Super Size Me - Research into...

Super Size Me

Super Size Me is a documentary film that was released in 2004 to highlight the issues of over-eating of fast foods (fatty foods) in America. The documentary follows Morgan Spurlock as he attempts to eat nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days. The documentary explores into the fast food industry’s influence on poor nutrition for it’s own benefit and how this mass intake of unhealthy food has an effect on people’s health both physically and emotionally. Spurlock’s inspiration for the documentary was the fast increase in obesity in America.

 

Analysis of the opening of Super Size Me

Even from the beginning of the documentary, we are introduced to what the topic of the programme is. We are met with a track shot of a group of children of all different sizes (some displaying extreme obesity) singing a song based upon fast food. The connotations that we can gather from this snippet it that eating food is fun and enjoyable and that, even from a young age, children are introduced to the fast food industry which could potentially kill them. The screen fades to black, for which then a quotation from McDonald’s founder, Ray Kroc claiming “look after the customer and the business takes care of itself” which is completely ironic as fast food companies do not take care of their customers, yet the businesses are booming. The black screen then fades out into an image of the American flag to show the culture of the documentary, also ironic as American’s are well-known for being a stereotypically ‘fat nation’. A voiceover (Spurlock) then begins to speak, glorifying the ‘big’ nature of the USA with “the biggest cars, the biggest houses, the biggest companies, the biggest food and finally, the biggest people!” This creates a shock factor as all the other items mentioned are something to be proud of, whereas obesity is not. The voiceover begins to supply the audience with hard-hitting statistics that take the light-hearted nature of the documentary to a realistic, shocking level. The documentary presents both audio and visual information that coincide with each other to strengthen the message of the documentary. Spurlock then gives a personal account of his experience with food growing up, which adds to the realistic nature of the documentary. The reason for choosing McDonald’s as the primary target for this documentary is that it accounts for 43% of the fast food market.

The documentary is of a light-hearted and slightly humorous nature in order to attract a wider audience, especially the younger generation of whom can prevent this trend from furthering. The first few minutes of the documentary are focused on giving all the facts about obesity and setting the foundation for the narrative of the storyline to evolve. We are met with Spurlock about 4 minutes into the documentary where he talks directly to the audience and explains his mission.

How is this method/structure effective?

Presenting the audience with the harsh reality of what the fast food industry is doing to people not only draws them in and encourages them to watch the programme, but also sets a ‘no mercy’ message to the documentary. It almost suggests that there is no escape from the truth of fast food, just as there is no escape from the harmful effects that it can manifest. This documentary will be especially shocking for parents, specifically those that allow their children to eat large amounts of fast food. Inflicting harsh truths at the beginning of the documentary also prepares the audience for harsher events to come. Just as with a horror film, the narrative always becomes scarier as the story progresses. This is the same in Super Size Me; the situation being presented is bound to get worse, more shocking and grotesque as we progress further. The documentary is presented in a child-like quality to address the primary audience but also to make the information being presented more understandable for all ages. This is an appealing idea to use in my own documentary as it is targeted at a younger audience. My documentary needs to be made fun and entertaining to maintain the attention of the audience. This could be achieved using animations and more visual aspects (different video snippets changed often) as opposed to overloading the audience with too much information (including statistics) that will bore them and lose their interest. 

Budget: $65,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$516,641 (USA) (9 May 2004) (41 Screens)
£264,843 (UK) (12 September 2004) (82 Screens)
AUD 718,003 (Australia) (6 June 2004) (26 Screens)
€76,911 (Italy) (10 April 2005) (60 Screens)
SGD 70,861 (Singapore) (11 July 2004) (5 Screens)
KRW 18,900,000 (South Korea) (12 November 2004) (28 Screens)

Gross:

$516,641 (USA) (9 May 2004) - $11,529,368 (USA) (26 September 2004)

£264,843 (UK) (12 September 2004) - £809,046 (UK) (26 September 2004)

AUD 718,003 (Australia) (6 June 2004) - AUD 1,343,074 (Australia) (13 June 2004)

€76,923 (Italy) (10 April 2005)
€69,517 (Netherlands) (22 August 2004)
€124,500 (Spain) ( 2004)

Release Dates:

For the UK:     10^th July 2004, at Cambridge Film Festival (premiere)

                        19^th August 2004, at the Edinburgh Film Festival

                        10^th December 2004

For France:     13^th May 2004, at the Cannes Film Market

                        30^th June 2004

For USA:          17^th January 2004, at the Sundance Film Festival

                        13^th March 2004, at South by Southwest Film Festival

                        10^th April 2004, at Philadelphia International Film Festival

                        7^th May 2004, limited areas

                        29^th August 2004, video premiere  

Also released in: Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Singapore, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Netherlands, Thailand, Iceland, Israel, Philippines, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Poland, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Mexico, South Korea, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Argentina, Greece, Italy, Estonia

Ratings:

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rated the original version of the documentary as PG-13 for language, sex and drug reference, graphical medical procedures.

The educationally enhanced version was rated as PG for thematic elements, a disturbing medical procedure and some language.