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||| Andrei Tarkovsky |||
Andrei Tarkovsky

Tarkovsky's contemplative, metaphysical films, more experienced than watched, are perhaps best described in the director's own words: sculptures in time.

In the post-apocalypse, a writer and scientist hire a "stalker" to guide them into The Zone, a mysterious and restricted wasteland with fabled, alien properties. Their journey, captured by Tarkovsky as a succession of incredible images, has, since, been read as political commentary, religious allegory, and Chernobyl prophesized.

Tarkovsky's visionary biography of the 15th-century icon painter is one of cinema's most majestic and solemn experiences. In some way, it will change you.

An adaptation of Stanis?aw Lem's novel of the same name, Tarkovsky's genre-less sci-fi film, which is set mostly aboard a space station hovering off a strange planet, tangles with issues of identity, death and reality in a way that will leave you agape, in the full meaning.

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Super Size Me

By EdwardHavens

May 5th, 2004

Morgan Spurlock’s documentary “Super Size Me” is about much more than one man deciding to only eat at McDonald’s for one month. The film is about personal responsibility in taking care of ourselves, and those who have been critical of Spurlock and his film for taking what might be seen as drastic measures to illustrate his point either have not seen the film or are ignoring basic facts of life in our world in the first part of the third millennium. The proliferation of cheap food and decline of personal exercise ARE killing us, and if takes seeing one man destroy his body in a thirty day period to get that point across, we are the ones who will be better for it.


Perhaps learning from the criticisms leveled at documentarian Michael Moore in the past, Spurlock makes sure to set his situation up perfectly up front. After setting up what is going to happen (He can only eat what was available over the counter at McDonald’s, including water, no supersizing of meals unless he was specifically asked and having to eat every item on the menu at least once), Spurlock gets a series of tests from three different doctors. All tests show he is a very healthy man, with lower-than-average levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and other benchmarks of a healthy person. After the battery of tests, he would get re-tested and weighed every seven days. Oh, and he would reduce his exercise regime to just walking, as little as possible. Over the course of the month, Spurlock traveled across the United States, trying a variety of local menu specialties and interviewing a wide variety of people, from former Surgeon Generals, lawmakers and lobbyists to gym teachers, cooks to school children, to discover why people choose to consume the way they do and why they are given the choices they’re given.

How quickly does Spurlock start to feel different? In just the first few days, as the act of eating becomes a chore, trying to eat everything as it was ordered. By the end of the first week, Spurlock has gained over ten pounds, and he’s starting to move a bit slower. By the third week, he’s almost twenty pounds heavier, and everyone from his doctors to his vegan girlfriend is begging him to quit, as he is starting to have heart palpitations and his cholesterol levels have skyrocketed to alarming rates. Sticking to his project tenets, he refuses to heed the request of one of his doctors to take a couple aspirins every day, as they aren’t available on the McDonald’s menu. At the final weigh-in, Spurlock has gained almost twenty-five pounds, and provided some striking and completely unexpected data for his doctors.

Thankfully, Spurlock is not looking to just place blame at one source. He looks for, and finds, positive examples of how changes can be made for the better. At one school, for “troubled” teens, he finds the administrators have replaced the frozen bulk foods and sugary drinks they once served with healthier choices provided by a local food preparation company. Not only does the new menu not cost much more than the previous menu, the students are much better behaved and scoring better on their tests.

If there are any complaints about “Super Size Me,” it’s that Spurlock, while giving out a lot of interesting and useful statistics, throws out the occasional unexplained and nonsensical stat. But most people will hardly notice, as the film’s light touch should keep most viewers intrigued from start to finish.

“Super Size Me” is more than just a cautionary tale or insane sociology experiment. It’s a real look at one of the most pressing issues in our times today, done in a mostly balanced view despite its clear agenda, allowing each of us to decide for ourselves what needs to be done. What I am going to do is tell everyone I know to see this film by any means necessary. I cannot recommend this film highly enough.

On a personal note: Since seeing this film nearly a month before this review was published, I’ve cut my several times a week visits to fast food joints (what McDonald’s would call a “Super Heavy User”) down to just once in that time. Several pounds lighter and feeling much better than I did before, Spurlock’s message got through loud and clear to this overweight American male, and I thank him for that.

My rating: A+