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ASSIGNMENT
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Student Number 32813747

Surname Thu

Given name Myat Thu

Email myatthu278@gmail.com

Unit Code MCC333

Unit name Documentary

Enrolment mode Internal / external

Date 14th November 2016

Assessment name Assignment 2 Film Criticism Essay

Tutor Chap Heng

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Introduction

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 This Essay would be emphasizing and explaining more about the factors: truth
and reality whether it supports the statement or not by using the film Super Size Me as
well as also making the arguments and the reasons of the truth and reality used in the
film. Furthermore, it would also be elaborating more about on the relations between why
truth and reality are best suitable for this film. Super Size Me was a 2004 American
documentary film directed by Morgan Spurlock, an American self-reliant filmmaker.
Spurlock's film followed a 30-day duration (Biesterfeld, 2016) from February 1 to March
2, 2003, during which he ate only McDonald's food. The film recorded his behavior's
forceful effect on Spurlock's natural and emotional prosperity, as well as analyzing the
junk food business (Hasselbring, 2011) collective importance, including how it
strengthens low diet for its own income. The film also shows the consequences of
health in consuming only food from McDonald's restaurants, and also produced various
criticisms of the junk food industry such as its marketing (Burkeman, 2004) of incredibly
large serving sizes.

When the director Morgan Spurlock (Morales, 2004) heard about a claim that the
two obese New York youth had brought against McDonald's, criticizing the restaurant
for their situation, he determined to make an experiment (Scott, 2004). The team
members shot 250 hours worth of motion pictures, travelled more than 25,000 miles and
made a movie, from theory to materialization, in less than a year. In this Essay, the
following paragraphs would be discussing and elaborating mainly about (Super Size
Me) as well as also about the connection on truth and reality with the film language
together, i.e. (the methods available to the film makers in making a film) with mainly the
particular emphasis on selection and representation. Moreover, it would also be looking
at the findings of supporting theoretical frameworks, which theoretical framework is best
suitable for this film as well as also the reasons why these theoretical frameworks are
chosen for this film.

Truth and Reality in the Film (Super Size Me)

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 The term ‘Truth’ (Pardi, 2015) represents as an explanation about the way the
world actually is whereas reality represents as the state of materials as they actually
remain, rather than as they may emerge or might be an imaginary (Jordan, 2003).
Moreover, it also states that, truth is most often used to mean being in dealing with case
or in real world, devotion to an initial or standard. It may also often be used in
modernized situations to indicate to an opinion of "truth to self," or reliability. The term
‘Reality’ consists of everything that is and has been, whether or not it is noticeable or
intelligible. Reality (Westerhoff, 2012) is often contradicted with what is imaginary,
unrealistic, (only) in the thought, dreams, what is untrue, what is fabricated, or what is
hypothetical. Moreover, it also explains that reality is an eternal question in an art form
that requires both faithfulness and manipulation: honesty through its society and
manipulation through its technique. In contrast, truth also explains that likewise, truth
itself is the pearl in the oyster that filmmakers are always seeking to recapture and hold
up to the world: as a containable marker of the people action, as a clue of their subject's
quality and as validation for their own inquiries. The argument for this film in relation to
the truth and reality is that, the most significant objective for the film is to illustrate reality
as precisely as possible, for only by demonstrating reality accurately with the reality of
the world can be laid bare for all the audiences (MacCabe, 1985) to see. The reason is
because, without illustrating the truth and reality as accurately (McHoul, 1991) as
possible, films cannot demonstrate reality in any adequate way at all. Reality cannot be
demonstrated as it is composed of things that are not representable. Moreover, it is
mainly comprised of beliefs, relations and knowledge as well.

From this Super Size Me film in relation to the statement of truth and reality with
the film language and with particular emphasis on selection and representation, it could
be seen that in the beginning scene of the data representation of obesity trends among
the adults in America in 1990, the film’s vision of illustrating the truth is complicated; it
can tell a truth, but not the whole truth. This does not reduce its importance: most films
are still concerned with retaining a relationship of some sort with the ‘real’, and the
‘truths’ that ‘matter in people’s lives but which cannot be transparently represented’
(Williams 1993, 13).

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 Chapman (2009) suggested that truth can only be obtained if documentary films
were captured in a self-reflexive way. He felt that narrativity would be more truthful
when based around real life characters rather than spokespeople. The appearance of
Morgan Spurlock in the film as a subjective authoritarian in Super Size Me meant that
the film used a reflexive documentary mode of representation. In the documentary film,
he had controlled the narration and the ability to prompt the audience to a heightened
consciousness of the constitutive systems or power relations in the film industry. This
was captured in the scene where a young man consulted with the three different
physicians to control his obesity level from eating fast foods, using every opportunity
presented to him to act since it was his task to do so anyway.

