Posted on 06/12/2005 3:54:05 AM PDT by QwertyKPH
McDonald's turned 50 this year. And, like many 50-year-olds, Ronald is in the thick of a midlife crisis. Yet, in contrast with the pencil-pushing, righteous-living ways of many who feel the urge to indulge their inner adolescents, McDonald's has gotten all the play out of the way. The Happy Meal lifestyle couldn't last forever, much as the joy that comes from shoving a Big Mac down your craw and following it with a haystack of fries turns inevitably bilious and dyspeptic. So now McDonald's is on a bit of a health kick, pushing salads and apple slices instead of slobbery sandwiches and snotty apple pies.
Deprived of the interior tick of mortality that often occasions a Porsche-buying spree, McDonald's found an unusual motivation for its revamp: the one-two punch of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and Morgan Spurlock's garish science-project of a documentary, Super Size Me. After Schlosser exposed horrifying facts about the fast food industry (there's poo in the meat, dawg!) and Spurlock turned gassy and grey after his month-long McFest Quest, McDonald's had to respond. It rose from the grease fire, newly svelte and shapely -- and as slick as ever.
Or maybe not, if McLibel has anything to do with it. Franny Armstrong's new documentary takes a huge bite out of the attempt by McDonald's to create a shiny new image for itself. Filmed over a period of 10 years, McLibel tracks English activists Helen Steel and Dave Morris as they battle libel charges that McDonald's filed against them. Their alleged crime? Distributing leaflets that warned of the restaurant's unfair work conditions, manipulative kid-focused advertising, and its negative impacts on consumer health and the environment.
McLibel starts out in the infotainment/propaganda vein now so familiar to weary documentary viewers: Armstrong unreels background context ("A friendly clown persuaded children to love the company") in Star Wars fashion, giant yellow type receding into black. Fussy British actors play opposite Steel and Morris in court-scene reenactments -- very McMasterpiece Theatre.. But despite the bells and whistles, and unapologetic partisanship, McLibel remains a complex and fascinating film, with heroes all the more convincing for their unflashy devotion to their cause.
Steel and Morris make an interesting contrast to Spurlock (who structured Super Size Me so he could forever have his mug in the camera). The "McLibel 2" are stubbornly self-effacing, which allows Armstrong time to supply viewers with gruesomely fascinating information about the business, employment, advertising, and manufacturing processes at McDonald's. Armstrong makes excellent use of her experts, including a former Ronald McDonald clown who decided that he couldn’t live with himself any longer if he kept manipulating children. Other highlights include footage from inside a McDonald's chicken processing plant. Fuzzy, adorable chicks roll down conveyer belts; unwanted ones are gassed -- some 1,000 per week.
The sight is horror-inducing, even for a callous, defiantly carnivorous junk-food whore like me. Nearly as awful, despite their familiarity, are the images of overweight diners, ferociously cankled, massive boulder buttocks roiling underneath elastic waistbands. Who are these feckless fatties? Does anyone ever recognize his or her own giant heinie in one of these films? If the fast-food exposé becomes a cinematic genre, the fat footage could become a mighty deterrent indeed.
While Armstrong walks viewers through the McLibel 2's attempt to defend each of their pamphlet's points in court, she creates a damning case against the corporation -- if a fuzzier picture of the U.K. libel law that has led to the suit. Despite that deficiency, and the urge to lionize its heroes, McLibel paints a deeply satisfying portrait of what was at stake in Steel and Morris's case and how much it cost them to wage England's longest legal battle with nothing but a grassroots campaign for support. Morris, a single father, found less and less time to spend with his son; Steel made do with wages earned from a bartending job at a disco.
Neither Steel nor Morris see their struggle as a David-and-Goliath scenario, in the conventional sense. "It's the public that are the giants," says Morris. In a way, he implies, he and Steel were just the people's servants. It's a startlingly unique, and individual decision, their insistence on their own quirky, stubborn ways in the face of the crushing -- some might say homogenizing -- power of McDonald's. This attitude carries through every moment they are onscreen as well. Steel and Morris never showboat for the camera or detract from the issues for the sake of their own self-aggrandizement.
