Politically Motivated Movie Review: Fast Food Nation
N.B. I will not be putting up a Politically Motivated Movie Review of The U.S. vs. John Lennon until it comes out on video because it only played here in town for one weekend...and that would be the weekend I was in New York. The Fates just were not with me that particular week.
Um, no. What the hell was this? It was overly-long, fairly incoherent, and left everyone with a sense of complete and utter hopelessness. Don't read any further if you don't want to know what happens.
***SPOILERS***
The movie follows the lives of several people involved in preparing and selling food for the fictional fast food joint "Mickey's Burgers." First, we have the illegal immigrants (the ones who survived their border crossing, that is) who work to butcher the meat. It's really exciting when one such immigrant is badly hurt and the corporate executives tell his non-English-speaking wife that some of his injuries may have been pre-existing and also he was allegedly on drugs, so they're not going to help with the hospital bills. It gets even better when said wife has to go to work at the meat factory to make some money and gets a job on the "kill floor." She and audience members alike are permanently scarred when they witness cows being slaughtered (this audience member probably will continue to eat beef, though, which sort of negates the purpose of this one truly shocking scene in the movie).
Then, we have the Mickey's Burgers corporate bigwig who's been told to investigate the meat plant because an independent study has found that the meat contains large quantities of fecal matter. It's really uplifting when said executive confirms that this is the case but decides not to do anything about it.
And lastly, we have the darling young girl who works the cash register at a local Mickey's Burgers. She's the only one who gets off her ass and does anything...she quits her job and then joins Avril Lavigne (no shit) and some other local college kids to try to set some cows free. But the cows are dumb and don't go through the fence, so they accomplish absolutely nothing.
And neither did this film. Half of it was spent preaching to the audience that they needed to get out and do something (especially if they're young), but this was negated by the fact that the film's one young person who did try to do something failed. What's the message in that?
Disappointing and depressing.
Fast Food Nation
Um, no. What the hell was this? It was overly-long, fairly incoherent, and left everyone with a sense of complete and utter hopelessness. Don't read any further if you don't want to know what happens.
***SPOILERS***
The movie follows the lives of several people involved in preparing and selling food for the fictional fast food joint "Mickey's Burgers." First, we have the illegal immigrants (the ones who survived their border crossing, that is) who work to butcher the meat. It's really exciting when one such immigrant is badly hurt and the corporate executives tell his non-English-speaking wife that some of his injuries may have been pre-existing and also he was allegedly on drugs, so they're not going to help with the hospital bills. It gets even better when said wife has to go to work at the meat factory to make some money and gets a job on the "kill floor." She and audience members alike are permanently scarred when they witness cows being slaughtered (this audience member probably will continue to eat beef, though, which sort of negates the purpose of this one truly shocking scene in the movie).
Then, we have the Mickey's Burgers corporate bigwig who's been told to investigate the meat plant because an independent study has found that the meat contains large quantities of fecal matter. It's really uplifting when said executive confirms that this is the case but decides not to do anything about it.
And lastly, we have the darling young girl who works the cash register at a local Mickey's Burgers. She's the only one who gets off her ass and does anything...she quits her job and then joins Avril Lavigne (no shit) and some other local college kids to try to set some cows free. But the cows are dumb and don't go through the fence, so they accomplish absolutely nothing.
And neither did this film. Half of it was spent preaching to the audience that they needed to get out and do something (especially if they're young), but this was negated by the fact that the film's one young person who did try to do something failed. What's the message in that?
Disappointing and depressing.
posted by Becky Heineke at 11/19/2006 12:01:00 PM
4 comments
