18th May - Advertising

This week we looked at the idea of art being part of an advertising system where it is seen as just another object of value, where it is the artist's skill that is being bought and sold, also I found it interesting how an artist might not be able to create the art they want when they are a part of that system.

We watched John Carpenter's film They Live (1988) which was really interesting and eye-opening to me, I never realised just how many advertisements we see everyday and how they are part of our lives and also how we take them for granted. Set in 1980's America it explores the culture of greed, consumption and the undertones in adverts that tell us to obey. I think it also explores a fear in society of being controlled. In the film it shows that the wealthy people are actually aliens, hidden with subliminal messages and the media, who are the ones doing the controlling.

A great example of this use of advertising that I found which has made an impact on me was actually in the film Casino Royale directed by Martin Campbell (2003). The film has been called a 144 minute long advert and there is a reason: product placement. The man James Bond has greatly influenced society. He is a connoisseur, he is charming, handsome, highly intelligent, heterosexual, a good leader and is loyal to his country. Also he demonstrates a wide range of very impressive skills like being able to fight, free-run, shoot guns, etc. These qualities of his give him a Midas Touch, only everything he touches turns to 'sold'. Whatever Bond owns, people want which not only explains it making a US $4 billion but also it explains why after the success of Aston Martin in James Bond, global brands will pay $3 billion for product placement. Only some of the brands seen in Casino Royale were: Omega Seamaster, Land Rover, Heinekin, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson. All these brands however were only seen for a few seconds each or for only one shot, so paying so much money for only a few seconds of viewing seems kind of ridiculous. Even Richard Branson himself appears for a few seconds in the film at Virgin Airlines going through metal detectors.

I found this use of advertising really interesting because it is part of an art medium that is viewed everyday, everybody watches films and especially a contemporary action movie like Casino Royale. This film in particular, because of its fame for fine products, helped me to see that adverts really are what we live in and they have become so common their messages have become subliminal. Their goal is to make you recognise them and remember them and to tell you to buy. The statement that it is pretty much a 144 minute long advert links directly to the idea of art becoming just about money. After all, James Bond wouldn't be as successful now if it wasn't then.

May 11th - Materiality, Surface, Affect, Site

This week we watched a slide where we saw some artists who worked with materiality like:

Eve Armstrong, Run Off, 2007

The materials used in this were metal shelving, metal display hooks, clotheshorse, metal storage racks, plastic filling trays, plastic storage stacks, pegboard, chrome towel rail, chrome stool base, chrome rubbish bin, plastic rubbish bin, plastic bucket, Perspex tube, carpet, plastic plant pots, carpet protector, Tupperware lids, plastic bowls, towels, ice pack, and a pot plant (Rhipsalis Capilliformis).

She has a passion for what other people might think of as rubbish, she sees beauty in it and she also likes to work with layers and different colour palettes. I like how in Run Off the colours are greys and blues with a hint of green. I also like how it can appear as a still life, for example because of the objects used it could be the life of an office worker?

I mostly am intrigued by the materials and how they are the work without anything else, they aren't glamorized or sitting on something though it would be interesting to know if she did place these objects in those positions on purpose and if so, why? Perhaps it is a relation to her other work Spill, 2005 as this has a similar shape in the way it is sitting, with objects moving outward in a pathway at the bottom.

A good example of surface was:

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, 1967

From www.webexhibits.org/colorart/marilyns:

"In August 62 I started doing silkscreens. I wanted something stronger that gave more of an assembly line effect. With silkscreening you pick a photograph, blow it up, transfer it in glue onto silk, and then roll ink across it so the ink goes through the silk but not through the glue. That way you get the same image, slightly different each time. It was all so simple, quick and chancy. I was thrilled with it. When Marilyn Monroe happened to die that month, I got the idea to make screens of her beautiful face the first Marilyns."

By screening these famous images you see all these different effects, themes, but also what was contemporary. This is pop art. When we focus on the flat surface of the prints we see him moving away from the traditional realistic three-dimensional oil paintings and is instead showing difference in two-dimensional. This is the only observation I have explored of surface as I don't think work being literally 3-d would have made these works memorable, they would have just been classed as sculpture.

Affect in art is what I came to understand as a sensory experience, so I chose this artwork to look at:

Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field, 1977

400 custom-made, stainless steel lightning rods planted in the ground, stretched for miles, and only six people are allowed to see it at a time.

