Fast Food Nation reveals some shoddy practices going on at the meat-packing factory, but then,
can you blame the staff for doing it as we see Mexicans working for a pittance while being harrassed by
the supervisor, Mike (Bobby Cannavale, who played Joe in 2003's excellent
The Station Agent), knowing that that's the best
job they'll get for time being.
The killing floor shows cattle actually being stunned to death, as well as a very gruesome scene that follows,
so one must presume that Richard Linklater got special dispensation for showing this in a proper movie.
You also get to learn why those items on a 99p menu only cost 99p and all the bad habits that the staff get
into who work at a Mickey's. Of course, there *is* no Mickey's in the real world, but it could just as equally
apply to McDonalds, Burger King, Little Chef, you name it...
At one point, Don is given a tour of the place, but after being impressed with what he's been shown, it turns
out after a meeting with Harry Rydell (Bruce Willis), who's an expert in the field, that he hasn't seen
what he really should see and Harry is the man he thinks will sort that out, as Don is a committed man to the
job he has to carry out, but as time goes on he does start to question how much the men at the top know what's
going on and what the implications could be for his career and the company as a whole if he was to expose the
practice.
Fast Food Nation has many well-rounded characters with some excellent acting, particularly from
all the actors named so far, as well as Patricia Arquette as Amber's Mum, Cindy, - despite the fact
that Arquette is only 14 years older than the 25-year-old Ashley Johnson, although she is portrayed as having
just turned 18, and the actresses playing Mexican sisters Sylvia (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and
Coco (Ana Claudia Talancón, bottom-right). Plus there are engaging cameos from Bruce Willis,
Ethan Hawke as Amber's uncle Pete and Kris Kristofferson as a man in the know who tells Don,
"The food your company sells is crap, total crap, even when there isn't manure in it."
I spy a 'Gerald Ratner' moment here!
Overall, this film is an eye-opener, for sure, but it won't stop me eating burgers because they taste so
damn good, even if a lot of it is faked, but then haven't we all been eating things with food colouring and
flavourings all our lives?
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