Super size me
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Super size me |
| Original title | Super size me |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK o. A. JMK unrestricted |
| Rod | |
| Director | Morgan Spurlock |
| script | Morgan Spurlock |
| production | Morgan Spurlock |
| camera | Scott Ambrozy |
| cut | Stela Georgieva, Julie Bob Lombardi |
| occupation | |
| |
Super Size Me is a docu-drama by the US director Morgan Spurlock , who criticizes McDonald’s and other fast food chains and portrays their products as an important cause of excessive obesity that is widespread in the USA . The film also opened in Germany on July 15, 2004 .
content
For his film, Morgan Spurlock subjected himself to a self- experiment : for 30 days he did not eat anything other than McDonald's products. His rules were: to eat exclusively at McDonald's (three full meals a day), to take each product on the menu at least once during the 30 days, to never walk more than 5,000 steps a day and to always order a " SuperSized " menu, if it were offered to him (which was the case only nine times in all).
The film shows his preparations for the experiment and its consequences, for example Spurlock's examinations with three doctors and his discussions with a nutritionist; With his unbalanced diet, combined with a lack of exercise, health problems are not long in coming. After 30 days, Spurlock had gained 11.1 kg, which was 13% of his body weight. After completing the project, it took him five months to lose nine kilograms and nine more months to remove the remaining kilograms. The doctors found changes in liver values . In 2017, however, Spurlock admitted to having been an alcoholic and "never been sober for more than a week in 30 years."
Furthermore, Spurlock reports on the general consequences of excessive fast food consumption, both health and social, by comparing the supply situation of American schools: On the one hand, those that are supplied by private corporations, on the other hand, schools that participate in the state health program. Also some tricks of the advertising strategists are named, which are aimed at children, such as edible cigarettes , which should later reproduce the pleasant feelings in the children when they access the brand. Fast food chains try this with toys or something similar.
The starting point of the film is a (later failed) lawsuit for damages that two obese American girls filed against McDonald's because the company was responsible for their obesity and the health consequences. In this context, Spurlock interviews US consumers, medical professionals and nutritionists.
Criticism of the film
In Germany, one of McDonald's main competitors, Subway, advertised the film. Subway wanted to use the film to build the image of a healthy alternative. Spurlock has distanced himself from this campaign on his blog and stated that he only found out about it through the press. He also notes that he doesn't support Subway's food either. Nevertheless, in the film with Jared Fogle, a Subway advertising medium has a detailed say, who claims to have lost 111 kilograms by eating twice a day at Subway.
The diet practiced by Spurlock is not only problematic with regard to fast food - if you eat three large meals a day and on top of that, give up any exercise, you generally do not live healthy. In addition, it is said in the film that Spurlock is not only doing a nutrition experiment, but also wants to simulate the lack of exercise of an average American working in the office, which in particular includes an exercise rate of no more than 5,000 steps per day.
On Deutschlandradio Kultur , the food chemist Udo Pollmer speculated that the extreme weight gain could have been increased by taking anabolic steroids . Typical side effects of anabolic steroids are also the liver damage documented in the film and the impotence after stopping the drug. These effects cannot be explained by the one-sided diet alone. Furthermore, the cholesterol level measured at the end of the film should be regarded as normal for a man of this age; Spurlock may have taken cholesterol-lowering drugs before the experiment started in order to increase the difference between the values measured in the period under consideration. Pollmer thinks it is unbelievable that Spurlock did not move during production and did not consume any food energy on the set , after all he was filmmaker, leading actor, producer and financier of the film. Pollmer describes filmmaking as "hard, calorie-guzzling work" and points out the script, which meticulously planned the individual scenes and effects in advance. Pollmer on Deutschlandradio Kultur: “After all, you can't leave the result of such an expensive project to chance. If it had turned out like Nystrom's experiment [see below], Spurlock would have just laughed at. If you wanted to pass the film 'Super Size Me' as a documentary, then King Kong is proof of the existence of giant apes. "
The comedian Tom Naughton produced the film Fat Head in 2009 , in which he criticized, among other things, Spurlock's statement that fast food chains are responsible for obesity. Naughton carried out an experiment in his film in which he only ate fast food for a month, but limited his intake of nutritional energy and increased his physical activity, so that he lost about five kilograms in that month.
The American science teacher John Cisna was inspired by the film to review its results. After a three-month McDonald's-only diet with 45 minutes of walking a day, he had lost around 17 pounds and his cholesterol level dropped from 249 to 170.
