Super Size Me

I really didn't like Super Size Me. I thought there was something obnoxiously self-congratulatory about it; like the guy (Morgan Spurlock) was patting himself on the back for not being a gross fatty. The tone was rather contemptuous of overweight people, and while the target of his film is really the fast food companies, there is a continual self-righteous voyeurism about people who actually eat fast food on a regular basis.

The premise of the documentary is to record the impact of eating nothing but McDonald's for an entire month. And the filmmaker checks in with a slew of doctors on a regular basis, all who monitor the demise of his health while on the massive Mac-attack.

I just thought that he thought he was so cool. And I don't know what he proved. Yeah, he made the point that the food is very unhealthy; and yeah, he made the point that the corporations only care about the bottom line, not the well-being of their consumers. I suppose this supports regulation of the food industry, which I'm somewhat ambivalent about. Regardless of where you stand on regulation, though, I don't think he needed to resort to these "heroics" to make his argument. The same information could just as forcefully, if not more forcefully, be conveyed in a op-ed piece.