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Fast Food Nation Movie Review
By Kris Kolk
After reading the book, Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser, I was curious about the movie of the same name.
Released in May 2006, the film is fictionalized, loosely based on facts in the book. It claims a cast of Hollywood notables such as Greg Kinnear, Ethan Hawke, Kris Kristofferson, Bruce Willis and Avril Lavigne.
There are a few storylines happening simultaneously. Greg Kinnear portrays a fast food marketing executive enlightened to the “bonus” ingredients (fecal matter) in his company’s best selling burgers and wrestles with what to do with this new education. Another story line is about a worker at one of the chain’s restaurants joining an activist group with ideas of taking on the big fast food company and meat packing plant. Still another story follows Mexican immigrant workers, brought in illegally for the meat packing plant, and how these people are given the worst, most dangerous jobs.
Each of these story lines are intriguing. It’s frustrating that many of the characters don’t cross paths. The movie just seems to take issues about fast food, meat packing and illegal immigrants and fictionalizes them. It’s not particularly interesting. I think a documentary would have been much more engaging.
I wouldn’t say the acting was bad, but the movie had an after-school special feel to it. However, language and nudity were included, so the target audience must have intentionally been the over 17 crowd.
I was worried about seeing some brutal slaughterhouse scenes, but it wasn’t too graphic. Toward the end of the film, the images were stepped up a bit, but everything seemed filmed from reality, gross as it was.
I think the topics raised in this movie are not beyond the understanding of kids; but, this movie is not the material to use. The Fast Food Nation author, Eric Schlosser, has also written a children’s book called Chew on This. I plan on checking out Chew on This from the library soon.
As a topical film, this movie only prompts one to dig deeper into these issues. It doesn’t do its job to satisfy our questions. If you are looking for entertainment, this movie is annoyingly disjointed and pretty bland.
My advice: Skip the fiction and read Fast Food Nation.
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