Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T12:42:21.604Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 2 - On Being a Vegetarian in Texas: The Incongruities and Politics of Linklater’s Fast Food Nation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2023

Kim Wilkins
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Oslo
Timotheus Vermeulen
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Oslo
Get access

Summary

In the case of most directors, it is rare to have two films released in the same year. Not so for Richard Linklater when, in 2006 and for the second time, two of his films were released in a single year. In 2001, Waking Life and Tape had made their screen debuts and, five years later, 2006 saw the release of another Linklater duo, Fast Food Nation and A Scanner Darkly. Cannes in 2006 was a busy time for the director. Fast Food Nation competed for the Palme d’Or while A Scanner Darkly was screened as part of the Un Certain Regard competition, forcing Linklater to make multiple trips to the festival and juggle interviews and promotion. In addition to both films being in competition at Cannes, Fast Food Nation and A Scanner Darkly shared other similarities. Both were adaptations of well-known books; the former a 2001 non-fiction investigation and exposé of the fast-food industries by journalist Eric Schlosser, the latter a 1977 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. Both films harbored a dark tone, they both suggested a sense of disquiet with contemporary American culture and politics, and each treated its source material in innovative ways; Fast Food Nation was a non-fiction best-seller turned satirical drama for the screen and A Scanner Darkly used the interpolated rotoscope animation technique. The films’ critical reception was however a different story and here the similarity ends. While A Scanner Darkly was reasonably well received, Fast Food Nation divided critics and was considered one of Linklater’s less successful films. One reason given for the lackluster critical reception of Fast Food Nation was that it was an uncomfortable fit with the original source material which, it was proposed by a number of critics, surely leant itself better to documentary rather than drama. Moreover, despite both films reflecting Linklater’s political views–something that is arguably characteristic of much of this director’s output–Fast Food Nation was branded as agitprop by reviewers.

For many of the film’s critics it was an odd decision to turn a piece of hard-hitting investigative journalism into a satirical drama.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×