When Morgan Spurlock’s debut documentary Super Size Me opened at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, the buzz was very big, and very good for Spurlock. He won Best Director at Sundance, and less than two months after the film festival, McDonald’s announced plans to remove the “Super Size” option from its menus (a move that the company says has nothing to do with Spurlock’s film). In Super Size Me, Spurlock subjects himself to a thirty-day experiment wherein he agrees to consume only that which he can purchase at a McDonald’s counter (water included), to exercise as little as possible (prompting him to take cabs all over Manhattan), and to Super Size his meal only when asked by the McDonald’s employee he’s ordering from (this turns out to be only nine times in thirty days). Spurlock intercuts footage of his personal experiment with information about the history of fast food in America, the impact that fast food marketing (and its buy-ins to public school systems) has on American children, and tales of Americans so devoted to McDonald’s that they’ve built their lives around the chain restaurant in one way or another. The result is a funny, engaging, and enlightening look at the ways in which Americans dine in our modern era as well as an indictment of the near-total lack of nutritional quality of food available at McDonald’s and other fast food joints.

Spurlock’s film and its attendant media machine (including a catchy theme song, upbeat and humorous trailers, and a well-designed website) are largely dependent on Spurlock himself. By placing himself at the center of the film, he both finds a way to get inside access to the bodily results of his experiment and to create the tension -- between laughing at Spurlock and sympathizing with him – that drives the film. Spurlock is an engaging character; at the beginning of the film he presents as a goofy, buoyant, and curious personality who is fun to watch. He invites the viewer to relate to him on a more intimate level than other documentary filmmakers (a refreshing contrast to directors such as Michael Moore) by interviewing his Vegas chef girlfriend and taking the camera along to his doctors appointments.

Spurlock begins his experiment by having three different doctors and a nutritionist perform comprehensive medical exams, proving himself to be fitter and healthier than the average thirty-something American male. These doctor visits are a recurring theme throughout the film and provide the bulk of the film’s overall message; they are Spurlock’s proof that a diet of this type can destroy the human body. (As it turns out, every one of the doctors ends up begging Spurlock to abandon his experiment, and point out to him that he is doing more harm to his body, particularly his liver, by eating three fast food meals a day than he might through excessive drinking.) Spurlock uses these visits and exhortations from his chosen medical professionals to set up comparisons and talking points for the portions of his film that are more grounded in traditional documentary filmmaking, and that are less sensationalistic than the gimmick he’s chosen to attract viewers.

Spurlock presents facts and figures about the advertising budgets of fast food corporations (versus that of Federal offices that are charged with public education about nutrition), as well as points from internal memos that discuss how to market most effectively to children and to, as McDonald’s calls them, “Heavy Users”. He also spends a significant portion of his film discussing the problem of modern American public school lunches, and the fact that fast food companies increasingly underwrite them. This information is especially effective in setting up Spurlock’s case for how Americans are, in effect, being trained from childhood into poor eating habits and falling back on fast food and “convenience food,” as opposed to learning skills that would lead them to become healthy eaters and great cooks.

The extent of Spurlock’s physical decline over the course of the film is astonishing and well presented. As a filmmaker, he clearly understands how to balance comedy and information in an engaging way. The pacing of the film is spot-on, and the camera work is serviceable and strives to present the film as both fun and informative. There is a hip sensibility at work here, and the music in the film (coupled with artist Ron English’s striking fast-food themed oil paintings) keeps the mood of the piece light and direct. The film is never overbearing or preachy – imagery of Ronald McDonald and friends that runs over the Curtis Mayfield song “Pusher Man” illustrates Spurlock’s points about the industry’s focus on “hooking” children by making the audience laugh, rather than making the audience feel talked down to.

The Super Size Me Website works both to promote the film and its recent DVD release, as well as to further the cause of educating American consumers about the food that they’ve grown so accustomed to eating. Fact sheets and links to various info-packed websites are just two of the elements that are at the heart of the website. There is also a well moderated discussion board for those who wish to argue over the finer points of the film; this interactive element is an especially effective one for a documentary whose stated aim is to get people thinking and talking, rather than to drive hordes of customers away from fast food restaurants.

The special features on the DVD (which was released in late September) are the best sort; there are deleted scenes that actually further the conversation begun in the film (as opposed to DVD scenes that should’ve stayed on the cutting room floor – something that is all to common in DVD releases these days) and there is an extended interview featuring both Spurlock and Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser which acts as a kind of compare and contrast of two very different personalities with very similar goals.

There is, however, one drawback to the Super Size Me phenomenon, both in the film and on the otherwise well-executed website. Spurlock’s focus on the so-called “obesity epidemic” – the reported inspiration behind the film being the case of two young women who sued the McDonald’s Corporation under the accusation that the corporation caused their obesity – detracts, somewhat, from what could be the far greater message of the film. More distressing than Spurlock’s 24-pound weight gain is the damage that he ends up causing to his heart, his blood, and (most notably) his liver. While some of these elements could be tied to obesity over the course of years, his doctors seem to think that, due to the relatively short timeline of Spurlock’s experiment, that these physical damages in particular were caused by his diet as opposed to his weight gain. Although there seems to be good scientific evidence that severe obesity can be a life-threatening condition (and surely it is disturbing to think of a generation of Americans being obese from early childhood through the end of their lives), there is a kind of equation at work in Spurlock’s film that “FAT = BAD,” period. Spurlock spends a great deal of effort focusing on fat and on weighing himself, when he could be emphasizing the dangers of the 30 pounds of refined sugars his dietician tells him he’s ingested over the course of the month. His liver damage and sudden drop in mood and sex drive have more to do with what he is consuming than with his weight gain, but this is de-emphasized over the course of the film.

On the whole, Super Size Me is a humorous, fast paced, and well produced documentary that has already made a significant impact in American culture. The abolition of the Super Size option could be viewed as a sweeping and positive change that comes as a result of Americans re-evaluating the choices they make as consumers and diners. Spurlock has been regularly giving interviews and the website message boards remain active more than a month after the DVD release. Has Morgan Spurlock become a force for health and wellness in America? A force for fast-food cultural change? Only time will tell, but his film is one that should be seen, thought about, and discussed.