The arrogance of McDonald's management and their failure to see this film as a looming public relations disaster is another enjoyable surprise, as Spurlock is casually brushed off no fewer than 15 times as he tries to arrange an interview with someone from their corporatre headquarters.

Even after viewing this well thought-out and researched documentary, the tendency of many will be the stock response to any serious effort to look at the underlying causes of obesity. Derision, mockery and assaults on the characters of those who don't have the will power to stop jeering their greedy mugs into the trough and slurping up pig-sized portions of unhealthy food. Any number of variations on "they don't have to eat there, eat as much...use some willpower ya fat bastids! etc." This attitude comes up a number of times throughout the film though never encouraged by Spurlock. He shows empathy for these people and his film makes a person think twice about piling on the poor fools who are destined to a shorter life anyway.

Looking beyond the simplistic explanations that make the rest of us feel superior seems to be a running theme throughout Super Size Me. In what is the most annoying aspect of the film, Spurlock's cheerful yet irritating girlfriend hectors him regarding the unhealthy side effects of his month-long experiment, culminating in a tearful and maudlin phone conversation after one of his final visits to the team of physicians in which the scope of his mounting health problems become apparent. Though choosing to make himself endure the marathon of self-punishment simply to make his film as authentic and intriguing as possible, in the process he demonstrates that despite the rankist, smug judgement of others, where we end up is not always down to superficial and dismissive reasons.

Cross-posted at: Pistonhips: misanthropic ravings from an expat in Bangkok