I wish McLibel all the viewers it so amply deserves. But I also worry that viewers might feel like they've already seen "the McDonald's documentary" after viewing the comparatively lightweight and self-indulgent Super Size Me. That would be a tremendous pity. Although McLibel might not be as slick going down, it's a lot healthier and more fulfilling in the end.
My grandkids don't like to eat there, but like some of the toys they have. They just finished trying to get sets of Sonic the Hedgehog, and the Dogs and the Cats. Now we are working on BK's Star Wars.
McDonalds was a treat when I was a little kid, though I never eat there now. I used to love their cherry pies (which appeared fried, very crispy, and extremely hot - probably too hot for personal injury lawyers today - they are no longer on the menu.) I also liked their breakfast danishes (which also seem to no longer exist.) Now I'm on a controlled carb diet and, as John Astin used to say, "..I'm feeling much better now."
My only comment is that the author seems quite "supersized"
on hyperbole.Sure hope they don't hurt themselves grinding
that axe.
Maybe I'll go have a Big and TAsty for breakfast.
When I go to McD's, I expect unhealthy high-calorie food that is served fast. I think their new "healthy" menu is a joke and wish they'd get back on focus. Their mission is to get me my lousy little hamburgers and greasy fries pronto.
If I was that concerned about my health, McD's is the last place I'd go. The sooner they accept that, the better off they will be.
But that type of repetitious eating of anything would have the same result, I'm sure.
Cut me off a nice 10 ounce slice of cheddar......... to augment these delicious burgers!!!
LOL.
I got lucky - my 4yr old daughter ended up not caring for mcdonalds the one time I took her - as she says "it makes me feel not good". plus she gets excited when I offer her the choice between an apple and a bannana. I had lunch one day at jer school with her and I had the misfortune of seeing some other kid's lunches. some of them looked bad if not worse than mcdonalds (i.e. lunchables and twinkies) its amazing how many overweight children were in a kindergarten class.
its not just mcdonalds - its complete apathy on the part of parents who take their children to mcdonalds DAILY. like some of you said - once a month. TOPS.
Eh! What is this gibberish? Are there no editors at CBS?
Noy Thrupkaew must be the Chairman's kid, or something, to get away with writing like this. If CBS is trying to get all "edgy" and "bloggish" by abandoning the editorial function, they better try again. This is just amateur hour.
Don't get me wrong, they should always publicize legitimate news. However, IMHO, a supportive editorial about a propaganda film isn't legitimate news.
McDonald's deserves this bashing.
Except for maybe the Big Mac, the taste of their food pales in comparison to the likes of White Castle, Steak 'n' Shake, or roadside cart hotdogs with saurekraut.
Hang your heads in shame, McDonalds!
Exactly right. The implicit assumption to all of this anti-McDonald's rhetoric is that they are the only place on the planet you can get food. If I want a FAST meal, I go to a place like McDonald's; if I want a healthy meal I can go to one of a great many alternatives.
Noy Thrupkaew
A sure sign something is wrong with the keyboard when you try to type Gloria Steinem
All thier editors are busy writing fake memo's
My thoughts exactly. I actually had trouble reading this garbage.
That's so fishy, I tried playing with it. It's not an ethnic name I can identify. Backwards it's "weakpurthyon" which started out promising but failed in the end. Anybody good at anagrams?
White Castle--The only thing I can say about them is that they taste a little better going down than coming up. Steak 'n' Shake is called "gag and puke" at our house. Talk about sauerkraut...go to Happy Joe's and get the Happy Joe Special, "Ham and Sauerkraut Pizza" good stuff!
AUNT PERKY WHO
HOW PET RUN YAK
HA NOW TRY PUKE
AH TYKE POW RUN
WHY NO KURA PET
Just a few from the anagram generator:
http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram.cgi?anagram=Noy+Thrupkaew
(Actually I don't mean to make fun - this lady is sicko).
Wow! A McDonald's movie! Oh, wait...it's already been done. BOOOOOORING.
I stopped going to McDonald's when they changed the oil for their fries. Old fries GOOD. New fries DRY and TASTELESS.
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