Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar nominee who famously ate only at McDonald’s for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53. Photo / AP
Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar nominee who famously ate only at McDonald’s for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53. Photo / AP
Documentary film-maker Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar nominee whose most famous works skewered America’s food industry and who notably ate only at McDonald’s for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53.
Spurlock died in New York on Thursday from complications of cancer, according to a statement issued by his family today.
“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” Craig Spurlock, who worked with him on several projects, said in the statement. “Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas, and generosity. The world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him.”
“Everything’s bigger in America,” he said in the film. “We’ve got the biggest cars, the biggest houses, the biggest companies, the biggest food, and finally: the biggest people.”
In one scene, Spurlock showed kids a photo of George Washington and none recognised the Founding Father. But they all instantly knew the mascots for Wendy’s and McDonald’s.
The film grossed more than US$22 million on a US$65,000 budget and preceded the release of Eric Schlosser’s influential Fast Food Nation, which accused the industry of being bad for the environment and rife with labour issues.
Spurlock returned in 2017 with Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! – a sober look at an industry that processes 9 billion animals a year in America. He focused on two issues: chicken farmers stuck in a peculiar financial system and the attempt by fast-food chains to deceive customers into thinking they’re eating healthier.
“We’re at an amazing moment in history from a consumer standpoint where consumers are starting to have more and more power,” he told The Associated Press in 2019. “It’s not about return for the shareholders. It’s about return for the consumers.”
Morgan Spurlock exposed the fast-food and chicken industries in his documentaries. Photo / AP
Spurlock was a gonzo-like film-maker who leaned into the bizarre and ridiculous. His stylistic touches included zippy graphics and amusing music, blending a Michael Moore-ish camera-in-your-face style with his own sense of humour and pathos.
“I wanted to be able to lean into the serious moments. I wanted to be able to breathe in the moments of levity. We want to give you permission to laugh in the places where it’s really hard to laugh,” he told the AP.
After he exposed the fast-food and chicken industries, there was an explosion in restaurants stressing freshness, artisanal methods, farm-to-table goodness and ethically sourced ingredients. But nutritionally not much had changed.
“There has been this massive shift and people say to me, ‘So has the food gotten healthier?’ And I say, ‘Well, the marketing sure has’,” he said.
Not all his work dealt with food. Spurlock made documentaries about the boy band One Direction and the geeks and fanboys at Comic-Con. One of his films looked at life behind bars at the Henrico County Jail in Virginia.
With 2008′s Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? Spurlock went on a global search to find the al-Qaeda leader, who was killed in 2011. In POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Spurlock tackled questions of product placement, marketing and advertising.
“Being aware is half the battle, I think. Literally knowing all the time when you’re being marketed to is a great thing,” Spurlock told AP at the time. “A lot of people don’t realise it. They can’t see the forest for the trees.”
Morgan Spurlock was an avid film-maker who enjoyed looking into the bizarre and ridiculous topics. Photo / AP
He confessed that he had been accused of rape while in college and had settled a sexual harassment case with a female assistant. He also admitted to cheating on numerous partners. “I am part of the problem,” he wrote.
“For me, there was a moment of kind of realisation – as somebody who is a truth-teller and somebody who has made it a point of trying to do what’s right – of recognising that I could do better in my own life. We should be able to admit we were wrong,” he told the AP.
Spurlock grew up in Beckley, West Virginia. His mother was an English teacher who he remembered would correct his work with a red pen. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in film from New York University in 1993.
He is survived by two sons – Laken and Kallen, his mother Phyllis Spurlock, father Ben, brothers Craig and Barry, and former spouses Alexandra Jamieson and Sara Bernstein, the mothers of his children.
