Super Size Me – 2004 - Morgan Spurlock
Super Size me is a very well done documentary about a healthy man, who eats McDonalds every single day to prove whether or not it is right to sue a corporation on the facts that they can solely make a person unhealthy and obese.
Morgan lived conveniently close enough to a food source. Living in New York City it makes the most sense to just walk everywhere, on average New Yorkers walk 4 to 5 miles a day. Except to successfully establish his “Special” diet he must limit his walking to a lesser amount then the average New Yorker.
In the beginning of this documentary, GC’s of maps, photographs, texts, images of various McDonald throughout America as well as stock footage of obese people immediately direct the viewer to the obvious subject in this documentary.
What makes the hook, so well put together is the fact that Morgan, strategically organizes all his b-roll footage with a narrative discussing the average Americans weight.
A lot of narration in this documentary in this documentary pulls me in and attracts my attention, because along with the narrations follows nicely done visual sequences. Especially parts when Morgan is consulting with doctors about going into this binging diet of just strictly McDonald. Visual time lines consisting on texts showing the Day and Number (Day 17) create a time line which is easy for the audience to grasp and understand. As well as some of the interviews with some of the doctors, trainers, specialists, writers, activists, and normal civilians they especially draw me into watching more. I guess it is because I am interested in knowing the opinions on everyone. This documentary is meant to give a huge impact on the TRUH. And this truth, is rapidly hurting our world, and sadly resulting in deaths all around the world.
It may seem like only Americans are being attacked, yes it is true that they have a growing obesity rate amongst children and adults. But in reality all over the world big fast food corporations are hurting everyone. Morgan has not only decided to target McDonald, but other big corporate fast food chains.
By watching this documentary I have noticed that many people are starting to solely depend on fast food as a main staple for themselves and in some cases for their children as well. Think about it, it is cheap, fast, and satisfying. But there are many by-products as well as enormous amounts of saturated and trans fats.
By then end of the whole “Special” binge diet Morgan has consumed 30 pounds of Sugar, 12 pounds of fat.
The bottom line is that the loyalty is not 100% to the customers to the stockholders. They are a business; by selling you unhealthy food they make millions. Sadly this is the truth.
"Look after the Customer, and the business will take care of itself."
- Ray Kroc
McDonald Founder
My different Life - TVO – Karen O’donnel
Denise has three children, and lives in a 2 bed room apartment wither kids and boyfriend. Her oldest child Alex has a learning disability, ADHD. The middle child Michael also struggles in school, but he does not act out in frustration like his bigger sister Alex.
Denise has been working hard, to get her children properly tested out by the school board to determine whether or not the kids actually have learning disabilities or if they are actually capable of doing the school work. Denise knows her own children, she has noticed that Alex was different and struggling when she was in grade 2. And now she is in grade 7. So for 5 years Alex has never been properly tested. The kids are frustrated because they cannot do school work, and they know they can’t do it, so this makes them very upset.
This documentary is sort of like a confession by Denise and her children. Throughout the whole thing, we are basically following their every step, and learning more and more about their characters. WE get to see how they work in school, what happens when they are actually tested out in hospitals and with psychiatrist to actually figure out what type of learning disabilities the children have. What shows me that this documentary is like a confession is the one on one interview as well. Denise and her children are given hand held cameras, which they can talk to and express their feelings to as well. There are also commentaries and voice over’s that go along with the sequences; it is sort of like storytelling to me because you have the actual persons voice, which goes along with their footage. Also the sequences with the doctors and teachers as well as the kids help the audience understand what the kids are going through. The kids are constantly having headaches, from their constant stress with school.
The kids are feeling very segregated within their school walls and their mother Denise just wants them to get the help that they need in order to stop feeling stressed out and frustrated all the time. Except Denise and her kids are not being given the help that they deserve, they must wait a matter of 3 years before they can get tested. And within those three years, the kids are constantly failing their subjects, and falling behind. It makes me think how come the educational system is biased, why do they need to wait that many years if their problem is very serious?
The Fifth Estate – CBC – First Do No Harm
This fifth estate documentary is based on a Toronto doctor named Y . Ping. Who has lack of judgment, and rushes patients to surgery. In one special case, Nicole who has just given birth to a baby girl, was experiencing abdominal pain and heavy bleeding from her vaginal area. So her and her husband rushed her to the emergency room. There at the emergency room, Dr. Y.Ping was the on call obigyncal specialist working that night. Dr. Y.Ping ordered some tests, including a pathology test. After that, he rushed Nicole in to surgery, where he performed a hysterectomy. After the surgery, Nicole was in a lot of pain and feared that she could have gotten an infection from the sloppy and rushed operation that Dr. Y. Ping had given her. Nicole worked at a Hospital, and knows how to read charts, she read her chart and to her surprise has an infection. She made the nurses call up Dr. Y. Ping and he did not discuss her state with her. He simply said “I am the doctor, and you are the patient” and he simply hung up the phone.
Nicole was so frightened that she called up the hospital where she worked, and told them her current state. They immediately ordered a patient transfer. If Nicole never talked to her hospital, she would have gotten a serious infection and would have been stuck in A coma.
She later found out that Dr. Y .Ping never got the results back from the pathology test that was taken from Nicole. He just immediately took her in to surgery and performed a hysterectomy on Nicole. She later got the results and the tumor was benign. That means that Dr. Y. Ping performed an unnecessary operation on a patient. Over 300 patients we’re harmed by him. They we’re miss diagnosed, maimed, and mistreated. His medical mistakes are horrendous and have caused hundreds of patients with permanent disabilities. If a doctor makes a medical mistake the doctors not patients are protected.
Throughout this documentary the visuals and b roll, are heavily used to put the story together. This is the reason because, all the actually shot footage that is in the present tense, is the interviews. The one on one interviews with the reporter, are the only actually present tense footage that we have on this story. This all happened to Nicole during the year of 1996, and since it was filmed in 2006, there is actually no actual footage of Nicole during that time, just pictures.
The non- sync sequencing of the broll footage, is paired along with narratives of the reporter and Nicole expressing either their option of something written to help with the explanation of the story. I really like the way the narrations are written, it ties everything all together, and makes the story all understandable. The broll footage also ties in the story effectively, I like how there are reenactments of what happened to the patients, it visually shows me what actually happened to the patients that Dr. Y. Ping has harmed. Post effects such as freeze frame we’re also used in this documentary, it adds a more dramatic feel to the situation. And because the footage is very old, it actually makes it seem like it is happening in the current year/day.
Dr. Y .Ping was stripped of his license and no long able to practice anywhere in the world. What he did to those poor women is horrible, and he is a bad person for thinking these women are healthy after the procedures and operations he has performed on them. It makes me wonder why, the hospital never really did anything in the earlier years when he was first starting to become sloppy. We’re they merely just trying to cover their ass’s up? Or did they not even notice? It is very strange and does not make any sense to me.
