I
have not read Eric Schlosser's 2001 best seller "Fast Food Nation" about
the meat industry since my life-long diet consists of no meat, fish, fowl, fruits,
or vegetables. Director Richard Linklater must have looked at the marketing numbers:
Everyone eats fast food. It has a built-in, interested-in-the-subject audience.
Fecal
matter is in your hamburgers! But it is not enough to kill you, or it might be
lonely for me in America. It might even make you stronger. Who knows? Did primitive
man worry?
Everyone
is fat in America over the age of ten. I've done the research. I look around and
take notes. But in the American dating market, being fat is better than being
obese!
I go to
WalMart and Costco to scare my hunger away.
"Fast
Food Nation" begins in Mexico where illegal aliens are sneaking into the
country to find nasty work Americans refuse to do and long days for $10 an hour.
Its horrible, filthy work but it buys a lot of comfort and food. Back home these
people, we are told, could only make $3-4 a day!
The
Mexicans arrive in Cody, Colorado to begin work at a cow-killing and meat processing
plant. The plant is the major supplier of hamburgers for the Mickey's fast food
chain. The problem begins when research shows that meat from the plant is contaminated
with fecal matter. Mickey's executive Don Henderson (Greg Kinnear), who fears
for his job, is sent to investigate the conditions at the plant.
High
schoolers Amber (Ashley Johnson) and Brian (Paul Dano) work at a Mickey's. Amber
wants to get out of Cody. She has dreams of doing good.
Ashley's
mom is Cindy (Patricia Arquette). Her "hot" uncle is Pete (Ethan Hawke),
who looks like he followed his dream to be a pot-smoker.
Someone
named Harry (Bruce Willis) turns up to read Don the Riot Act. It is the best performance,
liveliest, and most truthful character in the movie.
Another
friend of the director's is day player Rudy (Kris Kristofferson). Let's not forget
to thank tormented, spit-singer Avril Lavigne's agent for putting her in a nice
little role. She did quite well.
Newly
arrived Mexicans include sisters Sylvia (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and Coco (Ana
Claudia Talancon) and Sylvia's husband Raul (Wilmer Valderrama), find work at
the plant. The sister's line boss is evil Mike (Bobby Cannavale), who sleeps with
all the pretty girls or they go on the "Gut Line" pulling out cow kidneys
from bloody carcasses. Coco soon falls for his charm.
Did
you get my drift that the cast is stocked with characters that could easily be
edited out of the film? I thought there was a Screenwriting 101 rule that said
every scene had to be meaningful to the story and move it along or else don't
shoot it?
Somewhere
along the filming, someone must have commented on the lack of story, drama, and
characters no one cared about. So, to really amp up the message, a cow is killed
and slaughtered in close-up.
