Blog Post #8: Film Viewing

For this blog post, I decided to watch Super Size Me. I had seen the film before, but decided to watch it again so I could be more aware of the arguments in the film. It makes the argument that people should not eat at unhealthy fast food chains based on the grounds that it has a negative effect on physical and mental health. Spurlock also makes the claim that Fast food chains are heavily influenced by corporate entities and encourage poor nutrition for its own profit. They make this argument through experimental methods. In Super Size Me, a man named Morgan Spurlock follows a 30 day period during which he eats only McDonald's food. During this time he gains 24 pounds, experienced a 13% BMI increase, his cholesterol increases to 230 mg/dL, and suffers mentally with mood swings and other experiences.

The creators of this film use a heavy logos appeal with hard evidence and statistics to support their argument that people should refrain from eating unhealthy fast food restaurants. He also uses a strong Ethos appeal (credibility) because he does the experiment himself and portrays the consequences on video, giving him a lot of credibility in the eyes of the viewer.

One fallacy that could be seen in this film's argument is that Spurlock did not exercise and that eating three reasonable fast-food meals a day could not add up to 5,000 calories like Spurlock claimed. Some have argued that anyone who does not exercise is bound to suffer the consequences that he experienced.

In my opinion, This movie was effective in making this argument. It showed the audience the effect that fast food can have on ones body and encourages healthier lifestyles. Although some people claim that this film was exaggerated, there is no arguing against the fact that fast food is not healthy.