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Pique n' your interest

Documentaries hit home

Forget climbing mountains, going on long hikes, exploring new mountain bike trails or swimming in the lakes.

There is one thing that you must do this summer – go to the movies.

Now, even though I love going to the movies, generally I wouldn’t publicly advocate spending a few hours in a dark theatre with a tub of buttery popcorn and a ridiculously overpriced Coke. I especially wouldn’t advocate this behaviour in a place like Whistler where it’s so easy to enjoy the outdoors and so shameful not to.

But, after seeing two documentaries, Super Size Me and Fahrenheit 9/11, I’m thinking the movie theatre is one of the best places to be this summer – and I haven’t even seen Spiderman 2 yet!

These documentaries are guaranteed to have an impact on you in some way. At the very least, they’ll get you thinking and talking about stuff that we already know but we never really talk about.

I saw Super Size Me first. You all know the basic concept. A guy eats at McDonald’s three times a day for a month and the results are shocking, to say the least.

It’s enough to make you vow to never eat another Big Mac ever again, or a Whopper, or Wendy’s, or Taco Bell or pizza. At least, that’s what I did when I left the theatre. In fact, I decided never to eat fast food ever again unless I was in dire need.

I suppose it’s easy to make a promise like that after you see the effects of a Big Mac diet.

It’s not so easy to keep that promise when you’re starving, there’s nothing in your fridge and you have to drive by McDonald’s on your way home from work, especially when you can practically taste the burger in your mouth.

Who can deny the tasty delicious bite of a Big Mac?

As explained in the film, McDonald’s classifies people who eat at their restaurants a couple of times a week as "heavy users."

That was a huge wake up call for my boyfriend, who enjoys the odd afternoon cheeseburger more than once a week.

Even though it was distressing to see the filmmaker subject himself to the diet, and throw up after his first Super Size meal, you knew what he was doing was extreme.

You would presume that the vast majority of average people don’t binge on fast food morning, noon and night.

And then the movie shows you that in fact there are a number of ordinary, average people who drink gallons of pop every day or who eat a plate of fries for lunch. Particularly kids in high school with no one watching over them, cautioning them on the dangers of an unhealthy diet.

Hmmm, food for thought.

The point of the movie I suppose is not to swear off fast food altogether, although that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. The point is to be a little more aware of what we shove into our mouths every day without a second thought to the consequences of what we eat.

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock certainly had second thoughts after putting on 26 pounds, and sending his liver into a tailspin.

It’s a movie everyone should see. Just like Michael Moore’s latest movie Fahrenheit 9/11.

There have been countless reviews to date about Moore’s new film. Some love it, heralding the brave filmmaker for standing up to "the man." Others pan him for his one-sided view, which Moore readily admits is a part of this movie.

Whether you believe George W. Bush is an idiot or not, whether you believe Michael Moore is one-sided or not, this is still a film worth seeing. Here’s why.

It’s not brilliant because it reveals the links between the Saudi Royal family and the Bush royal family, or because it basically implies that the war in Iraq was fought for the wealth of a few men.

Although, personally I thought that was quite brilliant.

Instead, you should see the movie to remember.

It’s been nearly a year and a half since the war in Iraq began. It’s easy to forget what happened and what’s continuing to happen.

Remember that hundreds of innocent Iraqi’s died during the bombing. We seem to forget about that when it’s not top of the nightly news.

Remember that hundreds of American soldiers have died during the bombing and the occupation. We seem to forget about that unless there’s a beheading reminding us otherwise.

And never forget that there were no weapons of mass destruction ever found in Iraq.

When you see Fahrenheit 9/11 you can’t help but feel duped. But it’s not the Bush administration that has duped all of us.

Instead, we duped ourselves.

I felt like we had all this information at our fingertips and instead of learning more about it, we buried our heads in the sand.

Were we not watching the news? Were we not reading books, magazines and the newspapers? Were we not paying attention? How did we miss all this?

It’s staggering when you really think about it.

Don’t see the movie in order to endorse everything Michael Moore has to say. Don’t see the movie to jump on the anti-Bush bandwagon.

Just see it to open your eyes to something new.

And so, though Spiderman 2 may have all the flashy effects of a Hollywood blockbuster, and though King Arthur might have all the romance and history going for it, and let’s not forget the antics in Dodgeball, it’s the documentary that’s making a comeback this summer.

And there’s nothing like a good documentary to spark a good conversation, not to forget all those passionate promises to stay away from fast food.