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 fast food nation interview
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Burgers in the raw. Eric Schlosser's 2001 non-fiction book Fast Food Nation was many things: a meticulously researched exposé on the detrimental effects of US fast food culture; a surprise bestseller; a mobilising point for dieticians, labour unions and anti-globalization demonstrators alike. What it wasn't was, in Schlosser's words, a feature film "vehicle for Bruce Willis". That, however, was before Schlosser teamed up with filmmaker Richard Linklater, best known for US indie landmarks like Slacker and Dazed And Confused. Fast Food Nation the movie, in Linklater's words, "could be seen as a companion piece to the book. It was Eric's idea actually, to throw out the book and make it a character piece. Once he suggested that then I felt I had something to offer because most of my movies are character pieces." Adds Schlosser, "What they share is a title, some themes, and hopefully a spirit that is iconoclastic and looks below the surface of American culture." Linklater and Schlosser chose the denizens of a small Colorado town as the nexus through which to examine the original book's concerns, raw data replaced by an interlocking series of stories. Greg Kinnear's corporate drone investigating why manure has been found in the meat; Catalina Sandino Moreno as a desperate illegal Mexican immigrant forced onto the gruesome abattoir killing floor; Sk8tr Boy singer Avril Lavigne as a student activist; and yes, Bruce Willis in a blistering cameo (his best work in years) as a ruthless meat supplier. For Linklater, the new approach best suits the medium. "The film's very realistic but we can be dramatic and make our points too," he asserts. "These are such vast issues and this is just one point of entry, but it's a point of entry that cinema does really well: put these people up on screen and ask you to care about them."  Of course, pushing the movie as the audio-visual equivalent of a superfood could easily send many people straight back to ordering Happy Meals. So how does one best tackle the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut of global consumerism? "When we say 'fast food nation' we don't just mean the meal," Linklater points out. "It's really more the corporate mindset that puts profits above the specifics of an industry or doesn't acknowledge its ramifications. The real battle is against this disconnect, a product of the way we live - consumer society and fast food society. The biggest disconnect is from ourselves."
Leigh Singer
Fast Food Nation, on selected release 04 May 07.
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 lff 06preview  a scanner darklyreview  richard linklaterinterview
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