Morgan Spurlocks documentary film Super Size me was and still is one of the most incredibly unique documentary films you can view. The film focuses on Spurlock eating McDonalds, a fast food that many people world wide consume regularly, for a month. He ate McDonalds for every meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner and chronicled his declining physical, mental, and emotional health. The approach is certainly unique and I struggle to think of any other documentaries similar other than Spurlock’s own follow up documentary series “30 Days” in which he adopted all sorts of new habits for 30 days and chronicled how it affected him. Now, there are plenty of documentaries that speak to the unhealthy life-style that many of us have gotten sucked into in terms of unhealthy eating but what really sets Spurlock’s Super Size Me apart is how he put his own body and own health on the line to prove a point. He suffered greatly to make the film and the doctors he consulted to chronicle his declining health all told him he needed to stop well before the 30 days were up lest he cause serious, long lasting damage to himself.
What is truly out of the ordinary is how candid and real the documentary film is, he doesn’t shy away from all the disgusting things that happened to him when he was on the McD diet. Within the first few days we see him vomiting up a Big Mac and fries in a McDonalds parking lot. We see his once flat stomach engorged. He and his wife both speak about how he was experiencing extreme erectile dysfunction. While out of the ordinary I believe these moments are what make the film so successful.
The genre of this documentary film are a mixture of drama, comedy, and shock-realism. In such a heavy film (no pun intended) there are moments of brevity because Spurlock is genuinely very funny and entertaining and that also helps the film succeed. It is not a totally dour affair, I laughed quite a bit while watching it. It helps us to see the absurdity of the lie that McDonalds and the fast food has been selling us for years, that this food can be part of a healthy diet, and that the food makes you happy which is anything but the truth. Studies have shown that nutrient deficient high calorie meals like those served at McDonalds can quite literally make us depressed. We see Spurlock fall into this addiction, he becomes so lethargic and unhappy, and its only until he’s eating his next McDonalds fix that he smiles and laughs and is able to be happy for a moment. Its very akin to smoking cigarettes. The food is actively forming a habit within Spurlock, teaching him that only the food will make him feel better. Again, I believe that this helps the film succeed as it shows us how sick the cycle of addiction is for heavy users of fast food meals.
I agree with you that the humor of the film does help push its message. I can only survive so much depression reality of McDonald’s that the humor from Spurlock.