Review of Fast Food Nation DVD
Film of Eric Schlosser's Best Selling Book is a Weak Adaptation
Despite fun additions on the DVD, the film "Fast Food Nation" doesn't live up to the promise of the book.
Based on Eric Schlosser’s best-selling expose on America’s fast food industry, Fast Food Nation (now on DVD) will do little more than whet your appetite for what could have been achieved with this movie. Although the book and film share the same name and writer (Schlosser co-wrote the screenplay with director Richard Linklater), the fictional film account will leave you hungry for more – more story, that is, not more fast food. In fact, make sure to eat your movie treats during the first half of this film.
Shocking News
Meticulously researched and told through the eyes of a journalist, the nonfiction book examines the fast food and meat-packing industries from various angles before delivering the shocking news: There’s excrement in the meat. The film gets right to the point. Within the first few minutes, vice president of marketing Don Henderson (Greg Kinnear) hears the awful truth: Independent tests revealed that Mickey’s “Big One” hamburgers – a sandwich he helped create – contain traces of fecal matter. Henderson’s job is to investigate the meat-packing plant to determine the source of the problem.
Kinnear convincingly portrays a new-hire with integrity, intent on solving the problem with his beloved Big One, who slowly transitions into a corporate cynic when he learns the problem goes far beyond one careless worker or even one greedy employer.
Kinnear is supported by an eclectic cast including Wilmer Valderrama as an illegal Mexican worker, Patricia Arquette as a small-town mother, Ethan Hawke as her brother, Bobby Cannavale as a lusty supervisor at the meat-packing plant, Ashley Johnson as a young Mickey’s worker, and Kris Kristofferson as a disgruntled cattle rancher. Bruce Willis, Avril Lavigne, Paul Dano, Luis Gusman, Esai Morales, and Catalina Sandino Moreno also put in brief appearances.
Better as a Book
With its constant dialogue and minimal action – except for some occasional cows being butchered, burgers being spat upon and dropped on the floor, some gratuitous sex scenes, and a few bodies getting mangled in the food processing machines – this movie seems better suited to its original format as a nonfiction book than a fictional film. Who are the people involved in this story and why are they determined to play their parts in this billion-dollar industry despite the danger to themselves and others? When and how did they become cogs in the fast-food machine that grinds human souls along with the bloody red meat from cows? Sorry, this film is full of facts, but no answers.
You might, however, learn a few things about filmmaking from the DVD’s extras, which include audio commentary with Schlosser and Linklater, a manufacturing Fast Food Nation featurette, photo gallery, and three flash animation films about prevention of cruelty to animals.
With such compelling subject matter and diverse range of talent, Fast Food Nation should have been a delicious super-sized cinematic combo, but ultimately it leaves an unpleasant taste in your mouth.
- Fast Food Nation
- Director: Richard Linklater
- Run time: 113 minutes
For more reviews, read Wild Hogs on DVD and Blades of Glory on DVD.
