Fast food grind exposed in ‘Fast Food Nation,’ the movie
By Julie Brown-Micko

First there was Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock’s hilarious and troubling look at how our love of fast food is quite literally destroying our bodies. Now Director Richard Linklater adapts Eric Schlosser’s best-selling non-fiction book, Fast Food Nation, into a compelling narrative about the horrors of what goes on behind counter. This wide-ranging fictionalized account examines the unpleasant truth of illegal labor, the meat packing industry, and the corporate machine chugging along behind that burger and fries combo.

The movie alternates between several competing storylines. One plot features the investigative journey of Mickey’s Burgers marketing executive Don Anderson (Greg Kinnear) as he tracks down the source of bacteria-ridden meat in the processing plant. He’s portrayed with some sympathy, struggling to do what’s right in a situation where there are no easy answers and his job is at risk if he blows the whistle. But most compelling is the plight of the illegal aliens forced to work in unsafe, inhumane conditions at the meat packing plant. Drugs, sexual harassment, intimidation and powerlessness are just part of the job. The poignant struggles of workers Raul (Wilmer Valderrama), his girlfriend Sylvia (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and her sister Coco (Ana Claudia Talancon) illuminate a frightening reality.

Two particularly bright performances stand out: Food industry insiders view rancher Rudy Martin (Kris Kristofferson) as a crank, but he’s portrayed as a salty, wise old man who’s not afraid to speak the ugly truth about the meat business. Clearly Rudy is Schlosser’s mouthpiece, but Kristofferson pulls off the role with aplomb. He flatly tells Don that the meat packing company brutalizes workers and animals alike, concerned only with “pennies per pound.” He also doesn’t shirk from telling Don something else he already knows—Mickey’s food is well-marketed crap. Bruce Willis does a fine job as the pasty-white, unsavory cattle supplier Harry Rydell, who brushes off concerns with the simple instruction: “Just cook the meat and you’ll be fine!” With a smear of blood-like ketchup on his mouth, he complains that Americans have become too germ-focused and a good, well-calibrated grill will cook off any nasty little bits of fecal matter.

For straight-up eye candy, there are many scenes featuring dreadful images. Sometimes these views are freighted with a kind of gallows humor (like rats scampering out of the ventilation system), and in other moments, pure horror (blood and entrails spilling wetly down a mechanized line on the “kill floor”). As you watch the unnaturally red waffle-like patties of frozen meat tumble down the conveyor belt into the gloved hands of the workers, it’s hard to avoid a nauseating discomfort: is that what my last fast food burger looked like? Sadly, the answer is probably yes.

Linklater and Schlosser create an entertaining, unnerving look at the destructive business of fast food. It may turn your stomach, but it will certainly give you something to think about on your next trip through the drive-thru.