Movie Malcontent / FAST FOOD NATION

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FAST FOOD NATION/ Malcontent's Mark: B

March 3rd, 2007

Raul: Wilmer Valderrama
Sylvia: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Don Henderson: Greg Kinnear
Amber: Ashley Johnson

Directed by Richard Linklater.
Written by Richard Linklater and Eric Schlosser.
Rated R for disturbing images, strong sexuality, language and drug content.

First a warning: Though Eric Schlosser’s non-fiction book Fast Food Nation has been adapted into not a documentary but rather a fictional film, there is a very non-fiction glimpse of the “killing floor” at a hamburger production plant. Actually, it’s not just a glimpse, but about five minutes. I confess, as soon as they showed cattle being prodded down the chute into the slaughterhouse, I spent most of the next five minutes looking down at my popcorn. I’m not necessarily squeamish about gore in movies, but these are real cows and this is real slaughter.

Should people avoid this movie for that one scene? Definitely not. In fact, Fast Food Nation is a movie every American consumer should watch. And not just patrons of the McDonalds and the Burger Kings of the world, but anyone who shops without considering how every purchase they make could have repercussions -- throughout the country and the world. But if you still want to avoid the movie for that one scene, let me at least give you a hint of when the scene occurs in the movie: it doesn’t happen until close to the end.

But before we get to the most brutal truths behind our favorite foods, there are many candy-coated layers the filmmakers, Linklater (Slacker) and Schlosser, want to peel back. To avoid being too preachy, they inhabit these layers of truth with human drama. We meet marketing exec Don Henderson (Greg Kinnear), trying futilely to increase quality standards at the aforementioned hamburger production plant. We also meet Benny (Luis Guzman), who sneaks in illegal immigrants from Mexico for cheap labor for the plant; as well as Sylvia (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and her boyfriend, Raul (Wilmer Valderrama), who are two Mexicans thrown into the plant’s most hazardous working conditions. We also meet local teens Amber (Ashley Johnson) and Pete (Paul Dano), frustrated by their consumer-fried culture, yet recognizing that theirs is generation of either happily materialistic slackers or lonely rebels without a counter-culture movement.

We meet other characters, and see how all the lives interconnect; and we see how lives and livelihoods can be ruined all in the name of good commerce. Some of the characters deserved more screen time to give their plight more resonance. And too many narrative threads are left untied. Rudy Martin, the cattle rancher portrayed by Kris Kristofferson, deserved more than just a fleeting cameo – in Schlosser’s book, the plight of the American rancher proved to be its saddest chapter.

Fast Food Nation may not convert viewers into vegetarians, but if nothing else it may encourage people to reconsider their spending habits.

Laura and I watched this right after having dinner at a local restaurant in Oswego, NY. Even though Oswego recently made nationwide news for getting hit with TWELVE feet of snow, it’s a nice place to live – mostly because it still has a thriving downtown with lots of popular mom and pop businesses. Laura and I have a few favorite local eating spots, and we regularly stop at our favorite local bookstore, the River’s End Book Store. We know it would be cheaper and more convenient to shop Amazon and eat fast food, but we also know Oswego’s independent businesses depend on local buyers to survive. As it’s made clear in Fast Food Nation, the consumer dollar is powerful: consumers can shape and define their environment simply by their spending habits. Besides, as one character in the movie puts it, “There's a reason why the meal only costs 99 cents.”

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