eric schlosser Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Review: Fast Food Nation
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Theatrical Reviews », Fox Searchlight », Politics », Cinematical Indie »
How do you take a book that's non-fiction and make a fictional movie about it? Real-life stories are made into movies all the time, of course: Erin Brockovich, The Insider, All the President's Men -- all took real events and made them into films. But Fast Food Nation, the book, is not a story about a person. It's a painstakingly researched documentation of the history of the fast food industry and California car culture, and their collective impact on the way entire industries are run, the way people eat, and the way their food is produced. How to translate the vast amount of information Eric Schlosser presented in his book nearly a decade ago into a cohesive fictional film? The answer: It's not easy.
Schlosser's book, which started out as an article for Rolling Stone as a behind-the-scenes look at fast food, covered everything from suburban sprawl and changes in the meat industry destroying the American rancher; the meat-packing industry morphing from a crappy, but well-paid job with union benefits, into a crappy, poorly paid job with no benefits, mostly occupied now by illegal immigrants; teens becoming an underpaid and easily exploited workforce; and the rise of an entire industry marketing to children. The heart and soul of Schlosser's book is the focus on the plight of illegal immigrants -- a topic dear to his heart, as he previously spent a year following immigrant migrant farm workers for an article for The Atlantic on illegal immigration and its relationship with the produce industry. Schlosser's passion for this facet of the fast food industry comes across clearly in the book, and in the film adaptation, it's the segment imbued with the most passion as well.
Cannes Review: Fast Food Nation
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Cannes », Theatrical Reviews »
When Eric Schlosser's nonfiction book Fast Food Nation was released, Schlosser's journalistic skills and passionate-yet-well-structured arguments made it a best-seller; perhaps it stung a bit when Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me made it to theaters hot on the heels of Fast Food Nation -- stealing a certain amount of Schlosser's thunder and owing a very strong debt to Schlosser's work. Fast-forward a few years and Fast Food Nation gets to come to the big screen -- not as a documentary, but instead as fiction. Directed by Richard Linklater and co-written by Linklater and Schlosser, Fast Food Nation follows a group of characters -- workers, suppliers, executives, patrons -- through the fast-food economy. The stories and characters occasionally intersect and often diverge; as some at Cannes said at Fast Food Nation's debut, think of it as Traffic with meat.
McDonald's Prepares for Fast Food Nation
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Independent », Celebrities and Controversy », Fox Searchlight », Newsstand », Cinematical Indie »
Not only will Fox Searchlight release their
movie version of Fast Food
Nation (about the workings of a fast food chained called Mickey's) later this year, but that book's author,
Eric Schlosser, is also soon to release Chew
on This: Everything You Didn't Want to Know about Fast Food, a similarly themed (but you probably guessed that)
book aimed at teachers and students. McDonald's however, isn't running scared. Oh no. Instead, they're exchanging
war-like internal memos, and promising a "full-scale media campaign" in responses to the upcoming media
assault. Among the tactics reportedly being considered are a "truth squad" (Maybe they'll carry around a giant, inflatable fry.), a "campaign
to tell the real story" ("Massive amounts of fat are good for you!" "Animals totally love factory
farms!") and, most tantalizingly, efforts to "discredit the message and the messenger." Oooooh. I can't
wait for that one -- do you think Happy Meals boxes will start featuring pictures of Richard Linklater's face with a big, red "X" through it? No release date has been set for Fast Food Nation, dammit, but it's expected out some time in 2006.
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