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I highly recommend this 2008 documentary. It looks at how aspects of the food industry  control what we eat with little concern for its affect on our health or the humane treatment of animals. The film touches on big monopolistic companies like Tyson and Monsanto, examines the world of organic farming, gives glimpses into factory farming, and shows how big food companies carry the same political cloud as the oil, gun, and other lobbies.

This is a documentary where you learn a lot. Here are some things I gleaned:

• We re-engineered the chicken to grow in 49 days, instead of 70. They now have very large breasts, because people prefer white meat.
• The hamburger you buy in the store may come from hundreds of different cows slaughtered on factory farms, and there's a chance that one of those cows had e coli. This scary argument is presented very convincingly.
• In both Republican and Democratic administrations, key position involved with food regulation and policy are filled by people who once worked for the food industry--lobbyists, corporate board members, lawyers, etc. You won't find ordinary farmers in any position of influence.
• Why can you get a hamburger for a dollar, but you can' get a head of broccoli for a dollar? It's because we've skewed what we subsidize to the bad calories.
• From an evolutionary standpoint, our bodies are not wired for sugar, salt, and fat. But those dominate our diets.
• God designed cows to eat grass. That's how their digestive system works best. But most of the beef we buy is corn-fed. The goal is to bulk up cattle quickly. But for corn-fed cattle, you must grow the corn, transport it, then remove the manure--all of which are not environmentally friendly practices. Grass-fed cows, by comparison, graze on the grass and their manure fertilizes it. It's a complete system in one field, and it saves on gas and transportation costs.
• Most Mexican farmers grew corn. NAFTA flooded Mexico with cheap American corn, and put 1.5 million Mexican farmers out of work.
  
• The film blasts Monsanto to pieces. Monsanto basically owns everything involving soybeans because they patented a gene in the soybean. Farmers can't fight them. Monsanto has a big team of investigators who go after farmers in court.
• Wal-Mart was commended for some of their practices and their embrace of organic foods.
  
• The food industry fights any kind of food labeling requirements. They don't want you to know what's in your food, how it was grown, and where.
• The film suggests that the battle against tobacco is the model for how an industry's irresponsible behavior can be changed.
• Companies that don't treat animals with respect probably don't treat workers and the environment--and customers--with respect.
• Buy locally grown food. It doesn't need to be transported long distances (more eco-friendly), and it probably doesn't come from factory farms, where animals are warehoused in squalid conditions until they are ready for slaughter. 

Here are some movies Pam and I have watched recently on DVD. Haven't been to a theater all year...yet.

• "Law Abiding Citizen," with Gerard Butler (of "300" fame), was a lot better than I expected. Butler's wife and daughter are brutally killed in a home invasion, and he later exacts horrific revenge. That's not giving anything away. The rest of the movie is a cat-and-mouse game with police, and it all comes to a surprising conclusion.
• "Twilight: New Moon" is the second movie of the Twilight series. Pam and I liked the first movie, and we liked this one just as well. Vampires dominated the first movie; now we have werewolves. The movies are well-done, and have a definite tone to them. They are not high-action movies, but romances with a, uh, bite.
• We also watched all six of the Jesse Stone TV movies, starring Tom Selleck--5 on DVD, and the latest this past Sunday night on CBS. These are based on the books by Robert Parker. Parker started this series around 1998. We loved these movies. If you watch a movie and then read a Jesse Stone book, you can picture Selleck in every scene and saying every line. He plays Jesse Stone perfectly. Like the Twilight movies, they have a slow-paced, smalltown mood.
• Having watched the Jesse Stone movies, we decided to try the Spenser movies made in the 1980s. "Ceremony" is the first one. I liked Robert Urich in the title role, was okay with Avery Brooks as Hawk, but didn't like the gal who played Susan. She just wasn't Susan. I didn't particularly care for this movie, and it had a lot of gratuitous nudity. But we'll try another one.
• "All About Steve" is a Sandra Bullock movie, and who doesn't like Sandra Bullock? In this movie, she plays a very quirky character who pretty much stalks a guy. It's a fun, light-weight movie.
• Finally, "Blindside," the movie which won Sandra Bullock an Oscar. This was a great story, an inspiring story. This family took a huge step in adopting a basically homeless young black man into their family...but they changed his life. Now I know why everyone has raved about this film.

Thanks to tax season, Pam and I haven't seen a movie all year. But now, since her emancipation on Wednesday, we've seen three movies.

I was delighted to come across the movie "All the President's Men" last night on TCM (Turner Classic Movies). That's a fabulous movie. I sorta came of age during Watergate, and have read a number of books about the scandal, so it has particular interest to me. Plus, being a trained journalist, I'm fascinated by the inner workings of this historic case of investigative journalism.

I was not so delighted that the airing included all of the profanity, including a number of F bombs. A sign of what's to come throughout the TV spectrum, I suspect.

When "The Dark Knight" hits DVD, I'll bet sales are amazing. It'll contain "previously unseen footage of Heath Ledger's last performance." Stuff that didn't make it into the theatrical release. And a few years down the road, there'll come a director's cut with even more deleted Joker scenes. Yes, they can milk this a long way. But would Hollywood do that? You betcha.

I forgot to alert the world to the fact that Pam and I watched "No Country for Old Men." That was a strange movie. In places, it skipped over entire scenes, letting you guess or assume what happened (and it was usually at least somewhat apparent).

I was okay with it right up until the end. And then...it just ended. The Coen brothers decided, "Okay, we've filmed enough, got our two-hours' worth. Let's stop here." At that point, the movie became very unsatisfying. And that last Tommy Lee Jones scene: I have no idea what that was about, but I'm sure it was artistically relevant in some high-Hollywoodish way.

Pam and I watched Will Smith's latest July 4 blockbuster, "Hancock," this weekend. It was a pleasant surprise. Very good. Knowing Hancock was a superhero, I expected some villainous superhero to come along to do climactic battle with Hancock. That never happened. The movie was actually all about the back-story, and that made it very interesting. Good job, Hollywood, for actually pulling some punches in order to present a satisfying story.

Saw "Prince Caspian" today, the second Narnia movie. This one was a lot more serious, gritty, violent. Not so much a children's movie, though there was nothing graphic. I really liked it. The religious themes were much more subtle, even obscure. Certainly nothing like the blatant spiritual subtext in "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe." Even now, based on this movie, I'm not sure what spiritual points C. S. Lewis was making, so I'm wondering how true the book is to the movie or how hard they tried to incorporate his religious themes. But hey--it was a good movie. And when Aslan finally appeared, I about had tears in my eyes.

Pam and I saw Ironman today, our first theatre experience of 2008. Loved it.

• Great performance by Robert Downey Jr.
• Beautifully written script. I loved the writing.
• Lots of humor. I laughed a lot.
• Very clean. I'm not sure there was any swearing (though I can be numb to that).
• A pleasant surprise to see Gwyneth Paltrow. Didn't realize she was in it.

Next week, Prince Caspian, the second of the Chronicles of Narnia, comes out. The week after that: the new Indiana Jones movie. So some good stuff coming up.

Watched "The Brave One," with Jody Foster. Enjoyed it. Nice vigilante flick, with a somewhat surprising ending. I really didn't have a clue how it was going to end, which always makes a movie more interesting.