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Kelebit

Amanda Libbie Kelebit

Lecturer Mr. Muhammad Nizam Muhammad

Intro To American Films and Culture

3rd Nov 2009

Culture Representation in American Films Industry:

Element of Fast Food in Films

Fast food is what I regard as something that can be prepared in a short time and packed with

nutrients. Example of fast food that I know are pizza, burger, spaghetti, meatballs and many

more. In American film industries, we can see that many of these films are inserted with these

entire fast food themes. Well, as we all know, food are necessary things that we need to stay

survive. Without food, we are no longer alive and stay healthy. I realised that most of the

American films are involve with food, and most of them are fast food. I like to specifically

choose fast food as it is always come out with the newest trend. What inspired me to choose

this theme is that the new released movie “Cloudy with a chance of meatballs”, I just watched

it last weekend and I feel that it would be nice if I do something that had to do with fast food.

What else food had to do with American film is that the food is a must in a film. Element of

fast food in film add varieties inside the film. Without it, the film will be very dull and

boring.

From the sources that I had, fast food means inexpensive food, such as hamburgers

and fried chicken that are prepared and served quickly. It is a general term used for a limited

menu of foods that lend themselves to production-line techniques; suppliers tend to specialize

in products such as hamburgers, pizzas, chicken, or sandwiches. According to Answer.com,

Fast foods are convenience foods that can be prepared and served very quickly. On average,
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one-fifth of the population of the USA (45 million people) eat in a fast-food restaurant each

day. Fast foods include salty french fries, beefburgers, fried chicken, and pizzas with a thick

cheese covering. These appeal to the Western palate by being fatty, low in fibre and nutrients,

but high in salt (one beefburger can contain more than 1000 milligrams of sodium). The word

fast food was originated since 1954. All that we want are fast transportation, fast

communication, fast computers, fast photos, fast music, fast repairs, and fast service from the

businesses we patronize. It is from the last of these that we got fast food. At first, it was a

matter of fast service. According to Answer.com, Fountain and Fast Food Service was the

title of a trade magazine, which published statements like this from 1951: "The partners have

become old hands at spotting the type of conventioneer that will patronize their fast food

service." Gradually service disappeared, and in 1954 we find fast food by itself in the title

"Fountain and Fast Food." Incidentally, the trade magazine renamed itself “Fast Food” by

1960. In February of that year, the magazine noted, "Delicate scallops are really fast

food...because they come ready to cook." And in July it remarked, "Fast food type restaurants

do the lion's share of business for breakfast and noon meals eaten out." The fast food

revolution was a quick success throughout the land, and two decades later it was conquering

the world.

Thanks to fast food, families that formerly ate home cooking now eat out or bring

back take-home fast food in record numbers. And because of this, we see many of these

phenomena inside many American films. Fast food is what one eats in the vast majority of

America's restaurants. The term denotes speed in both food preparation and customer service,

as well as speed in customer eating habits. The restaurant industry, however, has traditionally

preferred the designation "quick service." Novelty foods, such as hot dogs, hamburgers,

french fries, came to dominate, first popularized at various world's fairs and at the nation's

resorts. Soft drinks and ice cream desserts also became a mainstay. Thus, "fast food" also
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came to imply diets high in fat and caloric intake. Roughly a quarter of all Americans bought

fast food every day. This is what we can saw in most American films. We can saw many

chains of fast food restaurants: Howard Johnson's, Dairy Queen, Burger King, Kentucky

Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, and Taco Tico. Typically, fast food restaurants were located at the

"roadside," complete with driveways, parking lots, and, later, drive-through windows for

those who preferred to eat elsewhere, including those who ate in their cars as "dashboard

diners."

The modern history of fast food restaurants in the United States is often traced to July

7, 1912 with the opening of a fast food restaurant in New York City by Horn & Hardart.

Their Automat was a cafeteria featuring prepared foods behind small glass windows and

coin-operated slots. This was patterned after a Horn & Hardart Automat that had opened in

Philadelphia in 1902. Numerous Automat restaurants were quickly built around the country

to deal with the demand. Automats remained extremely popular throughout the 1920s and

1930s. The company also popularized the notion of "take-out" food, with their slogan "Less

work for Mother".

As automobiles became popular and affordable following the First World War, drive-

in restaurants were introduced. The American company White Castle, founded in 1921 by

Billy Ingram and Walter Anderson in Wichita, Kansas in 1921, is generally credited with

opening the second fast food outlet and first hamburger chain, selling hamburgers for five

cents apiece. Walter Anderson had built the first White Castle restaurant in Wichita in 1916,

introducing the limited menu, high volume, low cost, high speed hamburger restaurant.

Among its innovations, the company allowed customers to see the food being prepared.

White Castle later added five holes to each beef patty to increase its surface area and speed

cooking times. White Castle was successful from its inception and spawned numerous

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competitors. Franchising was introduced in 1921 by A&W Root Beer, which franchised its

distinctive syrup. Howard Johnson's first franchised the restaurant concept in the mid-1930s,

formally standardizing menus, signage and advertising. Curb service was introduced in the

late 1920s and was mobilized in the 1940s when carhops strapped on roller skates. Today the

United States has the largest fast food industry in the world. American fast food restaurants

are located in over 100 countries. That is why this factor contributes to the performance of

films.

