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."