Documentary ‘Super Size Me’ playing at The Met
Objectivity is what respectable journalism is supposed to be all about. Forget that it’s about as easy to achieve objectivity as it is to lose weight on a fast-food diet. The point is to be as honest and forthright as you can.
I refer to fast food for a reason. Hamburgers and cheeseburgers, fries and shakes are the focus of a documentary film titled “Super Size Me,” which opens today for a weeklong run at The Met.
Written by, directed by and featuring Morgan Spurlock, “Super Size Me” is a condemnation of McDonald’s and its Golden Arches that uses an entertaining premise: Spurlock eats at McDonald’s, and only at McDonald’s, for 30 days.
The result: At month’s end, after stuffing himself with everything that McDonald’s has to offer for three meals a day, Spurlock ended up gaining 30 pounds, his blood pressure rose along with his cholesterol (by 65 points), and he suffered a variety of side effects such as loss of energy, change in skin pallor and a decreased interest in sex.
No, that last one isn’t a misprint.
All of this would seem to make sense. Anyone who has eaten regularly at any burger joint (or pizza place, sub sandwich shop, fried-chicken drive-through or Mexican fast-food eatery) knows how hard it is to keep down the calories (much less grams of fat and carbohydrates).
As critic Roger Ebert said in his review of Spurlock’s movie, “Eating responsibly at McDonald’s is like going to a strip club for the iced tea.”
But the fast-food industry, hit where it hurts, has struck back. In much the same manner that Michael Moore’s critics have hit back at him for passing off his pointed polemic “Fahrenheit 9/11” as an actual documentary, fast-food apologists are striking out at Spurlock.
On the Web site Tech Central Station ( www.techcentralstation.com), one essay after the next takes Spurlock to task for distorting facts, for not being balanced and for “gaining weight to fit a movie role.”
Maybe this is all true. Certainly some of it is.
Yet just as you can find any number of books that will agree with Moore’s books “Stupid White Men” and “Dude, Where’s My Country?,” you don’t have to go far to discover that Spurlock has a valid point to make — even if he does stretch the truth.
Look up Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal,” for example. Or Greg Crister’s “Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World.”
Yeah, Spurlock’s critics at Tech Central Station will say, the problem is not the food itself but the unwillingness of fast-food patrons to each such fatty snacks in moderation. Maybe so.
But consider this: As its own site admits, “Tech Central Station is supported by sponsoring corporations that share our faith in technology and free markets.”
And among the names of those sponsoring corporations, which include AT&T, Coca-Cola, General Motors and Microsoft, you’ll find a little company that sells hamburgers.
Perhaps you’ve heard of it.
It’s called McDonald’s.
“Super Size Me” plays at The Met, 901 W. Sprague Ave., today at 3 and 5:30 p.m., Monday and Tuesday at 5:30 and 8 p.m., Wednesday at 3, 5:30 and 8 p.m., and Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 5:30 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $7 for adults, $6 for students, seniors and military (227-7638).
Correcting Auntie’s newsletter
Those of you who are regulars at Auntie’s Bookstore’s Youth Book Group meetings may notice that the store’s July newsletter has the group meeting twice. Auntie’s employee (and newsletter editor) Lois Hughes reports that the group will meet only once, on July 24. For further information about all Auntie’s-sponsored events, call 838-0206.
Unless otherwise noted, all events listed are free and open to the public.
Book talk
“ Auntie’s Book Group (“Cane River,” by Lalita Tademy), 7 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.
“ Women’s Issues Book Club (“The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women & the Artists They Inspired,” by Francine Prose), 7 p.m. Tuesday, Tinman Artworks, 811 W. Garland Ave. (325-1500).
“ Literary Freedom Book Group (“East of the Mountains,” by David Guterson), 1 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
The reader board
“ John Dalmas (“The Second Coming”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Monday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
“ James Nichols (“Requiem”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
“ John Wolfe (“Reho Wolfe: The End of a Salmon River Era”), signing, 12:30-2 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
“ Diane K. Chamberlain (“You Are Not Alone In a Lonely World”), signing, 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday, Journal Bookstore, 13221 E. 32nd Ave. (927-2981).
“ Jim Johnson (“50 Hikes for Eastern Washington Mountains”), signing, noon-3 p.m. Saturday, Borders Books, 9980 N. Newport Highway (466-2231).
“ M.R Shinavier (“The Fuhrer’s Gold”), signing, 1 p.m. Saturday, Valley Barnes & Noble (922-4104).