7/31/2019 Supersize Me Essay (Richard Evans)
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Richard Evans
Using Supersize Me as a basis, identify the ways in which
American Society is represented, both
positively and negatively. In doing so, analyse the ways in
which the producer utilises stylistic
devices in order to create meaning for the audience.
There are many ways in which American Society is represented
both positive
and negative ways. After watching the documentary Supersize Me,
it is clear thatAmericans tend to be portrayed negatively; this
tends to be done through the use of a
variety of devices such as voxpops, montages and the majority of
this is shown through
their ever-growing number of obese people. The stylistic devices
in which Supersize Me
uses are used effectively in a way that emphasises how bad their
problem really is.
The documentary Supersize Me is directed, produced and written
by Morgan
Spurlock, it also stars him. At the beginning of the
documentary, there is a montage of
numerous different obese people eating fast food,
and the narrator (Morgan Spurlock) voiceovers the
montage, stating a few facts about obesity, how it is
on the rise and how things have changed; but only gotten
worse.
Morgan Spurlock explains what his mission is, and informs
thedocumentary viewers how fast food is damaging people, and
how quickly it is doing so. The mission he sets himself is to
eat
only McDonalds fast food for 30 days; this is what is shown
throughout the documentary. He also said he must eat every item
off the menu at least once.
As fast food is very easily affordable, so it tends to be aimed
more towards people who are
working class as they tend to have less money so they are more
able to afford the cheaper fast food.
They also prefer the fact that it is much more convenient for
them as it is prepared for them, and
they do not have to make it for themselves. Also, the way that
fast food companies use
psychological methods of pricing their products, for example, a
Big Mac
Meal is priced at 3.99 not 4, so the customer believes they are
getting a
better deal even though, really, they arent. The above are
factors of whatmakes American Society buy more fast food, and
therefore their obesity
levels are sharply rising. Americans spend $110 billion every
year on fast
food, being the most in the world. Another negative thing that
is constantly
mentioned and emphasised is the fact that school meals tend to
be rather
unhealthy, and then pupils tend not to get enough exercise to
balance it out.
Pupils also tend to misbehave more when have unhealthy school
meals, due to the additives,
colouring, e-numbers, amount of carbohydrates etc. that are
actually in the processed food. The
food also tends to come pre-made, meaning that it is just
delivered to schools where the cooks then
reheat it before serving it. Fresh food is much healthier than
packaged processed premade meals.
Throughout the documentary, Morgan Spurlock visits a number of
different health
specialists that each specialise in a different area of the body
several times whilst during thechallenge to find out what is
changing in his body alongside the diet hes put himself
on. Over the 30 day challenge, Morgan Spurlock who was 32 years
old at the time
gained 24 lbs. (11.1kg), a 13% body mass increase, a cholesterol
level of 230, he also
experiences mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat
accumulation in his liver.
Although most of the documentary represented American citizens
in a mostly negative
way, but on the other hand the fact that there are many highly
experienced specialists
available for US citizens to seek help and then act on their
weight, can be seen as a
positive interpretation. Another positive interpretation seen in
the documentary would
be the number of health clubs that are always available to the
citizens of America,
which also shows that there are ways in which they can fix their
obesity problems, or
get rid of it altogether. If there are no local health clubs,
they can follow in their vegan
girlfriends footsteps (if they have one); this is what Morgan
Spurlock did to recover
7/31/2019 Supersize Me Essay (Richard Evans)
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Richard Evans
from the fatty McDonalds diet in order to lose the eight after,
that he put on during the
documentary. Throughout the documentary, American Citizens are
represented to be very friendly
people, and even though they are fully aware of their obesity
problem and strongly dislike the way
they look, they are still very friendly towards anyone who asks
about their intake of fast food, and
are highly willing to answer any questions they received off
Morgan himself. In relation to the whole
negative effect of pupils misbehaving on a larger scale, there
are schools for young offenders whichare a good thing, meaning
their behaviour can be corrected.
During the documentary, a lot of cartoon images are used in
order to emphasise the effects
of obesity and unhealthy eating, for example, there is a clip
that is shown several times, that is of
people of all different level of obesity lining up in McDonalds
to purchase their supersized meals;
this adds an entertaining aspect to the whole seriousness of the
topic. There is also a lot of archived
footage added of adverts for McDonalds products added, these are
showing what products look like
once they have had the supersize option added to them; this is
used to emphasises the negative
effect of binge eating, or just the general over-eating of fast
food. There is a lot of use of handheld
cameras in the documentary; these add a sense of verisimilitude
to the situation, as you can tell that
they are real-life interviews rather than being scripted.
Handheld cameras are generally used for
voxpops and interviews. Morgan Spurlock also provides a
voiceover throughout the whole of thedocumentary, sort of like a
running commentary.
To conclude, although over 60% of the adult citizens in America
are obese, and there is both
negative and positive representations explained and shown within
the documentary, there are more
negative than positive. Therefore I believe the documentary
represents American Society in a much
more negative way.
