A Rhetorical Analysis Of Super Size Me:Why Are Americans So Fat?
Submitted by freefortermpapers on 06/24/2008 03:00 PM
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A Rhetorical Analysis Of Super Size Me:Why Are Americans So Fat?
America has become the fattest nation in the world. Why is that? Super Size Me, a documentary released in 2004 by Morgan Spurlock, attempts to answer that very question. The setup is simple: Spurlock will consume nothing but McDonald's fare for 30 days. He has only four rules. First, he must eat three meals a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Secondly, he can eat only what McDonald's sells (water included). Thirdly, he must eat everything on the menu at least once. And, lastly, he will only Super Size his meals if he is asked.
Before making this film, Spurlock was probably best known for creating and hosting the short-lived 2002 MTV show I Bet You Will. In that show, he paid people to do disgusting things, such as persuading a woman to eat a Madagascar hissing cockroach in exchange for $100. Another woman was given $250 to shave her head, combine the clippings with butter, and then eat it. We see similar repugnant acts in Super Size Me, as Spurlock vomits before finishing his McDonald's lunch, and shows in vivid detail a man's gastric bypass (stomach reduction) surgery. With a seeming affinity for the nauseating, he tries to shock the fast-food connoisseurs and exercise-challenged individuals of this nation, as well as heedless parents, into thinking more about how they eat, how their children eat, and how they live.
According to an interview given to David Newell of DVDtalk, a Web site featuring movie news and information about DVDs, Spurlock came up with the idea for this film while sitting on his mother's couch on Thanksgiving 2002. He saw a story on the news about two obese girls suing McDonald's for contributing to their weight gain. A McDonald's spokesperson maintained that the lawsuit was frivolous, and that the food available at McDonald's is "healthy, nutritious, and good for you." Spurlock says that he is not a litigious person, and therefore does not agree with the lawsuit, but he believes there is a basis for an argument...
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