Pom Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Marketing is everywhere we look. As Americans we’ve probably seen more advertisements than we’ve seen trees or birds. Soon you’ll start to see children named Pepsi Smith or cities like Disney Presents Detroit, Michigan. It’s inevitable. Business is designed for growth. If a business isn’t growing then it’s considered a failure. And since there are only so many people on the globe and so many dollars printed, businesses have to convince us that we must buy what they’re selling. If you were a perfectly contented person you’d never spend money. You’d already have everything you could ever want and businesses would hate you for it. So to get you to buy something they have to convince you first that something is missing from your life, that you’re not content or happy, and that there is something wrong with you. But wait there’s hope! Because if you buy their product then all will be right in your life again. That the essence of every ad you’ve ever seen. And you’ve seen billions. How many times a day does someone have to tell you your life is terrible before it actually affects your brain chemistry? How many people have to be affected by this till it changes humanity?

One thing we have all learned to do is ignore most of it. It’s a natural response. If there is too much noise your brain can’t physically process it and so it tunes it out. But the wheels of business are unrelenting. So each ad has to be louder and louder to get your attention. That’s why commercials are so obnoxious. Our system values nothing but purchasing power. Certainly, art and creativity have no place in commerce. And yet because the human creative spirit can endure this onslaught of daily noise it struggles to find its place within society. This encapsulates the murky territory of “selling out”. What is artistic integrity anyway? Isn’t that subjective? In this world where advertising is totally pervasive it might yet seem like a coup for the artist to trick industry into financing them. This is a debate that will change as the world changes.

Morgan Spurlock first made a name for himself taking on one of the leviathans of corporate America: McDonald’s. His film “Super Size Me,” took a good hard look at a company whose lust for growth led them to change the face of American culture in some questionably sinister ways. But now he is back with another outstanding achievement in documentary film making that examines how art and commerce meet in today’s world. “Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” is one of the most mind bending experiences you will ever have. In it we follow Spurlock as he attempts to find product placements for a film he is making that is the film you are watching. The film is about the making of itself.

This film is an experiment more than anything but it is so well thought out and so perfectly executed that it’s astonishing that it was even made at all. The sheer brilliance of film making technique and story telling employed in this film are incredible. The layers upon layers of reality were designed for this meta age we live in. Not enough can be said for how amazing it is to watch this film unfold. More than that it also makes you aware of a horrible problem in this country which some might not even view as a problem at all. It’s unclear really if in the end the film takes a position. Spurlock gets into some cloudy territory. Did he lose his integrity by selling out? Or did he pull off one of the greatest pranks on corporate America ever? You’ll have to see it and decide for yourself. The one flaw of the film is simply a flaw of the reality of the universe. The film ends sort of abruptly. None of the promotion for the film is in it simply because he could not promote a film he was still creating. There was simply no way for Spurlock to include interviews he did the day or week before the films release in theaters within the actual film itself. It just isn’t possible. Hopefully if the artist realizes he’s made an unfinished film then we will all see one of the greatest DVDs ever released.