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November 01, 2006
Fast Food Nation: Script Details
Scriptland, a weekly feature in the LAT Calendar section, rambles today about two films - one I don't care about and the other is "Fast Food Nation." I hope that by now you've read the book. It represents my favorite kind of writing: passionate, factual prose, expressive and full of meaning. Seriously, there is nothing better than a well-written nonfiction book. Except of course, for a well-written novel. I admit that when I think about 100 Years of Solitude, I cannot continue on my earnest rant in praise of straight facts.
In any event, the book was great. And the premise of the movie is to take the best aspects of the book: its cinematic vignettes and turn it into cinema. So this wont be a documentary (even though the book is all real). Don't read the Scriptland article if you want to be surprised about the movie. The book and movie harken back to The Jungle, which for some reason I have never read. Other influences:
Other disparate sources — the documentary "The Corporation," which explores its literally soulless approach to business, and sprawling film landscapes such as Robert Altman's "Nashville" and John Sayles' "City of Hope" — found their way into the feel of the film. (Linklater even referenced "Psycho" to sell his pitch to the studio, but not for the reasons you might think — it has to do with narrative structure.)I saw The Corporation at the one and only MoveOn event I've been to. (You should see it, though it's long. It builds on work started by WILPF members on challenging corporate personhood.) I'm intrigued by the Psycho reference, but not enough to watch it. (Yes, I do get nightmares from scary movies, wanna make something of it?) Nashville's now in my Netflix queue, but alas City of Hope hasn't made it to DVD. Never fear - you can pick up a VHS copy fairly cheap on Amazon.
Interesting. I think this is the first blog post that actually cost me money (because I picked up the $3 VHS tape).
Posted by cj at November 1, 2006 11:23 PM