First of all, you know this is a sensory experience because the viewer is in the work of art. In New Mexico, you have to stay in a log cabin so you are actually living in it. Seeing it also inspires ideas, like how it looks like something from a science-fiction movie or how the landscape looks like a conventional western. The picture it makes when lightning actually strikes is, as can be seen on the left, extraordinary and if you were there I imagine seeing this and being so close to it would encourage strong feelings of excitement, fear, it would be very thrilling to see it by stormlight. I think it would most certainly give me goosebumps. Also it would probably be quite loud when the lightning strikes.

For site I think that the site of the artwork is important because it relates to the artwork itself, it is part of the context. The most interesting artwork that had an important site to me was:

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1971

Smithson reportedly chose this site, the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake near Rozel Point in Utah, because of the blood-red colour of the water and industrial remnants from nearby Golden Spike National Historic Site. The spiral appears and reappears as the water level rises and falls and ever since it was made it has been an icon.

Smithson wrote that the jetty jutting from the shore was ''the edge of the sun, a boiling curve, an explosion rising into a fiery prominence.''

4th May - Star Wars

This week we watched the original Star Wars film (1997) as we were exploring narratives, archetypes, mythologies and science fiction. In the lecture, what stood out to me most was:




David Friedman, Pareidolia: Alien Stapler
because it is a strong representation of popular science fiction in a very modern setting, it is very interesting to look at and kind of laughable when you make the connection to the stapler. It really draws the eye but mostly it makes the viewer, if they have seen the Alien films or something similar, immediately think of them.



Bill Hammond: Place Makers
because it firstly reminds me of when I was in primary school and went to an art gallery and saw one of his paintings (or it could have been a similar artist) of bird people and was told that he painted what he saw in his dreams. Things in dreams are always twisted or contorted from their real life counterparts and carry a theme of surrealism which also reminds me of Salvador Dali who is probably the most recognized artist for surrealism.




For Star Wars we had to choose a character to study, I have chosen Han Solo because he is the most interesting character to me and the most interesting archetype too. He is what you would call the Lovable Rogue: a person who breaks the law, for their own personal profit, but is nice enough or charming enough to allow the audience to like them and root for them. It helps that we, the audience, don't know the people he rips off and he makes sure to let us know that they are bad people anyway. The thing about Han is that he has his own version of a Code of Honour, he is more likely to save his own skin before anyone else's but the catch for this archetype is of coarse that he helps the protagonist which makes him, well, lovable. If you had told Han Solo in the prime of his criminal life that he would one day risk his life and ship and become a hero he would have had a witty smart remark for you. This is most of his appeal, sure he is a thief but he is funny and helpful at times. Another characteristic he has as this archetype is being brave and reckless, "I prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around" he says, though even in the worst of situations he manages to get out without a scratch. Also it should be pointed out that he is very unpredictable which obviously is what allows him to be nice and likable.

The most obvious character I can relate the Lovable Rogue to is Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean who is actually a mixture of the Lovable Rogue and the Magnificent Bastard. Common elements are that he is generally a protagonist but is highly pragmatic and values his own life above anyone else's. Actually being a Pirate is quite appropriate for these men as they have their own code of honour and would rather adventurously pursue treasure than ambitions of heroism or love.
Another character from film could be Rick O'Connell from The Mummy, he is a reckless but highly skilled soldier who helps the woman for promise of treasure and never expects to fall in love.
Robin Hood
Dean and Sam Winchester of Supernatural who commit credit card fraud and other like crimes to fund their 'hunting'

It is good to compare Han Solo to Luke Skywalker because while they are both heroes they are very different. Skywalker is very ambitious from the get go and only agrees to go with Ben after learning of the death of his family. He is purely good and if he was a character in a modern film the hero in him would most likely be tested by his enemies, for example they would exploit his greatest weakness of being too much of a hero by capturing someone he loved whereas Solo until the very end would not have this weakness.

April 27th - War Museum

This week we went to the museum and what I found most interesting was the very top level of the building where all the war objects were which is ironic because I've never really been interested in the subject of war. The first room was of a town in the time of Word War I in America, it was fascinating to walk through because it was like really being there and it reminded me of films I had seen based on towns like that. The stores all looked western as well which, because I live in Pukekohe, reminded me of photographs I had seen of Franklin when it looked like the old west and that was very probably around the times of war also. You can actually tell by looking at the buildings down the main street in Pukekohe that they have been there since that time.

Walking through the fake town I came to the middle of the upper floor where names of soldiers who had died in the war were written on the walls, some had poppy badges next to them probably placed by family. There was also a large niche where there was a sculpture containing plaques and real flowers placed by people who wrote on cards for men who died in the war.

