I heard some people talking about this film, saying that it actually made them not want to eat meat. This intrigued me, and I almost took it as a challenge to see if it would convince me to change my eating habits. I never thought anything could be so convincing and persuasive in such a nice way. The filmmakers did an excellant job with research and adding animations to give a nice visual. I was sucked into this film from the beginning, and almost surprised that I had never heard any of these facts before. The idea of the film was simple, but it gave us some stories of individual people as well. This use of storytelling was done very well and made all of the arguments that much more profound. These were people that the general public can relate to being not so in shape or healthy. We were able to see them transform into healthy happy people, by simply changing their diet. Many of them were able to go off their medications, and testify that they have more energy.
If we just heard from the doctors and scientists in the film, and not the subjects, it would not been nearly as persuasive. It was surprising to me how many people said that it wasn't as hard as they thought it would be. They were all pleased with the diet, and saw results quickly. The information that the film provided was so profound that I really didn't pay much attention to the details. I was just waiting to hear the next amazing fact. I think that is a goal of all documentary filmmakers, to have the audience so intrigued that they don't even notice bad lighting or sound. Forks Over Knifes accomplished that for me. After I watched this film I seriously considered changing my diet to plant based foods. I went to the store soon afterwords and ended up buying way more fruits and vegetables than I usually do. Now that is a powerful film!
I think the film could have been a little more fair to the other sides argument and given them some more time. However, by the time there was a disagreement, the other side didn't really have much of a chance after all of the information they were feeding us. It made someone who is probably well educated look kind of dumb. But it worked well for the film. It really changed the way I think about food and the way Americans eat as a whole.
I really liked that you mentioned being so intrigued in the message of the film that you don't noticed the technical imperfections. That was something that I intended to mention in my response to this film, but completely forgot to, so I'm glad you did. I completely agree with you. That was something that I noticed a handful of times while I was watching this-- either the sound wasn't perfect or the camera was slightly shaky or out of focus, or the image was grainy-- but it didn't bother me. The filmmakers obviously decided that the message and truth of their documentary was much more important than the style through which they portrayed it, and I really respect them for that. Plus, it totally worked! Definitely a very simple but powerful documentary.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear this guys. The power of documentary for good!
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