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Filmmaker Richard Linklater follows the
same path of that brings the background
to center stage like juggernaut pictures
‘United 93’ and ‘Death of a President’.
In Fast Food Nation, Linklater decides
not to make this a documentary
categorizing and piecing the puzzle
along the way; almost visually
reflecting the book but instead turns
the story into a fictional film that
audience members can best identify but
understand the factionalism within the
film does not hinder the reality of the
subject at hand.
The book
is obviously directed towards the fast
food industry. Why go with a fictional
restaurant?
Richard
Linklater:
That was actually from a legal
perspective. That actually got us off
the hook. I mean you couldn’t look at
the movie and go oh… McDonald’s. We
refer to McDonalds as a competitor. It’s
in our world. It’s a fine line. It’s
amazing; with documentaries obviously we
can kind of take fare use in the culture
but when its fiction I kind of have to
get everything cleared. Everything is
subject to trademark. And when you’re
trying to make things realistic?
Suddenly the real world is off the
table. You have to get clearances on
everything. It’s totally frustrating.
You can only argue so far. We could have
made a parody which would have made it
ridiculous. But I wanted it to seem like
a really ongoing company.
Did any
of these corporations give you the
‘squeeze’? Did they come after you?
Richard
Linklater:
No. We operated pretty much under the
radar. They have front companies that
are there to protect their interests.
They’ll never take you on directly. I
mean, they know their foods not healthy.
I mean that’s a given. It’s like the
elephant in the room that no one really
talks about. It comes up as accusation
but it pretty much gets whacked down in
billion of dollars of marketing. And its
[disguised] like freedom; options;
choice. We’ve got healthy items on our
menu. We’re not going to market any of
them; we’re going to keep marketing the
99c burger. It’s all smoke and mirrors
really. We know where their marketing
dollars and their profitability lies.
Where
you able to eat meat after going to the
slaughter house?
Richard
Linklater:
No. Well, I wasn’t eating meat before.
Eric {Schlosser] isn’t a vegetarian but
I am. I remember coming out of the
slaughter house smelling that warm blood
smell… I grew up around farm houses. It
must have triggered some dormant enzymes
cause I was picturing some T-bone steak;
Heinz 57 sauce. Lol. We think there is
the pig and the sheep and they’re on
that crop. And you have this family farm
idea. Once you really know its factories
and the chicken you’re eating… its feet
never touched earth. It’s the same with
cows. It’s not on some grass somewhere
living out a long life. It’s living with
50,000 other cows getting hormone
injections. Eating food it’s not suppose
to eat. Genetically modified corn and
stuff; living in its own feces; getting
antibiotics and stuff. When you really
realize the factory industrial nature of
that; just as a consumer I was able to
say I don’t want to support that with my
consumer dollars.
In the
book, the topic of single mothers, who
are constantly working and primarily
feed their kids fast food; in the films
depiction, did you exaggerate that a bit
with the Patricia Arquette playing the
mother who didn’t have time to cook an
egg?
Richard
Linklater:
I wanted to portray someone who was
struggling. I mean, my own mom was
single, three kids… but I think the
brainwashing in our culture is when you
can convince people who are living check
to check, moment to moment, when you can
say first you don’t have time and you
can’t afford anything else. Cause when
you really do the math… you can. Our
culture says you have time to watch 4
hours of TV every night but you don’t
have time to spend that 45 minutes or an
hour preparing that meal with your
family. What used to be the glue that
kept families together, that’s gone? If
you go to a poor neighborhood school,
you’re going to see obesity. Go to a
rich school… no. It’s a big issue, the
kind of thing that you don’t talk about.
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