be swapped with information and pictures detailing nutritional values and their new healthy range. It's worth pointing out that McDonalds never started out with any ill intention, unfortunately though some people aren't leading a balanced diet and turn to fast food for its convenience, combined with various other factors such as lack of exercise, other foodstuffs consumed and general ignorance the developed world is getting a lot fatter. The PR spokesman for a group representing a lot of the companies under the spotlight in this documentary accidentally stated that 'we're part of the problem' but that they are also 'part of the solution'. Although he probably got the sack for saying that, he really hit the nail on the head.

Various people are campaigning for junk food and other similar foodstuffs to carry health warnings or at least for its nutritional information to have more prominence. If we can at least make people aware of how to lead a balanced diet then they will be in a better position before making a choice on what to eat. Unfortunately this is an uphill struggle because despite the fact that information in healthy eating is now more readily available, most people don't have a clue as to what a calorie actually is. I even struggled with the definition, but it turns out that I remember a few bits and bobs from my school days and my Physics teacher, Mr Ryder, will be thankfully that I actually learnt something in his class! Despite being presented with all the right information, some people can still add two and two together and come up with five.

For example, my favourite piece of the movie was when Jared from the Subway ads was giving a pep talk to some school students. Afterwards a concerned mother and her overweight daughter came over to thank him for his inspirational message. The girl's mother ranted on about genetics, her struggle with her weight and bullying but never once seemed to think that ultimately the responsibility lay with her. Her daughter said that as good as Jared's message was, she could not afford to but the two Subway meals a day and as a result probably won't be able to lose the weight. Is this not the stupidest thing you've ever heard? How and why she couldn't just prepare a few sandwiches for a fraction of the cost at home is beyond me, never mind going out for a jog every morning. This for me sums up the mind numbing reality of the situation that the majority of these overweight people just don't understand the basic concept of healthy eating and finding alternatives to junk food.

While the documentary turns into more of a docu-drama than a scientific experiment, it is eye-opening and says a lot about existing attitudes as well as the barriers that prevent concern parties from improving the situation. Unfortunately Supersize Me highlights some of human nature's faults such as how people always want to take the easy way out or take extreme measures in when faced with a major problem. A lot has changed since this documentary premiered at the Sundance festival; whether these improvements came about because of the issues it raised is debatable, but either way the world is better off because of it. Supersize Me is more like Jackass trying to recreate the scene from Cool Hand Luke rather than actually embarking on a scientific project, all the same it provides us with a much needed wake-up call and hopefully it will not go unnoticed.

Piaras Kelly
Editor, Kikizo Movies