The room I'm choosing to explore as a narrative however is the room after the listed names: the weaponry room. I found the narrative thread in this room to be more of a journey through time, the ages, and space as it jumps to different cultures and countries. The theme of the room is obviously war but more specifically by looking at the weapons you get a clear picture of life in the past being very brutal and that tough life contrasts greatly with the beauty and elegance of the hand crafted weapons. The weapons were displayed in glass cases and numbered so you could read the information about each individual weapon like where it was from and when it was made. Displaying them this way was to me very effective because having the glass between the weapon and yourself emphasised the fact that they are important, untouchable objects that don't belong in your world. The different types of weapons were displayed in groups like pistols, rifles, shotguns, swords, and spears. They aren't really displayed in order according to date or culture but you can see how each display shows different time eras like 18th century England, Italy, or the USA. There is even a case containing knight armour from the time of King Arthur. Some of the weapons that stood out to me were:
A Flintlock Pocket Pistol made in England 1770-1820 by Robert Wheeler, it had a small knife that could stick out of it which made me think of how in those days reloading wouldn't have been as simple or fast as it is now so soldiers would need that reasurance if they were forced into a close combat fight. I also learnt from looking at the guns that the Colt revolver which I've heard about alot was actually named after it's maker Colt Paterson.
There was a European sword called a Dress sword from early 18th century Italy that had beautiful engraved patterns on the handle and first quarter of the sword, and a Court sword from late 18th century England which was probably used as a mourning sword. The Court sword had very beautiful and intricate patterns as the hilt and both these swords I can easily compare to the engraved or metal/wood patterns covering moari objects on the bottom floor of the museum. I saw paddles for canoeing that had very pretty but very different styled patterns on them, they were made of wood so there is also a contrast of texture between the swords and the paddles. I also saw really beautiful ornate carved wooden walking sticks or tokotoko, some were made in the late 19th century but they hit a little closer to home if home is the European swords as some of the walking sticks were actually made in a European style.
The one weapon I liked most was a sword from 19th century Northern India called a Cobra sword. It was very interesting to look at as it was wavy in shape and had spiked edges, it appeared very dangerous and very different to all the other swords. Also the fact that it was from India was interesting as i always thought of swords coming from Asia like samurai swords or from Spain like in the film 'The Mask of Zoro'.

I quite liked this idea of displaying objects from different cultures from the past, putting them on display in museums like this seems like we are being forced to view these as objects from entirely different worlds and therefore they are worth paying money to see or studying intently. Like if these old weapons that carry with them a context of wars that made history, or if they have actually shed blood were put on display in homes or cafes like any modern day painting or photograph they would be viewed and regarded totally differently. This idea also makes me wonder if any of these weapons were so valuable in their own time anyway? Perhaps the Court sword had belonged to any nameless soldier not remebered. So in this line of thought I think back to our lecture on museum and representation: in the slide was an artist named Francis Upritchard who made an artwork called Pretty Necklace in 2009, she made it similarly to a native necklace you might see made of the teeth of an animal (how they sit together sticking out in a rounded row) but instead she replaced that with used cigarettes and straws. This object to us looks like it was found in the rubbish, it is dirty and probably smells bad but as was mention in the lecture if someone from the past or someone who knows nothing about our culture found it would they see it as interesting? As something to be preserved and displayed so people could look at it and contemplate where it came from? They might believe that it was valuble in the place it came from but truly it is not.

20th April - Tongan Style

This week we went to Fresh Gallery and saw an exhibition called Tongan Style which was a tribute to Tonga's cultural heritage and religion but also to the five Tongan artists who are women. The exhibit explores embroidery and crochet as fine arts as the items in the show strongly represent various Tongan ceremonies involving gift-giving, marriage, christenings, funerals, and most of the sheets can be used for decoration in church or the home. From looking at this exhibit I can easily understand that Tonga is very religious and very loyal to their identity as a race, as we were told at the gallery Tonga actually has more churches than schools. What stood out to me about this show was that everything was made from scratch and made by women, I think I heard someone say the work women shift? But also the fact that even though most of the items were made decades ago, in Tonga they are still current. Some examples are:

Tupenu matala'i'akau (1973/74)
An embroidered sheet by Kolokesa Kulikefu which was used as a blanket to carry her newborn niece in when going to church, hospital or to cover her bed when expecting visitors. This item reinforces the idea of strong religious ceremonies and views in Tonga. Also the patterns of flowers and birds represent and respect the relationship they have with the land which is a rather spiritual view.

