Analysis of "Supersize Me"

The following is an excerpt from an analysis I did concerning the well-known television documentary, "Supersize Me" by Morgan Spurlock:


I believe that the strongest aspect of this documentary is the support of all the different doctors. Having Spurlock see each professional doctor frequently and hearing their input on the situation really eliminated any chance of untruthfulness in the documentary regarding Spurlock’s change in health. To me, their role was very crucial in making this documentary as affective as it is. Another strong aspect of “Super Size Me” is the humor. I think the humor is what really keeps the viewers intrigued. Without Spurlock’s funny outlook on the situation, I believe the documentary would become boring and repetitive. A documentary involving the unhealthiness of fast food could be approached in many other ways, however, I believe this participatory way was definitely the most engaging. Spurlock could have easily done an expository documentary and focused on the “biography” of one obese person who frequently eats at McDonalds. An advantage to this method, is that people could be able to witness the long term effects of constantly eating fast food and where they could end up if they keep continuing to do so. This would have definitely been less entertaining, however it would be more inciteful to the viewers.

Although this documentary is perfect for the time period it was filmed, I think in the future it may not hold up as well. Because of the ridiculous percentage of obese people in our world, the fast food industry has already taken initiative to lower fat content and calories in the food they offer. Therefore, in twenty years, this documentary could be completely inaccurate with its facts and statistics. Many documentaries use statistics and facts to help support their topics, however a statistic from one year is only going to be an accurate form of support for so many years and you can’t just keep changing the documentary to keep up with the times.