While the work of Morgan Spurlock from 2002 to 2017 (the period he was active in film and on television) was high in volume, it is his directorial film debut Super Size Me from 2004 that will always be his claim to fame. Taking on a style similar to Roger Moore (but far less self-indulgent), Spurlock put himself at the center of Super Size Me as his own crash test dummy. The conceit was a simple one: What happens to the average human body if it eats nothing else other than McDonald’s for thirty days straight? The answers to that question were stunning. Aside from the obvious weight gain and sluggishness that one might expect to come from such a nutrition-free diet, the story morphed into one of addiction, where Spurlock became depressed until he had his next Big Mac, but then would soon crash as the rush of convenience food left his body. The only immediate fix for the alteration in mood was more of the same. In that way, not just McDonald’s but fast food as a whole was exposed as an addictive element in our everyday society.
For some people it’s Coca Cola (I once knew a guy who needed to down a Diet Coke first thing in the morning to stop his hands from shaking). For others it’s coffee, cigarettes, alcohol (Spurlock himself struggled with sobriety), marijuana, or hard drugs. The idea that fast food was related to addiction was such a sensation at the time that Spurlock became an immediate celebrity, and not just in the world of film. Sure, Super Size Me got great reviews, an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary, and regular appearances on late night TV, but it also landed him on news channels like CNN and CBS, discussing the health concerns created by excessive fast-food consumption.
Spurlock immediately parlayed the success of Super Size Me into a documentary series called 30 Days that aired on FX with Spurlock acting as producer and host of the series. The concept was a take off of Super Size Me in that it would place an individual in an unfamiliar culture or lifestyle and see how they adapted. The series ran for three years (eighteen episodes in total), and was well reviewed overall scoring a Producers Guild nomination in 2006.
Spurlock’s second feature as a director, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011), was an amusing (if not riveting) look at product placement in films. That same year, Spurlock returned to television with another docuseries called A Day in the Life on HULU, which followed pop culture figures (will.i.am, Richard Branson, and Misty Copeland among others) for a 24 hour period. The show lasted two seasons and aired 16 episodes before coming to a close.
While Spurlock never caught lightning in a 32-ounce cup of soda on film again, his series Inside Man on CNN was highly thought of. The show sent Spurlock behind the scenes of various businesses, such as a marijuana dispensary, a gun dealership, and ranching to see how these industries operated away from public view. The series ran for four seasons (2013-16) and covered thirty episodes. A sequel to Spurlock’s greatest success, the aptly titled Supersize Me 2 (2017), received modest to positive reviews but failed to make the comparable impact its predecessor did, in large part due to allegations of sexual misconduct, which led to the film being dropped by its distributor. Spurlock admitted to multiple incidents of sexist behavior, but not to an assault allegation that was lobbied at him in college. Super Size Me 2 would be Spurlock’s last film.
Regardless, Super Size Me was a groundbreaking work that helped the public understand that what they were putting into their bodies not only mattered, but couldn’t necessarily be trusted either. I’m sure the film changed some people’s eating habits (at least temporarily), but on this day in the United States, our obesity rate is hovering just under 50%. Now, not all of that percentage can be laid at the feet of fast food restaurants (biology, hereditary factors, food deserts, and a lack of nutrition education are among other reasons), but some of us just want our Big Mac, our Wendy’s Frosty, our Burger King Whopper–sometimes I do too. If Super Size Me wasn’t entirely successful as a cautionary tale, at minimum, it does serve as one hell of an “I told you so” for those who ignore its warning and find themselves suffering from heart disease, diabetes, and any number of ailments at far too young of an age.
Speaking to “far too young of an age,” Morgan Spurlock died of complications from cancer on May 23, 2024. He was 53 years old.
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