Essay on Supersize Me - 3rd December 2009

This is an essay i wrote on the documentary Super Size Me

Documentary Analysis: “Supersize Me”


Unlike traditional documentaries where the audience are subjected too a smartly dressed academic reeling facts to them about ancient wars and bible conspiracies, “Supersize Me” takes a different angle. As a documentary “Supersize Me” embarks on what has commonly become known as a documentary quest. What is meant by this is that the documentary takes a somewhat charismatic presenter (Morgan Spurlock) and has him or her pursue a theory or a goal. Documentaries that adopt a similar approach are “Jamie’s Ministry of food” where celebrity chef Jamie Oliver embarks on a “quest” to change the eating habits of Rotherham, or programs by fashion “guru” Gok Wan that seek to empower women and get them to feel good about their bodies. Unlike traditional documentaries, the narrative aspects of these “quest” documentaries are seasoned with an air of drama and suspense (used to keep the audience interested). Often narrative stunts such as time boundaries (i.e. 24 hours to convert a garden) and general “hiccups” with the creation of the documentary (such as problems with health or physical well being) are thrown into the mix. Super Size me uses these narrative tools very effectively. The general theme of the documentary is to investigate the damage to ones health eating fast food non stop can do. In this the producers hoped to increase public awareness of the issue and dissuade them from fast food outlets. So unlike a traditional documentary, where the aim is to awe the audience with facts and figures, about military tactics or climate change, Supersize Me and other documentaries of this new “quest documentary” sub genre, seek to involve the audience in their “quest”. As a viewer, you feel almost a part of the production. You are made to empathise with the presenter and their goal. In the case of Supersize Me, Morgan Spurlock incurs some health issues as a result of his “MCbinge”. As an audience we sympathise with him and his cause, adding to the overall power that the documentary has in influencing our opinion.
The audience of this documentary and others like it are awed by a sense of inspiration and sensationalism. The audience often take on board the ideals portrayed by the documentary and act upon them. In the case of supersize me audiences would endeavour not to eat at fast food chains and eat more healthily. Often audiences relate to the presenter as he or she is represented not as a glamorous celebrity, above us in social class and life style but an “ordinary human being” to coin a meaningless phrase for what is an ordinary human being. Therefore the representation of the presenter is that of a down to earth person who is discovering things along with the audience and therefore the audience begin to feel almost a part of the production and thus relate positively too it.
However this documentary and other like it are based around a “pseudo quest”. By this we mean that although the production has the feel of an ongoing, ever discovering journey by the presenter and the audience in relation to him or her, it is in fact railroading toward a pre defined conclusion. In the case of super size me, the outcome is o course obvious. Why would an institution back a documentary that in the end discovered that MC Donald’s food in fact did not cause any health concerns, or in Michel Moore’s Fahrenheit 911 that George W Bush did in fact win a legitimate victory in the presidential elections and was a good leader. That would not sell and institutions fund documentaries for profit. So although these quest documentaries have the feel of an ongoing journey of discovery, they are in fact institutionalised and scripted toward a pre arranged conclusion, one that is sensational and one that will sell.
To summarise, Supersize Me is a documentary that (like many other recent documentaries) challenges the documentary stereotype, and uses a mixture of entertaining performance and informative statistics and facts to inform and entertain its audience. The narrative of the piece adopts a “quest” type of structure, where the presenter and the documentary takes us on a journey of discovery to bring about a result, in the case of Supersize Me, exposing the damage that fast food does to people however this result is often the desired outcome of the documentary producers and the documentary as a production is subtly scripted toward this set of ideals aiming to bring about this school of thought in the audiences mind.