I got to catch a premiere of it last Spring during SXSW in Austin. Spurlock was at the showing, and he did a very long, very awesome Q&A with te crowd.
I agree with you 100%, he's the kind of guy I'd love to have a beer with (MAYBE I SHOULD VOTE FOR HIM, HAR HAR!).
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Originally Posted by El Blanco
1) Not too ground breaking. Fast food is bad for you. I pretty much knew he was getting sick eating just McCraphole 3 times a day for a month straight
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I like how he makesthe point at the end though, that this could apply to Wendy's, Taco Bell, etc.
He also points out the very obvious fact that you can STILL enjoy shit food like this, as long as it is considered more like a treat, rather than a meal supplement.
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2) Morgan Spurlock is a lot more personable than you-know-who. He comes off as a regular guy, something that other guy never does in my opinion. He actually put his own ass on the line. And he lived in a tiny little apartment. I actually identify with him. No moral posturing, no stupid gimmicks, no ambush journalism with clever editing.
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Well, having been in sort-of-intimate settings with both gentleman, I have to disagree. Michael Moore, before it became too impossible, used to routinely return personal e-mails. He would go online and chat with folks on AOL IM. Perhaps this has changed, but thus is the case with fame. Keep in mind, we're not watching two people on equal footing. Morgan Spurlock is Moore, the year Roger & Me came out. Moore of THAT time, and Moore of NOW, may be different.
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3) I actually was suprised at how many McDonald's are in Manhattan. When he made the film, 83 sites on a 22 square mile island. Just damn.
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I particularly like the joint McDonalds/Whaever other shit chain places.
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4) Here's the big one. At the end of the movie, he says that the only way to fix the obesity and health problems in this country is to make the idnividual descisions. He didn't make us out to be victims of some big evil corporation. He reminds us that the fast food companies are bussinesses and they are out to make a dollar. We don't have give them ours.
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Well, not entirely. No doubt, he made the point you've mentioned, but he also went after McDonalds for failing on their part to be a transparent company that educates their customers (sort of like the THIS WILL GIVE YOU CANCER thing on cigarette boxes, which of course, the big evil government had to FORCE them to do).
Also, he goes waaay beyond personal choices, and touches a lot on marketing and culture. I particularly like the part where he compares student diet habits to those few students who have healthy diet habits, and thus the difference in their academic performance. He hits the theme over and OVER again that companies such as McDonalds are clearly looking for life-long customers, and the way to best do this is by targeting children in their marketing campaigns (happy meals, Ronald, etc.).
He also most certainly points out that certain people, living in certain economic conditions, tend to eat fast food as an affordable lifestyle, not necessarily a rare treat.
On another note: one thing I REALLY like about Spurlock is that he plans to go in to schools with this film and use it to educate kids on better choices. He joked that he would of course have to make an edited version, hehe, one without his girlfriend talking about having to be on top too often.....
But anyway, I think that's awesome. He really believes in this, and he's taking it beyond a mere documentary and turning it into a good educational tool, a project.
Tell me Blanco, how much cooler would it have been, when we were kids, if we got to watch
this film in school, instead of some animated propaganda piece with dancing carrots and apples....?