Comments on: Want Lies With That? Friday Film Review: Fast Food Nation

By: patrick

patrick — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 06:53:29 +0000

just watched Fast Food Nation, it’s an impactful flick to say the least… earlier today i passed up a sausage mcmuffin because of it. Evidently it is worth passing up fast food for more than health reasons.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 22:19:14 +0000

I work at the packing plant on which this story is not so loosely based. The author spent a lot of time under cover at my workplace. The minute I saw “Mike” in the movie I had to laugh. I know exactly who that character was based on. A former superintendent who is well known for sexual harassment and bribery. And of course there are hundreds of Cocos and Sylvias. This movie, sorry to say, was not far off from how it really is. From the slaughter floor to the board room this business is antequated and cut throat. Oh sure for the most part the meat is safe,even the stuff that’s dropped on the floor and then “reworked” for sale (aka ashed off) but the dehumanization of people on a daily basis is enough to make you look away in shame. Not to mention all the product we waste that never gets sold and just sits in mass freezer warehouses until it rots. But we keep on killing, even when the meat doesn’t sell. Holidays, rain, shine, snow, keep killing, keep processing. It is not much different, labor wise, from Sinclair’s portrayal in “The Jungle”. The cattle are, by far treated better than any single person at our meat packing plant. And they are getting their throats slit. Think about it.

By: jimmy higgins

jimmy higgins — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 20:59:49 +0000

To say nothing of the “Beef Jerky Factory” photo.

By: Randy Morris

Randy Morris — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 01:17:50 +0000

The “Spending Power by Demographics” graph is priceless!

By: peggy

peggy — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 23:53:01 +0000

On the other hand, there’s this:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/56017

Increase your advertising power and useful vocabulary tenfold in ten minutes!

By: Randy Morris

Randy Morris — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 20:19:52 +0000

Actually, I find the mammary-esque poster to have a very disturbing, non-sexualized message—and I’ll bet the original writer of the book and film had a hand in it.

What I see here, though, is a child who should be nursing at her mother’s breast, instead reaching for the larger-than-life fast food fix. I didn’t pick up on the imagery until De and Yolanda mentioned it, but it dovetails pretty well with the breast-feeding thread over yonder.

I agree that in most cases that would have been a crude visual hook…I see these posters by the literal thousands every year in my theater. But this time I don’t think so.

Randy

By: Yolanda Carrington

Yolanda Carrington — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 12:20:39 +0000

Yes…I’m saying it, De. Hollywood just can’t let go of the T&A boyshit, I’m afraid.

By: DeAnander

DeAnander — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 07:57:41 +0000

A couple of gender notes: anyone but me saying, “Oh puh-leeze” at the rather obvious mammary theme in the version of the movie poster I pulled for the front page?

And I note that the Variety review described Coco as “sexually predatory,” rather than line foreman Mike who sexually harasses all the female employees and ends up raping Sylvia. Ho hum.