Earth: Home or Fantasy? |
|
|
Adventures in University and the great outdoors. "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself Any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the one who'll decide where to go ..." - Dr. Seuss 
Great Adventures Chic Chocs 2002 X-C Skiing Trip Report Chic Chocs 2003 Telemark Trip Report Patagonia Cycling Trip 2004 (Posted by Nick and Andrew) European Cycling Trip 2005 ---------- Bio Who: Benjamin Heumann Where: McGill University, Montreal, Quebec Why: Graduate School Major Malfunctions: Snow, Telemark Skiing, Snoeshowing, monkeys, Winter Camping, Back Country Skiing, Hiking, Cycling, monkeys, Sea Kayaking, and Rivers (river monkeys). e-mail:benjamin.heumann [at] mail.mcgill.ca Current Reading:The Star Diaries Lem Books of Note (Recently Read): The Futurological Congress, Lem Before Mao, Patrick Lescot Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro Plot Against America, Phillip Roth The Great Shark Hunt Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, R.I.P. Stranger in a Strange LandRobert A. Heilein Give War A Chance PJ O'Rourke Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Animal Farm Reefer Madness Cadillac Desert Ender's Game (again) Kingdom of Fear ------------ Links School Global Environmental and Climate Change Centre Homepage Other Internet Readings "When you think of how many kids died drinking alcohol, I feel I've saved millions of lives," -Tommy Chong
Archives
--- 
|
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
FAST FOOD NATION: I saw Fast Food Nation on Monday night as part of the DLE movie night (although I was the only one from DLE to go). I read the book while cycling solo across France and Germany in the summer of 2004. It may have been the loneliness of solo travel, but I found the book incredibly engaging with vivid narratives of all aspects of the fast food industry from the meat processing to franchise agreements. Although the author of the book Eric Schlosser was co-writer of the screenplay, the movie version was disappointing. The movie followed the model of recent movies like Crash and Syriana, using several seemingly unrelated characters to illustrate a place/space from multiple perspectives. While this technique was touching in many ways (I found myself attached to the characters throughout the movie), I felt that the fictionalization of the book distracted from the message. While the the book was chocked full of facts and details of the industry described in such detail that I am still hesitant to eat meat every time I lift a fork of steak, the movie only implied how the industry worked and rather relied on empathy for the characters to stir emotion against fast food. In particular, I found the images of the meat packing plant to be rather unmoving. Certainly if one has never seen images of a slaughter house, then watching a steer get killed, strung up, bled out, and the hide removed would be disturbing. On the other hand, if one has seen these images before, especially from historical or developing contexts, than the meat packing plant doesn't seem all that bad relatively since either way, you still have to kill the steer bleed it to butcher it. The one area I felt that the movie really could have used more material from the book was how the system of franchises works. I found that part of the book most interesting because it shows how the large fast food chains are trying to push a product but rather are in the business of real estate and its up to the franchise owners to turn a profit while being confined to corporate policy. Overall, I did enjoy the movie and certainly would recommend it despite its faults. It may not hit the fast food industry like the book, or immigration issues like The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, but it does portray the injustice and soulless power of the fast food industry in a compelling and effectively manner. On a side note, I also recommend Eric Schlosser's other book Reefer Madness which examines the underground economy of marijuana, strawberries, and pornography.
Comments:
Post a Comment
|
