Forks Over Knives – Review

29th January 2013

I don’t know if you noticed this or anything but you feel like shit. Yes you! Why? Because you’re sticking that Grade Z moo cow hoof down your gullet, washed down no doubt with a tasty beverage of sugar cubes, mystery-diroxideX and Unobtanium. You sir/madam are a disgrace. Before you ask, I myself am Olympian like in spectacle. The gym my Elysium. A strawberry/passion fruit/blueberry smoothie? Ambrosia. Excuse me a moment the pizza man is here…

Right, now that’s out the way – Forks Over Knives is the brainchild of writer/director Lee Fulkerson whose previous credits appear to be mostly US Air Force and combat documentaries. Here he turns health crusader after being diagnosed with high-everything and potential-whatever’s. Pursuing a new lifestyle free from manufactured or butchered products he presents us with testimonials about how we all can live healthier. We see interviews with doctors, politicians and patients who swear by their all plant based diets; weight loss, diminishing diabetes and improved flexibility are all attributed to the plants.

Drawing from primarily American examples, we are given stats about how much we spend on prescription pills to battle food related disorders, how much the US spends on take out and so on. In contrast Japan in the 1940’s (not so much now since McDonalds came to town) was a beacon of healthy living where the very notion of degenerative heart disease was a nonsense. All to do with diets.

With the tagline: Warning – This Film Could Save Your Life there is no question that Forks Over Knives is a documentary with an agenda – although saying that the vast majority of them do. Fortunately for us it is not a fiercely tyrannical one where the director continually screams in our face “No. You’re doing EVERYTHING wrong”. Faulkerson’s style is more of a prodding kitten looking for some attention. In fact the film has such a non-nondescript flare to it it could be a science class video. There are no bombastic montages set to a Black Flag tune. No preposterous stunts to get in the press and no real conflict to speak of (other than our common enemy – DEATH). In a way this films feels very out of date.

The content, admirable as it is, is hardly earth shattering. We know burgers are bad and a purely veg based diet is probably going to do you more good. Yes we shouldn’t be popping pills. We should go hiking instead. We don’t really need to be told this, we’ve made our greasy beds and we shall lay in them. Doctors and talking heads go one step further claiming that a life free from dairy and based solely on plants has breast cancer and type 2 diabetes. The most intriguing notion, is the government sponsored “fact” that you need cow milk to build up calcium. The film attests that over time it does more harm than good. The accusations/revelations of government propaganda and the food industry are as alarming as they are interesting.

It’s hard to dislike a film that’s intention is to try and per-long our grumpy, sarcastic lives. However the lack of a two sided argument hurts the film somewhat. You could say that we hear the other side of the argument in our daily lives, but a few more dissenting voices within the film would broaden the discussion.

As it is it seems a fluke, perhaps even dangerous to show us a story of a woman who recovers from breast cancer by eating her veg and exercising. Surely this method doesn’t work for everybody. Informative for the most part, downright obvious in places and told as dryly as a plain Ryvita but with it’s heart in the right place Forks Over Knives makes a worthy addition to the food doc genre.

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