Movie Notes: King Corn
June 5th, 2009
= 3 stars
Starring Ian Cheney, Curtis Ellis
Directed by Aaron Woolf
Synopsis
Two young men investigate the profession of corn farming in Iowa, and learn about its pervasive infiltration of American food, from animal feed to produce beef to high fructose corn syrup.
The Good
- I know next to nothing about farming and the basic information about such rural staples as combines, ammonia fertilizer, and cattle raised in confinement lots proved personally fascinating.
- The biggest irony: most corn grown in America is inedible. It’s a crap commodity, largely used for corn syrup and sileage for animals to eat. Farmers can’t eat the crops they grow.
- Much revelatory dietary information: because of its corn diet, the average American beef cow is unhealthy and full of artery-clogging fat. You’ll look at a hamburger as a sheet of death from now on. Eventually the movie takes on corn syrup, a key ingredient in much of our processed, cheap food, resulting in an obesity and diabetes epidemic. The film draws a relatively straight line from cheap, government subsidized corn to leg amputation.
The Bad
- On the slow side. Could have used an editor, especially in the beginning.
Conclusion
King Corn takes a while to get its teeth out, but thankfully, it does. It’s a more serious, intelligent counterpart to Super Size Me (McDonald’s is featured several times as an eatery under the drunken influence of corn) – the filmmakers largely avoid stunts and rely more on old fashioned, investigative journalism. Definitely worth a rental.
IMDB: King Corn
Wikipedia: King Corn
Rotten Tomatoes: Rotten Tomatoes 95%
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Posted In: 3 Star Movies, Movies 4 stars, Aaron Woolf, Curtis Ellis, Ian Cheney
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This definitely sounds like it's worth renting. It's amazing how pervasive corn is in all of our foods. I found the Omnivore's dilemna to be a great book and this sounds like the movie compliment to that book.
Yeah… I have The Omnivore's Dilemma on our bookshelf and still haven't read it. I need to open it up, soon.
Good documentary, but it doesn't go quite far enough to demonstrate just how dependent we've become upon corn. The first half of the movie is very good, but it stalls a bit at times in the mid-to-late portions.
I especially liked that they touched (altho too briefly) on the problem that cows aren't made to eat corn. You've definitely got to read Michael Pollan's “The Omnivore's Dilemma” and Eric Schlosser's “Fast Food Nation” to round out the whole picture.
I liked the indie music the film featured.
Ah, another recommendation to read that book – still haven't read it.
I should put down the corn chips and start reading…