Teunga Iotu (2002)
This church outfit by Noma 'Ofa-Ki-Nu-'usila Talakia'atu was made to be worn for the end of the year service for 2002. It features a ta 'ovala (waist mat) which is a significant part of the formal attire for church.
Teunga Iotu (September 2009)
This one also by Noma was made to be worn for Sepitema - a specific Sunday in September that is dedicated to women who have reached the equivalent of men's lay preacher, where they renew their governance with God.
Both of these outfits reinforce the idea of Tonga keeping to its culture, keeping its style current and though these church outfits look old and out of date they are actually what Tongan women would wear to church this Sunday.

Overall I really appreciate the link to culture and religion but also the technical side of it, the intricate detail of the threading and pattern etc. To sum up this exhibition I would say it is a small but strong representation of Tongan culture but with a modern overlay, it is like by having this show in NZ and particularly Otara it sends a particular message, one that safeguards Tonga's cultural heritage.

30th March - Triennial

We went to the triennial this week which explored the idea of art being more risky and adventurous. I didn't fully understand what this meant because the artworks I saw at the gallery didn't seem very risky or adventurous but more explored the idea of reality and imagination like Bundith Phunsombatlert's The Room with a Bird, where you walk through a passageway of bird perches triggering motion detectors which start the sounds of a bird flying around and chirping. It is an odd experience, hearing something so clear and real but not being able to see it to know it is real. Then there is Alicia Frankovich's Revolution (Martini Fountain) which could be risky if you think of it as representing a frail, sickly state of a human body, as an object or tool, and therefore offensive to someone who is actually sick but that seems very far fetched. This work focused so much on representing the human body, with the forever circulating fluids and almost skeletal body it didn't seem to create the theme of risk or adventure. So in my opinion, probably because of my not understanding, this triennial didn't fulfill it's own brief. If one artwork worked, more than others at least, it was Shilpa Gupta's Singing Cloud partnered with the airport-style flap board because the dark, disturbing mass of 4000 microphones emitting several different strange sounds looks very similar to a bomb or a mushroom cloud and the flap board continuously displays numbers representing casualties in different countries and words like death. This work strongly reflects terrorism, particularly like 711, and therefore is risky because it explores the psychology of fear and prejudice (prejudice being a very delicate subject). Terrorism is of coarse today's society's greatest fear, whereas in the past it might have been media moguls having too much power and influence or secrecy in foreign organisations so time was also a big part of the work, in another time in order to be risky the work would be completely different.

23rd March - The Gaze

This week we studied The Gaze which put basically is looking at looking. The Gaze largely explores feminism and we focused mainly on the male gaze. The example of the male gaze we saw first was a great introduction to helping me understand it, it was a photograph by Robert Doisneau called The Oblique Glance.
The image portrays a woman talking to her husband about a painting, but he isn't paying attention to her rather he is staring at a painting of a nude woman. This represents the male gaze because we see what he sees, not what she sees, it is in his point of view. In this way the joke seems to be on her as she is oblivious to what he is doing, but it also catches him in the act. Tessa mentioned a quote: "all dirty jokes are at the woman's expense" which is very directly about feminism and also makes this seemingly small moment very stereotypical and kind of a big deal as we can only imagine how she would feel if she knew.

The next image we saw was by Barbara Kruger, Your Gaze Hits the Side of my Face, which linked really well with the Hitchcock film we watched.

This image shows a literal representation of women being objectified in art (a bust of a woman). Because her face is side on she doesn't get to return the gaze, so she has no choice, therefore it is the male gaze. It seems that in art women are always the recipient of a males gaze, his desire, interest etc.

This image with the words Your Gaze Hits the Side of my Face links to the sequence we watched in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. The film is about a San Francisco detective who investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her, in the sequence we watched he is trailing her, watching her and we see everything in his point of view. We as an audience see his gaze, we are looking at him looking at her and we only see her profile. We don't see what she is looking at unless he looks at it afterwards, even the music is in tune with his emotions as he follows her and discovers things about her. Something I noticed also was that although she is the subject under his gaze, she is the one doing the leading.

