SYNOPSIS:
How much do we really know about the food we buy at our local supermarkets and serve to our families? in FOOD INC., Robert Kenner lifts the veil on the food industry exposing the highly mehanized underbelly that's been hidden from the consumer with the consent of the government. The documentary reveals surprising and often shocking truths about what we eat and how it's produced, what the cost to our health is and how this wave of change is sweeping across the global food industry.
MOVIE REVIEW:
We have been warned before. Morgan Spurlock tipped us off about the perils of fast food in 2004’s Super Size Me. 2006’s Fast Food Nation was an attempt by Richard Linklater to tell us the risks involved in the fast food industry, as well as its environmental and social consequences. So here’s another cautionary tale about what we ear will eventually lead us to our doom. But will we do anything about it? We seriously hope that we will not become cynical and disregard warnings like this – and regret later, whining that no one told us about such scary facts.
Director Robert Kenner takes on a rather dry topic which could have been worse if read off text books – the production of food and the frightening secrets which states do not tell us, until it is too late. In 91 minutes, the award winning documentary sheds light on the current method of raw food production, and illustrates how it is largely a response to the growth of the fast food industry. It shows the business aspect of this process, how a few multinational corporations are controlling this primarily with an emphasis on enormous profits Health and safety of the food and those workers working on the assembly lines? Heck them. What’s more important is to provide cheap food regardless of these negative consequences. Throw in more negative effects due to the advancements in science and technology. The resulting scenario is not a pretty one, if this goes on.
The topic discussed is worthy of a thesis paper, but visuals work best for the masses when it comes to delivering messages. Food experts and scientists are featured and interviewed in this production, making things more credible and believable for the laymen. Colourfully cute graphics are used to drive certain points across effectively. Disturbing images are strategically placed (some would say exploited) in the film to make you think twice about the food you eat. All these and you are still not convinced? Then you would call yourself a cynic.
Like all other documentaries, the makers have an agenda, and you would be lying if you were trying to find a balanced and objective view of things in this one. You can see it as an attempt by the filmmakers to bring down the evil corporations controlling how we are to perish. You can see it as a kind gesture by the filmmakers to provide an insight to the horrors of food production so we can save ourselves in time. You can see it as a indulgent attempt by the filmmakers to make their voices heard internationally (the documentary is one of the 15 short listed for an Academy Award). However you look at it, this documentary is an essential one in our time and age, as horrifying as it is.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 DVD contains no extra features.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
There is nothing to complain about the movie’s visual transfer. it is presented in its original English language.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
Posted on 20 November 2009
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