One oft-cited drawback to "Fast Food Nation" is that the film doesn't focus sharply enough on pragmatic steps that Americans can take to eat more healthfully and support sustainable agriculture. But the March 6 DVD includes an antidote in its "special feature" section: the entire series of the critically astute "Meatrix" videos. Though the "Meatrix" is well-known by ardent Web surfers (deemed "the hottest online hit" by Salon.Com, for example), its loose satires on "The Matrix" movies haven't been released offline until now. Its animated characters illuminate the same sort of bleak realities that Upton Sinclair did in "The Jungle," but they have something that most such exposes don't: witty humor. In one episode, for instance, Leo, the young pig who wonders if he is "the one," helps rescue "Moopheus," a trench-coat-clad cow who comes inches away from slaughterhouse knives. The "Meatrix" videos also direct viewers to a website, www.meatrix.com, which offers links to sites like www.sustainabletable.org that outline practical steps people can take to eat more healthfully and support more humane and environmentally friendly agriculture. Viewers might find such advice useful, because various studiesincluding one conducted by A.C. Nielsen in late 2006have reported that while Americans increasingly recognize the moral and nutritional problems inherent in any fast food nation, they nevertheless feel powerless to address those problems in daily life.
Review of Fast Food Nation