16th March - Unpacking My Library

This week we went to Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts to see the 'Unpacking My Library' exhibition, it basically explores the idea of collecting things, the process of collecting and the content of a collection. It is based on Walter Benjamin's text and therefore addresses his argument that in a collection you can see traits of the collector revealed, what the order and disorder can reveal about the gatherer. He writes "what I am really concerned with is giving you some insight into the relationship of a book collector to his possessions, into collecting rather than a collection" (http://www.idehist.uu.se/distans/ilmh/Ren/benj-bookcoll.htm) Different approaches to collecting were on display by different artists, the most interesting one to me was 'Found Time: Big Ben', an ongoing project by Elizabeth McAlpine that attempts to represent every minute of a twelve hour period through existing postcards of Big Ben (the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London). By 'existing' I mean that she uses one of two approaches to collecting, there is the artist that explores collecting and the artist that reflects on existing objects. At first glance you can't tell that the work is assembled from postcards, they just look like photographs under glass. When you get closer and see that it is postcards it becomes much more fascinating, you take into consideration the time and effort it took to collect them all and find out the exact minute of the day the photograph was taken. Also the photos, though of the same thing, all look different, one that I noticed and decided was my favourite was one taken at night and the clock was glowing with yellow light and the clouds behind it looked very dark and sinister, the Gothic architecture made the photo look very cool. It was a very interesting and very attractive way of collecting. Admittedly I didn't fully understand this collecting concept, there are obviously a lot more layers to it to explore which is why it is its own exhibition.
What i do understand of collecting is that it can be very much a form of art in the sense that it reflects the artist, a painting can reflect its artist by the technique and even the subject as can a collection of objects, texts, etc. There are different approaches to collecting, meaning different mediums. The process of collecting is always going to be different and it could take ten years or ten days.

9th March - How to Look at a Painting

I loved Justin Paton's 'Ten Good Reasons' because the way he reads a painting is quite inspiring, it makes me want to have his words as my own. He is so in depth and so passionate, his passion for art really comes through. You can tell when reading it that he knows what he is talking about, he writes about his top ten favourite artworks and ofcoarse why he likes them. He notes great things about them like actual painting techniques and how a certain painting can look almost 3-d from how well it is painted. He also talks about how the painting can generate ideas and concepts from the meaning behind them, the meaning of a painting can be just as alluring as the painting itself. I particularly like how in number 11 he talks about how "passion for a particular painting doesn't always have to be underwritten by a reason" and that there's nothing wrong with saying you like a painting just because.

So my top artworks are as follows:

1) Vjekoslav Nemesh, Blue Orchid

This is one of Nemesh's latest paintings and is absolutely gorgeous, the colours and technique are amazing, to be honest if I could paint like this my life would be complete. I absolutely love his work it is so passionate and dreamy an surreal, it isn't quite abstract but this technique really intrigues people. It is so unique, he paints how he feels, he doesn't have to think about any reason why he should paint what he paints but does because he feels it. Which I believe is a great state of mind for an artist armed with paint to be in. I have tried his technique of painting which is scraping paint onto a canvas and using dry brushing to blend the colours softly together, but as evident in this painting he sometimes leaves the dry brushing which makes the painting very sharp and contrasts the colours. I mostly love the theme of fantasy it presents, like a getaway you can escape into it.

2) Audrey Kawasaki, Hyakki Yakou

Hyakki Yakou, Night Parade, is a great example of Kawasaki's work. I love her style of mixing elements of beauty and serene, pouty expressions with disturbing images of animals, objects or like in this one, monsters. In others I like she has incorporated skeletons of animals or a gruesome human heart in the transparent chest of a beautiful young woman. I like the dark theme but also her medium, she uses oil and graphite on wood. Personally I love this kind of art with its disturbing quality, it really interests me and how it contrasts with the beautiful aspect. In this respect I must mention her motif of bird wings, she incorporates birds and bird wings alot which adds to the beauty. I have a thing for wings which is why I used dreaming of flight for my theme for year 13 art last year, so Kawasaki was a perfect artist model for that and I still look up all her new art now.

3) Victoria Frances, Angel de la muerte

Victoria Frances, again, paints beautiful women. This time though, she portrays not a disturbing quality but a dark, classically gothic quality. It is a fantasy escape again which attracts me, I love the dark theme, it's beautiful and inspiring. This kind of art is also very contemporary and probably more likeable to teenagers and young adults. It also kind of goes along with this dark, vampire, werewolf, van helsing fad going around. (Not Twilight, I don't like Twilight) And also this painting depicts angel wings which definately makes me love it, the kitten is a cute too though I do fail to see its relevance. This artist is definately one of thoses artists that doesn't paint to be deep and meaningful, rather she paints women in gothic, corset dress clothing with long, beautiful hair in gothic castles, as vampires, as witch's, as voodoo priestesses etc... and turns them into picture books as stories, she even takes photos of herself and paints herself.Basically i like her work because it is beautiful, her painting is flawless and I love the gothic theme.