The ability to see the director and his cast through mirrors meant that Super Size
Me itself became a reflection of cinema. Still, it remained the possibility that the film was
manipulated as the knowledge of presence of camera, sound and light equipment would
have concerned the way people acted when being filmed. Beattie (2004) suggested that
various realities could have been created depending on the intervention or omission of
the camera. Since camera men were obviously present throughout the film, a profilmic
reality, or reality as illustrated in front of the camera, could have been formed.

Theoretical Frameworks Used in the Film

The theoretical frameworks which are used in the film are mainly the structuralist
film theory and the formalist film theory because these two theories try help to support
the film as well as the statement too. Structuralist film theory (Sternagel, 2012) indicated
how films bring meaning through the use of codes and conventions not contradictory to
the way expressions are used to design meaning in communication. The reason why
the structuralist film theory is used in this film is because the simple mixture of camera
shots can construct an extra idea. For instance, in this film, it showed the scene of a
blank expression on a person's face like Don Gorske, an appetizing meal, and then
back to the person's face. This theory is appropriate as it tries to keep showing the
audiences what the characters are doing in the film as well as also they try to inform the
audiences what they should and should not do. Formalist film theory is a concept of film
study that is concentrated on the formal, or mechanical, elements of a film: i.e., the
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lighting, sound and set design, use of color, shot composition, and editing. This scene
can be seen when the surgeries are trying to operate the human’s body. This theory is
necessary because without it, the audiences may not know what the director is trying to
show as well as they can be disconnected with the current circumstances what is
happening.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the film (Super Size Me) reflects that the truth and reality is
agreeable with the film because the film includes many scenes showing about truth and
reality. Also, as mentioned above, the theoretical frameworks which are, structuralist
film theory and mainly formalist film theory are the best suitable for use in this film
because these theories try help to make the audiences more keeping in touch and up-
to-date with the current situation. Moreover, also these theories are interactive as they
try to give the societies with ideas and knowledge. In relation to the theoretical
framework with the statement, without these theories, there could be some difficulties in
trying to produce a film. Moreover, the societies are likely that they cannot be able to
obtain factual information from these as well as they are less likely to keep updated.

References Lists

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Biesterfeld, Peter. Documentary Bias- Rearranging the Truth. 2016.
https://www.videomaker.com/article/c06/18569-documentary-bias-rearranging-the-truth
(accessed August 2016).

Burkeman, Oliver. Your liver is turning into pate. 2004.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/jul/16/foodanddrink.shopping (accessed July 16,
2004).

Beattie, K. 2004. “‘Believe Me, I’m of the World’: Documentary Representation”. Documentary Screens:
Non-Fiction Film and Television. pp. 10-25.

Chapman, J. 2009. “Definitions: Issues and Influences”. Issues in Contemporary Documentary. pp. 8-27.

Hasselbring, Bobbie. Super Size Me- a film by Morgan Spurlock. 2011.

http://www.realfoodtraveler.com/2011/04/super-size-me-a-film-by-morgan-spurlock/
(accessed April 30, 2011).

Jordan, Randolph. The Gap: Documentary Truth between Reality and Perception and The Notion of
documentary truth. 2003. http://offscreen.com/view/documentary (accessed January 2003).

McHoul, Alec. The truth of the documentary. 1991.

http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/readingroom/5.1/Routt.html (accessed 1991).

Morales, Tatiana. From 2004: Super Size Me. 2004. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/from-2004-super-

size-me/ (accessed May 06, 2004).

MacCabe, C. (1985a) Realism in the Cinema: notes on some Brechtian theses, in Theoretical Essays: Film,
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Pardi, Paul. What is Truth? 2015. http://www.philosophynews.com/post/2015/01/29/What-is-

Truth.aspx (accessed January 29, 2015).

Scott, A.O. Film Review; When All Those Big Macs Bite Back. 2004.
http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CE5DC163CF934A35756C0A9629C8B63
(accessed May 07, 2004).

Sternagel, Jörg, Deborah Levitt, Dieter Mersch, and Lesley Stern. Acting and Performance in Moving
Image Culture: Bodies, Screens, Renderings. , 2012. Print. p 307

Westerhoff, Jan. Reality: The definition. 2012. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528840-500-

reality-the-definition/ (accessed September 26, 2012).

Williams, Linda (1993), 'Mirrors Without Memories: Truth, History and the New Documentary', Film
Quarterly 46: 9-21.

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