Supersize-Me Essay Jake Harborne

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Jake Harborne Supersize-Me Essay Using Supersize Me as a basis, identify the ways in which American Society is represented, both positively and negatively. In doing so, analyse the ways in which the producer utilises stylistic devices in order to create meaning for the audience. Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, Supersize-Me, uses different stylistic devices to represent American society and to highlight obesity. These stylistic devices include techniques such as the use of camera, editing, mise-en-scene etc. Supersize-Me opens up with a group of obese children singing a song about fast foods and follows with Spurlock voicing over what his documentary is about. This is a performative mode documentary as Spurlock is the subject of his documentary. The documentary starts with facts and figures of American health saying, “60% of Americans are obese” with the visual element being shown on a map as a graphic. This shows negative elements of American society as it shows how unhealthy Americans are with “one out of four Americans going to McDonalds everyday”. Spurlock goes out to prove how unhealthy Americans are with fast foods by setting out the challenge of himself eating nothing but McDonalds for a month, three times a day. Throughout this documentary American society is show to be negative with Vox Pops of random Americans being asked about how many times they visit McDonalds, showing how unhealthy they are with some responses being “3-4 times a week”. The American school system is shown to be negative as well with the amount of schools that serve unhealthy meals, with children only having fries and a drink of Gatorade for their lunch. There was also a school who only prepared six fresh meals out of the 36 meals on its menu. Portions of McDonald’s sizes are shown together, using an eye-line shot, to emphasize

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Transcript of Supersize-Me Essay Jake Harborne

Page 1: Supersize-Me Essay Jake Harborne

Jake Harborne

Supersize-Me Essay

Using Supersize Me as a basis, identify the ways in which American Society is represented, both positively and negatively. In doing so, analyse the ways in which the producer utilises stylistic devices in order to create meaning for the audience.

Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, Supersize-Me, uses different stylistic devices to represent American society and to highlight obesity. These stylistic devices include techniques such as the use of camera, editing, mise-en-scene etc. Supersize-Me opens up with a group of obese children singing a song about fast foods and follows with Spurlock voicing over what his documentary is about. This is a performative mode documentary as Spurlock is the subject of his documentary.

The documentary starts with facts and figures of American health saying, “60% of Americans are obese” with the visual element being shown on a map as a graphic. This shows negative elements of American society as it shows how unhealthy Americans are with “one out of four Americans going to McDonalds everyday”. Spurlock goes out to prove how unhealthy Americans are with fast foods by setting out the challenge of himself eating nothing but McDonalds for a month, three times a day. Throughout this documentary American society is show to be negative with Vox Pops of random Americans being asked about how many times they visit McDonalds, showing how unhealthy they are with some responses being “3-4 times a week”. The American school system is shown to be negative as well with the amount of schools that serve unhealthy meals, with children only having fries and a drink of Gatorade for their lunch. There was also a school who only prepared six fresh meals out of the 36 meals on its menu. Portions of McDonald’s sizes are shown together, using an eye-line shot, to emphasize the amount of fast food people are eating with the supersize fries weighing up to 7 ounces and a soft drink being 42 ounces. During the documentary it is shown by Spurlock just how bad the supersize meal is for you, with himself being sick from all the food. This shows how much Americans are consuming form McDonalds and how it has impacted on society with more and more Americans becoming obese, further having a negative impact. Negativity is shown through the children of America as Spurlock interviews the children asking them if they recognise pictures of people with importance in American history. The Children failed to recognise a picture of Jesus, but all of them were able to name the character ‘Ronald McDonald’ from McDonald’s adverts. Adults are also asked to state the American oath of allegiance, which they did unsuccessfully. However they were able to sing a McDonald’s song perfectly. American society is shown to be even worse than people thought with American education falling in comparison with the growth of McDonalds and the influence it has on young children. Furthermore the phrase of Americans ‘suing everything’ is proven when two teenagers sued

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Jake Harborne

McDonalds, blaming them for their obesity, even though it is their choice to go to McDonald’s restaurants and to consume their products.

However Supersize-Me doesn’t just highlight the negative elements of American society, there are also positive elements. There is also evidence of

people who are against McDonalds especially the doctors and lawyers in the documentary, showing how fast food affects your general health. Doctors go as far to tell Spurlock that he is in danger of ruining his liver and that he should stop immediately, this shows that the American health care system cares about its patients showing that it is a positive element in American society. The art of painting is also used as a positive element of American society as they are anti-McDonalds; with paintings of the McDonald’s clown being evil, representing how they are corrupting the children of America. The documentary has had a positive effect on the American public since its release, as McDonalds announced the discontinuation of its super-size option and emphasis on healthier menu options. This shows that the attitudes towards fast foods are changing with more Americans choosing healthier diets. There is also a noticeable figure as “1 out of 4 people eat McDonalds on a daily basis”, as Spurlock’s girlfriend was a vegan which proves that not all Americans eat fast foods. His girlfriend encourages him to stop throughout his McDonalds binge and helped him loose the weight he put on with a detox diet.

Supersize-Me features many technical/stylistic devices that are used. The documentary features formal interviews with the doctors and nutritionists that monitor Spurlock’s progress. These interviews also feature cutaways which are used to emphasise the points that are being made in the interview. Poetic mode is used at the begging of the documentary as a montage of shots are used to show what is going to be covered, giving the viewer visual elements. Other visual elements are also used as a graphic of a map showing obesity trends in America and other graphics used later on to show how much weight Morgan Spurlock has put on over the course of his experiment. Graphics grab the viewer’s attention, making the information sink in more for them. Supersize- Me uses a clever use of editing for a subliminal message, a doctor would be taking about how bad fast foods are and that a Supersize meal from McDonalds increases the risk of diabetes and then the documentary would cut to a different scene of Spurlock ordering a Supersize meal. This comes across to the audience that these sized meals are bad for them and they would question as to why Spurlock would carry on eating these sized meals after just hearing about the consequences of doing so. Voice-overs are used through out the documentary to explain to the audience what is going on, Spurlock even stops a formal interview with a sarcastic voice over saying “did everyone just hear what he said?”, emphasising on the point of the marketing industry being “part of the

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Jake Harborne

problem” along with graphics of their companies. Most of the camera work during this documentary is of hand held cameras as this gives the sense of feeling that the audience is involved in Spurlock’s journey, watching him as he undergoes the problems with obesity in America and the link to fast food restaurants such as McDonalds. Appropriate mise-en-

scene is also used in the documentary as interviews take place in the persons work place, a lawyer is filmed in a lawyer’s office which is cramped with files all over desks. Vox Pops are also filmed in front of a McDonalds building as members of the public are being asked about their opinions on the

fast food restaurant. Captions are used to explain to the audience who the person is that is being interviewed; this is to show that these people are of importance and what profession they belong to such as “David Satcher, MD. Former U.S Surgeon General”.

Overall the documentary, Supersize-Me by Morgan Spurlock, identifies both positively and negatively the ways in which American society is represented. Spurlock uses stylistic devices in order to represent American society to create meaning for his audience. Graphics are used to show the growing number in obesity in America, a negative element of American society and interviews are used to show the Americans who are against the fast food industry, a positive representation. Many more technical/ stylistic devices are used to help represent American society and I think that Morgan Spurlock has done a great job of portraying both the positives and negatives of the American Society.