What’s the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning? For some, it might be that nice hot cup of coffee. For others, it might be taking a nice, refreshing shower. But for almost all of us, it is the thing which unites us all… food. Whether you like burgers, or burritos, food truly is something we all can relate to, as we all need it to survive. One of the nation’s biggest food fanatics, is Morgan Spurlock, who has appeared in the popular blockbuster, Super Size Me which debuted in 2004 and Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! which premiered in 2017.
According to CNN, in the original Super Size Me movie, “Spurlock, famously, ate only at McDonald’s for a month to demonstrate the dangers of fast food, which became a horror movie for anyone who has spent a little too much time in the shadow of the golden arches.”
The film starts out with Spurlock partaking in a full body health assessment before indulging in a diet consisting of only McDonald’s, for a month. At the beginning, he is in perfect health but that soon changes, as he alters his diet and begins consuming high fat, high sodium foods that have very little nutritional value. The message of the film is simple; one simply cannot survive on fast food alone, and despite a restaurant’s attempt at making food healthier, it is not meant for someone to survive on it, alone and can have detrimental effects to one’s health as a result.
Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! “isn’t as neatly packaged conceptually—indeed, it’s a bit of a scattered mess—but still gets to the heart of Americans’ issues with food, the obesity epidemic and how we allow ourselves to be wooed, or at least reassured, by words like “fresh” and “natural” and terms like “free range,” even if, as presented here, they are revealed to possess relatively little true meaning.” Spurlock develops an interest in opening his own fast food restaurant and starts out by conducting a lot of research, making many phone calls and raising chickens meant purely for consumption. He meets with marketing specialists who discuss the creation of “health halos”-making unhealthy foods appear healthy by using terms like “all natural” and “free range.”
Spurlock goes on a quest to try different chicken sandwiches from popular fast food establishments and finds that while grilled chicken is the healthier option, customers like the taste of fried chicken better, even though it is unhealthy for them. CNN describes that the concept is “demonstrated through a comical series of contortions designed to foster those impressions, from meeting the definition of “free range” in the most economical manner possible to literally painting grill marks on chicken to advance the idea that it’s merely “crispy,” not fried.” Through research, Spurlock discovers that these terms are a half-baked attempt at making foods appear healthier than they actually are.
Spurlock’s mission throughout the film is to see whether the fast food industry has improved since he documented his fast food journey in Super Size Me, back in 2004. “Compared to the original, both the message and the messenger look more flawed. But stripped to its core, Super Size Me 2 answers those questions in a manner that still manages to leave you feeling shaken and if not crispy, a little steamed. Through the film, Spurlock tries to find alternative ways and more humane ways of raising his chickens. According to Variety, “Spurlock’s chickens are massed inside, under less horrific conditions than some guerilla footage of chicken farms has revealed over the last decade. But as long as they’re given the theoretical option of stepping outside (in this case, into an area of about four-square feet), that counts as “free range.”” Variety notes that “the whole launch of [Spurlock’s] restaurant isn’t serious, it’s a piece of conceptual satire: a sham-healthy experience. But the local public buys it.” He discovers that the art of fast food is all about marketing. He dives into the meat of the matter and coins up terms that appeal to the public, to make them think that the food they are eating is healthier than it actually is.
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While this film has received a different reaction from the public, “it made the extraordinary point that the processed food that constitutes the overwhelming bulk of most people’s diets is made with techniques that were pioneered by the fast-food industry.” The food we are consuming is in many ways, an illusion (ex: corn syrup and chemicals claiming to be pasta sauce). Films like Super Size Me and Food, Inc. have been effective in bringing the issues of fast food and its perceptions, into the light. Super Size Me 2 “is now just one more chapter in a genre that Spurlock helped create.” It is personable and entertaining and also provides the public with important information regarding the food that they are putting into their bodies. But when it comes down to it, it appears that Spurlock’s film isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
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