Examination by scientists
Fredrik Nyström , a Swedish professor, examined the consequences of massive overeating in sedentary lifestyle under laboratory conditions . For the 18 test subjects (twelve men, six women, all in their early 20s and athletic. Morgan Spurlock, on the other hand, was 34 years old during his experiment), the following rules applied: Energy intake 27,600 kJ per day (= 6,600 kcal) (significantly more than in the film ) and a maximum of 5,000 steps of movement (as in the film). The results of the film were only partially confirmed, in particular the weight gain fluctuated very strongly and in some cases was almost completely absent. In psychological tests, the constant feeling of fullness and the need for exercise were identified as problems. The test subjects described the greatest problem as being able to take in the required amount of nutritional energy . Some of them drank cooking oil to achieve this energy supply.
While Spurlock complained of a massive rise in cholesterol, some of Nystrom's test subjects had their “bad cholesterol” ( LDL ) decreased and their “good cholesterol” ( HDL ) increased. Upon completion of the experiment, all participants in the study lost weight on their own.
Another study by Stergios Kechagias, carried out at the same university under the same conditions, found an average weight gain of 6.5 kg in four weeks and a massive increase in fat in the liver up to a fatty liver in one case.
Reactions
Around the same time that the film was released, but according to McDonald's without any relevant connection, menus with lighter components were being offered at McDonald's and other fast-food chains in America and Germany. Since then, it has been possible to replace French fries with a salad . However, some salads have a comparatively high physiological calorific value because they contain strips of ham , feta cheese or high-fat salad dressings . Furthermore, the supersize sizes have been abolished in the United States.
Awards
- 2004 - New Director's Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival for Spurlock
- 2004 - MTV News: Docs: Prize at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
- 2004 - Sundance Film Festival
- Director award
- Grand Jury Prize nominated for Best Documentary
- 2004 - International Documentary Association Pare Lorentz Award nominated for Best Documentary
- 2004 - National Board of Review Top Five Documentaries
- 2004 - Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
- 2004 - Utah Film Critics Association Awards runner-up for Best Documentary
- New York Film Critics NYFCO Award for Best Documentary with Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
- 2005 - Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards Critics Choice Award nominated for Best Documentary
- 2005 - Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards third place for Best Documentary
- 2005 - Gold Derby Film Awards nominated for Best Documentary
- 2005 - Online Film & Television Association nominated for Best Documentary
- 2005 - Online Film Critics Society Awards nominated for Best Documentary
- 2005 - Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards runner-up for Best Documentary
- 2005 - Vancouver Film Critics Circle nominated for Best Documentary
- 2005 - Nomination for an Oscar for best documentary
- 2005 - Golden Satellite Award for Best Motion Picture, Documentary
- 2005 - WGA Award (Screen) from the Writers Guild of America , USA for Best Documentary Screenplay
Web links
- Super Size Me in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Dickes Ende: Super Size Me ( Memento from July 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) - critical commentary by the German nutritionist Udo Pollmer on the film
- Eating for Research - Report on an experiment at Linköping University in Sweden that questions Spurlock's results
- Supersize me revisited - experiment by Nyström that could not confirm the film results (Deutschlandradio Kultur)
- What fast food can do - Bild der Wissenschaft
Individual evidence
- ↑ Morgan Spurlock admits sexual assault , Spiegel online December 14, 2017
- ↑ Morgan Spurlock: DC, Brazil and Subway ( Memento June 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Contribution by Deutschlandradio Kultur, broadcast 'Meal', by Udo Pollmer on February 17, 2007 Source: New Scientist January 27, 2007
- ↑ http://www.chron.com/life/hoffman/article/Ordering-up-some-food-for-thought-1627633.php
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140610092709/http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/science-teacher-creates-documentary-based-on-mcdonalds-diet/23750942
- ↑ Kate Douglas: "Super size me" revisited - under lab conditions. - New Scientist, Issue 2588, January 27, 2007
- ↑ Publication of the study by Nyström in the British Medical Journal 2008
- ↑ Fast food quickly damages the liver - Focus 2008
- ↑ Marli Feldvoss: A self-experiment with addiction consequences. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. July 23, 2004, accessed April 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Matthias Heine: The inflated me. In: The world. July 14, 2004, accessed October 4, 2008 .
- ↑ Patrick Heidmann: You feed the children with garbage. In: Netzeitung. July 15, 2004, archived from the original on June 1, 2013 ; Retrieved October 4, 2008 .