Plot summary
Seeing how the given movie falls under the category of documentaries, it was safe to say that it will most likely have no specific plot and revolve around the issue of food and related concerns. Indeed, the plot of the movie could hardly fall under the category of contingent ones. The movie starts with a disheartening note, which says that “Every year in America, we throw away 96 billion pounds of food” (Seifert, 2010, 00:01). Taking his audience on a quest to the local food chains and food stores, Seifert shows how food is produced, sold, bought, and consumed. At the same time, the movie director, who also acts as the leading character and the narrator, invites the viewers to join him on his quest to considerably less attractive places, such as dumps, to show what huge amounts of food are thrown away because of a wrong approach towards food production, storage, and consumption.
Main themes
The focus of the movie, as one might have guessed, is on food and people’s attitude towards food. By showing what a neglecting or ignorant attitude towards food production, lifespan and consumption can lead to, Seifert turns his film into a cautious warning about what is going to happen to humankind unless people start treating their food resources more responsibly. Therefore, consumerism and overconsumption are the main themes of the movie.
Apart from the above-mentioned theme, Seifert also clearly tries to address the problem of poverty and the resulting problem of famine in other countries as opposed to the consumerist USA and Western Europe, where even trashcans are stuffed with food that has been thrown away for some reason. Offering rather contrasting images, Seifert makes it clear that how food is treated in the USA could use a more sustainable approach.
My opinion
I believe that there is a serious problem concerning the attitude of an average American citizen towards food. Since people buy more food than they can consume, they pollute the environment with the food leftovers. The given problem can be classified as a bearable one, since food leftovers are organic and, thus, do not harm the environment much. The contrast between the suffering African people, who have little to no food, also seems rather far-fetched to me. It is rather doubtful that, once the U.S. population adopts a reasonable approach towards consumption, poverty in African countries will dissolve. Nevertheless, I believe that overconsumption leads to a bigger problem that concerns future generations. Because of the exhaustibility of some of the resources, the current rates of food consumption pose a threat to the population of several species, especially the ones inhabiting the ocean. Therefore, I believe that the director of the given movie does the right thing by showing the dangers of overconsumption.
Reference List
Seifert, J. (2010). Dive! Dir. J. Seifert. Los Angeles, CA: Compeller Pictures.