p e n g u i n d e v i l

In Wrecked, we have Adrian Brody as the unfortunate survivor of a car accident. He wakes up after said accident to find the car in the woods at the bottom of a tall cliff, his two companions dead, and his leg stuck under the dashboard.

Alive but alone and with no way to get out of the car, or to signal anyone, we watch the progression of his suffering until after some hallucinatory moments, the memory of the events leading up to the crash slowly and painfully start returning to him.

I don’t know if i liked it or not, but it sure kept my attention. In fact, I think I did like it. It was an interesting, odd and engrossing film… though I have a hard time imagining someone deciding to give it a theatrical run.

Also I finally got around to viewing Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, an engaging story of an Australian who finds himself in his forties, overweight and in overly-medicated ill-health. All of which leads him to decide to go on a 60 day juice fast… In the USA, of course, spending the first half in new york and the second half driving around the country with his juicing supplies in the back of his SUV, offering juice, and his story, to any who will listen. Along the way we get to watch his health improve dramatically and we encounter a couple of people who take his message seriously and begin juice fasts themselves. There is one particularly relevant moment when he talks to a man who speaks unconcernedly about how old he may end up getting (55, 65 if he’s lucky), while sitting at a table with his own father and his young son. It is an entertaining film reminding us, yet again, that diet is the key to health and the fresh foods and whole grains lead to good health, and that animal products and processed foods lead to bad health. There is also good follow up in the movie of the stories of some of the people who are involved in this juice-fast thing.

Then I also watched Forks Over Knives, which is a similar topic and spirit, but a much different movie. In Forks Over Knives, we follow two scientists who, in the 50’s and 60’s started studying nutrition in a highly scientific way. Using the results from many exhaustive tests and case subjects, they also come to the conclusion that most of our most dangerous health ailments: heart disease, cancer, diabetes… Can be prevented by eating whole food, plant-based diets. At this point, I assume that everyone knows this though. Movie after movie, study after study. But, you know… It is hard to get the inclination to eat that way when most aspects of our society are designed to get you to eat, well, the other way.