POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

I was never going to review documentaries, mainly because I never have and felt that maybe now, four years into the blog, it might be too late to start but I have absolutely nothing of relevance to review and since documentary is a film style, it of course has every kind of genre under its roof, meaning in turn that I might actually be able to stretch it out for a whole month. Plus it isn't like I know nothing about documentaries, I've studied them. Either way this will be a journey, a learning curve for me too, but documentary month! Starting for no reason in particular on 'POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold', enjoy!


This documentary came out last year, it is all about product placement in movies and TV shows directed by Morgan Spurlock, you know, The Super Size Me Guy. The critics digged it, some went as far as saying it was even better than Super Size Me.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is what is known as a 'participatory documentary' meaning the filmmaker, Spurlock, is in the film and his presence has impact on the events of the film and ultimately defines the direction it takes. Luckily then, Spurlock is such a great guy to follow around, he is charming, funny and wickedly intelligent yet still manages to be a really normal guy - with an ability to do pitches that would put Donald Draper to shame.

Going straight in with the negative to get it out of the way, the one real problem, certainly the biggest is that Spurlock is on a journey, a journey to get his film sponsored and he never truly deviates from that, which is great, but as he goes along he discovers many things, and we do with him, but since this film isn't about those things, the film can raise many questions, openly admitting it was never going to answer them and that in turn can leave you feeling a little cheated, like there was a far more interesting story to explore here that just isn't - especially since some of the issues he discovers as he goes on his journey, are much more personal to him than the actual task of getting sponsorship, so it can feel like a missed oppurtunity. Either way, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is an enlightening experience, it may never dig into the underbelly of advertising, but for anyone simply interested in how it all works, look no further.

A lot of complaints with documentaries are 'bad interviews' - I haven't seen enough documentaries in my time to discern what exactly makes one interview bad and one good but I have enough common sense to at least make a fairly assured decision. Spurlock goes after real people in the industry, the interviews were informative, Spurlock engages his subjects well - just a shame about the shoddy cinematography. Although I must say the school kids he interviews later in the interview...God they are pretentious, bloody teenagers.

Now to the positive, pacing! We learn so fucking much in this documentary, before it even gets to the bloody product placement we learn which clients to go after, and why and the legality of all this, the bindings of the strict terms and conditions of a sponsor. When it finally gets to product placement Spurlock is mainly interested in peoples issues with it, especially with it being blended into the diegesis of a lot of shows and movies these days to the point where you can barely even tell - do people even know they are being advertised too? Then much of the third act of the movie is simply about the future, where does this all end? Will the sponsors end up being the most powerful force in a films production when they already have the power to break a films budget, and alter entire scenes? As blockbusters gather more and more millions from sponsors, what will happen to the independent movie scene which just can't compete? As a documentary film maker, this is a real issue for Spurlock personally. Really although the film explores many things and raises many questions, about the only thing Spurlock has to say is, 'advertising is taking over the world', he never even says how he fells on this statement.

Basically the entire concept of the documentary is a film about product placement in films...funded by product placement in the film. And despite making a joke of product placement and the companies that do it, Spurlock got his sponsors, a lot of them. The point Spurlock has, is he never had an angle going into this, he isn't attacking advertising, he just wanted to document the way product placement plays out, the entire process in its raw form and show how it all works, leaving the audience to make up their own mind. There isn't really a central question and Spurlock has no real answers, this is documentation of a process, not a documented investigation.

The film is really well put together, it looks great, the use of silly little animations and great editing makes it an enjoyable watch. That is also what makes it different, too. This film weaves in and out of fiction and non-fiction, there is an interview early on in the film which to condense for time is constructed in a very undocumentary like way. For me as a film student, and as someone exploring documentary, it's always fun to see people push and reinvent the style. This almost seems to be played in parody too, since the fact this is a documentary seems to be the scapegoat a lot of companies use to not go into sponsoring this film.

So do I recommend it? Although the film leaves you perhaps with more questions than you went in with, and is oddly passive, for anyone with even a slight interest in how advertising works, this is the movie for you. Even for people without that interest, they could easily still enjoy this documentary on Morgan Spurlock's hilarious central performance alone, plus this whole thing is put together so well. Prepare to laugh and come away with a lot learnt.

Think About It!

-Locke