There have been plenty of great documentaries over the past few years. However, the one problem with documentaries is that they do have a particular point of view. Your reaction to a particular documentary will likely be dependent on that point of view and how you look at the world from both a political and social perspective. In other words, a documentary with a liberal bias, as most of them have, will not be looked on as favorably by someone who identifies themselves as a conservative as one who identifies themselves as a liberal. However, there are some documentaries which should shock and grab the attention of people across the entire political and social spectrum. Food, Inc. is just one of those documentaries.
Film
Food, Inc. is so shocking on so many different levels, that I really don’t know how to begin, other than to say I will never look at the beef and chicken I am served the same way again.
The film takes an in depth look at the food industry in the United States and how control over that industry rests with a few companies. Such control concentrated in the hands of a few is not in and of itself a bad thing. However, what those companies do with that control is a bad thing and is what is truly the most shocking aspect of the film.
When I travel overseas, I am almost always amazed at how much better the food tastes in Europe (with the exception of the UK) than it does here. The reasons for that are made obvious in this film, with the use of corn vs. grass to feed cattle, being one of the most obvious, as it the overall living conditions which we put the cattle, poultry and hogs through. The conditions are so appalling that they should disgust just about everyone. I know they did me. Feeding animals food that they were not designed to eat and keeping them in truly squalid can’t make for good tasting meat and it really shows.
Do yourself a favor and purchase some organically grown beef and chicken and see the difference for yourself. While the treatment the food companies afford the animals, is bad enough, the effect that their food ingredients, namely corn, have on humans is just as appalling. It seems that all of the processed foods we purchase at the store have as their main ingredient either corn or some corn derivative. Cane sugar has been replaced with high fructose corn syrup, which is a cause, not only of the astronomically high levels of obesity in the US, but of the high levels of diabetes in the lower economic levels of our country, who just can afford to eat any better. This stuff simply does not belong in our food and the sooner we can have it removed the better.
The most alarming thing about this film is how it shows that as a society, we are eating ourselves to death, with our diets chock full of ingredients that are not only of questionable nutritional value, but down right dangerous to eat.
All is not lost however, as the film shows how some companies are waking up to this fact and are making an effort to improve their products and go organic and how even companies like Wal-Mart have seen the light and are making a real conscious effort to offer organic products in their stores. If you haven’t seen this film, you really need to. It will really make you re-evaluate the food you purchase at the store and make you very conscious of what is on the labels of the food you do buy. Highly recommended.
Video
While I was shocked at the message this film conveys about the quality of our food supply, I was not surprised by the overall video quality of this release which is about what I anticipated it to be. While the new footage shot for the film is quite good, the film is so chock full of older footage with poor image quality that I felt compelled to drop the overall score below that of 4 stars. The new footage is without question worthy of a 4 star rating and above. It is just that there isn’t enough of it to bring the overall score up to a 4.
The new footage has good overall clarity with bright, bold and natural colors including skin tones and good if not quite inky blacks. The rest of the film is often grainy and in poor physical condition with poor color reproduction and poor detail. Given that is is a documentary relying often on stock footage, I was not surprised by the overall look of the film. If you are looking for a sleek looking high def transfer, Food, Inc. is not the film for you.
Audio
As was the case with the video, the audio here is just about what I expected for a documentary. If you are looking for sound that will impress visitors to your theater, this is also not the release for you. The film’s sound design is rather basic being very front heavy and just as well could have just as well have been a stereo mix rather than the 5.1 mix provided here. There is little use of the surrounds with the audio coming from the front three speakers for the most part. The overall sound quality is just of average quality, with little in the way of dynamics or impact. The real impact is provided by the narrative, not the sound design or quality of the audio. While I always appreciate a lossless audio encode, the use of DTS HD Master Audio here is overkill, given the nature and quality of the sound design.
Special Features
The real star here is the film itself. However, there are several extras that are worth your time. The most interesting are the deleted scenes which really expand on some of material already appearing in the film. Also included are numerous public service announcements by TV and film personalities and a segment about the film that appeared on ABC News Nightline entitled “You Are What You Eat: Food With Integrity. Also included is a short cartoon featurette The Amazing Food Detective and Smacktown Smackdown where kids save their town by removing the junk food from the town’s vending machines and replacing it with healthy food. Other than the deleted scenes, there is really little in the way of worthwhile extras included here.
Final Thoughts
While not exactly featuring stellar audio and video, Food, Inc. is such a compelling film about an extremely important topic, namely our food supply, that is worth a look and is highly recommended.