4) Zindy S. D. Nielsen, Her Protector

Zindy is a very romance based artist, alot of her drawings are very romantic like this one. I love the way they are holding each other close, by looking at this you know he really is her protector, like the angel he is. What I love most about her drawings is how real they look, she does do some drawings where she brings in the dark element and she has alot of drawings that show emotion in facial expressions and poses. I really admire her drawing skills mostly and how they so closely resemble their photographic counterparts.

5) Lara Jade, Smoke and Ashes

Lara Jade is a portrait photographer I discovered on deviantart.com, she does commercial photography as well as conceptual, fashion and beauty. I love her fashion photography because of the beautiful use of light, costume, makeup and scenery, it is something I am very interested in doing. This photograph i love especially, I love black and white portraits and i love the smoky texture of the image. i get the impression she is exhaling smoke against glass so because of her netted hat I can picture her in a smoky bar in the past smoking and drinking brandy. It can be a cozy image or a sad one as she is alone.

This kind of photograph is something I would like to experiment with, perhaps create a series of black and white portraits trying to convey this smokey bar kind of atmosphere.

2nd March - Fast Food Nation

For the first week of contextual studies we started to explore the idea of life being 'fractured.' An example Grant used was that in the past there would be one person to do a whole job, like making a chair from scratch, adding cushions and sending it to the customer but in today's society there would be different people trained to do different stages of the job so that one person wouldn't know how to do any other part of the job except their own. This concept of a 'fractured' world could be described as a machine, which is shown quite obviously in the film 'Fast Food Nation' directed by Richard Linklater. The film is a mix between drama and documentary, on the film's official website (www.foxsearchlight.com/fastfoodnation) a subtitle reads "Do you want lies with that?" which is great comical representation of the film's story:
'Fast Food Nation' exposes the fast food industry as a lying, ignorant, evil company that hides its faults and mistakes from the public and actually risks their health. When it becomes apparent that the meat used for Mickey's (a spin off of McDonalds and a link to real life) number one burger 'the big one' is tainted, Don Henderson who works as a marketing executive for Mickey's is sent to investigate. When he discovers it is true he ultimately chooses to keep these secrets as they are instead of exposing them because he thinks of how he and his family will fare if he talks. So this choice, among others made by other characters in the film, shows how choices we make impact life in different ways, it may affect a few people or a hundred. In the film, also, we see those physical and more literal examples of fracture, we see all the different departments of the slaughter house like "the kill floor" or "the gutting table" which are the different jobs required for one final goal. This is also evident in Mickey's, we see the chain of restaurants and their managers which are small-time compared to the marketing executives and the head honcho.

I actually found this film very interesting and not boring like apparently the rest of the class did. I liked the way it was made as a drama, I liked the character Don and his journey to find the truth and the confrontations he has with all the other characters. I also liked how it was part documentary, it didn't hold anything back and it showed you the real truth, the real tragedy of slaughter houses and what happens in between a live cow and a fast food burger. At the end when it shows the exact steps of the slaughter house, at the time I did think "ew yuck, that is terrible, horrible, I did not need to see that" but now I think "what would it be like if more people did see that?" so in this respect I believe that 'Fast Food Nation' would be an excellent film to be used to raise awareness about this industry and even encourage people to eat less fast food.
Just thinking about the treatment of the animals makes me sick, the way these modern slaughter houses run. All they care about is profit, that's actually it, their one goal is to make money. A giant working "machine" has no compassion. The actual book 'Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal' was written by an investigative journalist named Eric Schlosser, he describes what speaks to me most about this film, what makes me know that this is real and is happening right now: "The animals keep strolling up, oblivious to what comes next, and he stands over them and shoots. For eight-and-a-half hours, he just shoots. As I stand there, he misses a few times and shoots the same animal twice. As soon as the steer falls, a worker grabs one of its hind legs, shackles it to a chain, and the chain lifts the huge animal into the air. I watch the knocker knock cattle for a couple of minutes. The animals are powerful and imposing one moment and then gone in an instant, suspended from a rail, ready for carving. A steer slips from its chain, falls to the ground, and gets its head caught in one end of a conveyor belt. The production line stops as workers struggle to free the steer, stunned but alive, from the machinery. I've seen enough."