Apart from that, industry had reacted to ‘damaging’ fast food film. This fact is taken

from the news articles of Meatprocess.com:

“The US food industry has launched a campaign to counter the bad publicity it

expects to receive from a new film linking fast food chains and the industries that

support them to the nation's health and social problems.

The film, based on Eric Schlosser's 2001 book Fast Food Nation and staring Ethan

Hawke and Patricia Arquette, is set to premiere today at the Cannes Film Festival in

France.

It is a fictional version of the book, which had examined the social changes resulting

from the rising dominance of the fast food industry. The industry is accused of using

political influence to increase profits at the expense of human health and the social

conditions of its workers.

But according to a group of food industry associations, this is the latest move in a

series of attacks by "critics of our food system" who are "promoting their agendas

using information that is inaccurate, misleading and incomplete."

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These explain that what happen around us really affect the way how the films are produced.

Some will against this issue since it will affect the fast food business, but then it cannot

scratch away the facts that happen and translate it into films.

These are the American films that are related with fast food element:

i. Fast Food (1989) - comedy film starring Clark Brandon and Jim Varney

ii. Fast Food Nation (2006) - American /British drama film directed by Richard

Linklater

iii. Firehouse (1997) – film starring Richard Dean Anderson

iv. Super Size me (2004) - American documentary film directed by and starring

Morgan Spurlock

Well, other film that I want to highlight is “Super Size Me” directed by Morgan

Spurlock. It was a great movie to representing this fast food element. The synopsis is:

“What would happen if you ate nothing but fast food for an entire month?

Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock embarks on a 30-day strict fast food diet

during which he can only eat or drink anything that is on McDonald’s menu; he must

eat three meals a day, consume everything on the menu at least once and supersize his

meal if asked. On a gruelling quest to find out the physical and mental effects of

consuming fast food, Spurlock travels across the USA talking to food experts and

everyday fast food fans to find out the truth behind the meals served at the golden-

arches. Spurlock looks at America’s food culture and sheds a new light on what has

become one of our nation’s biggest health problems: obesity. The film will make you

think twice about picking up another Big Mac.”

The special thing about this film is that it is a documentary based comedy. Super Size Me is

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Morgan Spurlock’s first featured film. He was inspired to make the documentary after

watching a news story about two teenagers suing McDonald’s. Super Size Me is the first ever

reality-based movie where everything begins and ends in 30 days. The camera captures the

director’s highs and lows as he sets out on his unhealthy diet and demonstrates to the viewers

the effects of eating fast food. Super Size Me cost £37,000 ($65,000) which is a small budget

for a film that had such a large impact. The documentary won over twenty-seven awards and

prestigious accolades including Best Director, Sundance Film Festival and New Director

Award, Edinburgh International Film Festival 2004.

Moreover, there is effect in producing this kind of film because it will bring positive

and negative impacts too. For example, the statement that I taken from this book, Review:

Lies With Everything. It had something to do with this movie “Fast Food Nation”. In Janice

Hopkins Tanne statement, she stated that she was horrified by the film regarding American’s

burger industry. From the book, the great statement that I would like to share is that:

“You may never eat a hamburger again after seeing Fast Food Nation. You may even

become a vegetarian. This film, based on award winning journalist Eric Schlosser’s

eponymous bestseller (BMJ 2002;324:1461 doi: 10.1136/bmj.324.7351.1461), is far

more than an exposé of the fast food chains that have spread across the world, oozing

like ketchup from their American birthplace and providing standardised hamburgers

and fries (chips) to millions. It describes the fast food industry’s influence on what we

eat, on illegal immigration to the United States, on agriculture, on globalisation, on

environmental impact, on dead-end and sometimes dangerous jobs, on real estate

interests, and on how middle America thinks about work.”

All this have really a big impact onto people’s mind. So, we can conclude that through films,

people can be influence by anyway and any reasons especially the things that regarding our

life – FOOD, that is fast food.

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As a conclusion, I would like to conclude that many of these American films have fast

food that injected into one part of the element. Even the books can influence how the film are

produced. Today, you can find big fast food chains like McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried

Kitchen, Pizza hut in most countries in the world including America. Love it or hate it, it

seems that fast food is here to stay, especially inside the film.

(1941 words)

References:

Websites:

<http://twitter.com/answersdotcom>

<http://www.answers.com/topic/fast-food>

<http://www.meatprocess.com/Industry-markets>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/opensearch_desc.php>
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Special:Search&redirs=1&search=popular+fast+food+film-
+american+produced&fulltext=Search&ns0=1>

<http://www.cineschool.org.uk>

<http://www.filmeducation.org>

<http://www.supersizeme.com>

Books:

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser

SuperSizeMe.pdf by CineSchool

Fast Food Nation: From Book to Film.pdf