Note: this movie was one of the first movies that I downloaded to my TiVo using the new Amazon Unbox service. It worked pretty well. I’m going to wait with a full review of the service until I download a few more movies.
Fast Food Nation is a so so movie. What do I mean? Am I just copping out? Not really.
FFN is an eye opening movie that once again shows that the “comedy-documentaries” (eg "Borat", any Michael Moore movie, even "Supersize Me") don’t hold water to a good Hollywood fictionalized account of reality. I feel more for these characters than most of the people I encounter in the above mentioned comedy-docs.
The story centers around the “unseen” world of fast food. A majority of the audience will finally understand questions like; where does fast food hamburger meat come from, who works in those meat production plants, and what people are REALLY like behind the counters?
Bashed by a lot of critics, this movie feels personal and does a great job of relating the trials and tribulations fast food. Lengendary indie director Richard Linkletter once again brings the “ever evolving conversation” into his movies. This is very much a dialog movie. If you are in the mood for an action flick, this one is not for you.
At the end of the movie I felt as if I wasn’t watching a propaganda piece (like I did with the majority of Michael Moore’s movies) and was actually presented a (dear god I shouldn’t say it) “Fair and balanced” look at the industry.
I would recommend this to anyone who really wants to get a glimpse of life “between the bun”.
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3 comments:
Well, you finally convinced me to write a comment. Is this a ploy to get me to respond? :) Fast Food Nation is not even close to a fair and balanced look at the industry. Now admittedly, it does bring forward some things that many people don't know and perhaps do not want to know, but it is filled with "anti" meat propaganda that is hidden quite well. Eric Schlosser does an excellent job at conveying his point, but is often telling of situations that are not the "norm" but in fact occurrences that are few and far between, if they happen at all. Worker safety is a top priority and is taken very seriously in all the packing plants I have visited and audited. Additionally, worker retention is high on the priority list and the companies use a lot of incentives to try to keep good workers happy. The meat packing industry is far down on the list as the most dangerous industry (64th). Cleanliness is absolutely a priority and I have seen situations where equipment is washed and rewashed and further sanitized before use. Workers do not take their knives home, ever. They bring nothing into the plant except for their lunches, and have to get through security every day, their equipment has to be checked and sanitized many times during the day. These are my observations and I have been in packing plants across this country (CO, NE, KS, MO, IL, KY, WI, SD, MN, and ND). Just a note, the plants shown in the movie are actually in Mexico. As you can see, it's something that I am pretty passionate about and food safety and quality are not a joke and are taken quite seriously by meat processors in the U.S. I am glad you enjoyed the movie, but please take it all with a bit of skepticism.
Thanks for the comment Kasey. You would know better than I. I just thought that it presented a very balanced account of things that go on. Of course most of the facilities are "clean", but you know that writers tend to find those that aren't. I thought the psycho college animal rights people were not championed, but lampooned for trying to let the cows out of their pens.
The part that was really stupid to put in was the slaughterhouse video at the end. You could tell that it was inserted to give "shock value" and nothing else.
Great comments!
just watched Fast Food Nation, it's an impactful flick at least... earlier today i passed up a sausage mcmuffin because of it.
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