... More of a quest featuring a camcorder and people with an axe to grind
Dave Morris and Helen Steel hit the headlines circa 1990 when after taking part in a leaflet campaign outside a London branch of McDonalds they found themselves on being sued for libel and this tells their story over several years of their quest to find " justice "
Now if this was an objective documentary I would have perhaps found admirable things about it but it's not objective at all or even subjective - It's polemical opinion featuring two people with an axe to grind against a corporate company that's fashionable to bash and seems more interested in having people the average Joe have never heard of stating nonsense . Take Eric Schlosser ( Someone who's written a book on McDonalds hence it makes him some sort of expert ) who tells us that " McDonalds is deliberately designed to control workers and offer them as little creativity and intuitive as possible " ! Forgive me for pointing this out but if someone is paid to flip burgers and clean tables then why should they be encouraged to have a creative side ? If it's creativity they wanted maybe the could have joined the Lee Strasburg Acting School or have gone to University to study literature ? If you work in a cafe you have to do the exact same kind of work except for some reason this doesn't bring out the anger in Schlosser . Apparently according to him it's only McDonald workers who have pulled the short straw in life since they're not allowed union membership ( Again many companies of whatever industry do not allow union membership ) and have to do boring tedious work . Wow I thought people only worked for the money
And this is typical of the arguments put forward by Schlosser , Morris and Steel - They're not wide reaching arguments at all . Yeah I agree that a high fat /high sugar junk food diet that McDonald sells isn't too healthy but is it actually cancer causing ? - This was the claim that almost certainly caused McDonalds to sue the pair - and for some reason no one in McLIBEL makes the point that McDonalds isn't the only fast food chain selling this type of junk food , several other similar fast food chains sell more or less the same stuff . Did they protest outside these fast food chains ? Perhaps the most cogent point is that no one is actually forced to eat at McDonalds and this fact is conspicuous by its absence .
I guess the whole concept behind McLIBEL is that the audience will cheer that Morris and Steel eventually won the case against a corporate giant but only if you agree with the duo's politics . We're asked to empathise with the self righteous Morris and Steel but my own feeling is that haven't done anything heroic and are in fact just self seeking publicists . At least SUPERSIZE ME was entertaining despite the flaws . There's little entertainment to be found in McLIBEL
Dave Morris and Helen Steel hit the headlines circa 1990 when after taking part in a leaflet campaign outside a London branch of McDonalds they found themselves on being sued for libel and this tells their story over several years of their quest to find " justice "
Now if this was an objective documentary I would have perhaps found admirable things about it but it's not objective at all or even subjective - It's polemical opinion featuring two people with an axe to grind against a corporate company that's fashionable to bash and seems more interested in having people the average Joe have never heard of stating nonsense . Take Eric Schlosser ( Someone who's written a book on McDonalds hence it makes him some sort of expert ) who tells us that " McDonalds is deliberately designed to control workers and offer them as little creativity and intuitive as possible " ! Forgive me for pointing this out but if someone is paid to flip burgers and clean tables then why should they be encouraged to have a creative side ? If it's creativity they wanted maybe the could have joined the Lee Strasburg Acting School or have gone to University to study literature ? If you work in a cafe you have to do the exact same kind of work except for some reason this doesn't bring out the anger in Schlosser . Apparently according to him it's only McDonald workers who have pulled the short straw in life since they're not allowed union membership ( Again many companies of whatever industry do not allow union membership ) and have to do boring tedious work . Wow I thought people only worked for the money
And this is typical of the arguments put forward by Schlosser , Morris and Steel - They're not wide reaching arguments at all . Yeah I agree that a high fat /high sugar junk food diet that McDonald sells isn't too healthy but is it actually cancer causing ? - This was the claim that almost certainly caused McDonalds to sue the pair - and for some reason no one in McLIBEL makes the point that McDonalds isn't the only fast food chain selling this type of junk food , several other similar fast food chains sell more or less the same stuff . Did they protest outside these fast food chains ? Perhaps the most cogent point is that no one is actually forced to eat at McDonalds and this fact is conspicuous by its absence .
I guess the whole concept behind McLIBEL is that the audience will cheer that Morris and Steel eventually won the case against a corporate giant but only if you agree with the duo's politics . We're asked to empathise with the self righteous Morris and Steel but my own feeling is that haven't done anything heroic and are in fact just self seeking publicists . At least SUPERSIZE ME was entertaining despite the flaws . There's little entertainment to be found in McLIBEL