A Documentary Directed by Morgan Spurlock
Written by Morgan Spurlock & Jeremy Chilnick

Starring
Morgan Spurlock
 

Rated PG-13 for some language and sexual material

One of the most underrated comedies of all time is... wait for it... 1988's Return of the Killer Tomatoes, which starred a young George Clooney and contains a subplot where the filmmakers run out of money and had to fill the remaining running time with increasingly outrageous acts of what was then called Product Placement to allow our heroes to save the world from man-eating vegetables.  That, of course, was the time when it felt shamelessly odd for movie and TV characters to be seen drinking actual Coke or eating real Fruit Loops rather than the generic versions that had filled the screen since the early days of filmmaking, in part because we knew that the products had paid for what amounted to an extra commercial on our time.  Fast-forward to 2011, when what advertisers now like to call brand integration has taken over not only filmed entertainment, but just about everything else, and now it's weird to see characters eating, drinking or using anything generic.  Still, surprisingly few viewers really understand how hand-in-glove products and storytellers have become, and who better than documentarian/performance artist Morgan Spurlock to explain it to them?  The man who erased the words “super size” from fast-food menus across the country gives us The Greatest Movie Ever Sold or, pardon me, POM Wonderful presents 'The Greatest Movie Ever Sold', a film about brand integration financed completely with the money paid to him by a movie full of corporate sponsors.  Sold doesn't exactly offer a propulsive narrative, and Spurlock is, as usual, more a bemused observer of what his camera documents than an outraged witness.  But it does exactly what it sets out to do, showing us exactly what it means to have a movie character eat a Big Mac or to find the Kung Fu Panda on your box of Sun Maid Raisins for no apparent reason.  Even for those who understand what product placement is all about, POM Wonderful presents 'The Greatest Movie Ever Sold' is a rare and entertaining chance to see it in action.  And, you know, that POM Wonderful looks like a pretty tasty drink.

Despairing the low box office returns on documentaries, Morgan Spurlock wants his next film to be a “doc-buster” that could compete with corporately sponsored smash hits like Iron Man.  So, he sets out to recruit an all-star roster of companies to put up the money for a documentary about companies putting up the money for movies.  Major players in every industry are, amazingly, unimpressed.  McDonald's won't even return the Super-Size Me director's calls!  So, he sets his sights a little lower and meets with Pennsylvania-based mini-mart chain Sheetz about offering the commemorative cups, JetBlue about being his official airline, and even finds a beverage company called POM Wonderful to put up a million dollars to be featured above the movie’s title.  But oh, there are devils in those deals, as the contracts he signs obligate him to do reasonable things like not use any other products on (and possibly off) screen, odd but understandable ones like conducting interviews at Sheetz gas pumps and meeting a brand integration opponent at a JetBlue terminal, and downright bizarre ones like refrain from insulting Germany.  With all this corporate cash, he meets big-name Hollywood directors like Brett Ratner who explain the importance of respecting the guys who pay the bills, scientists who explain how advertising interacts with your brain, and a school district selling every bit of ad space they can find to try to keep the lights on.  Oh, and he uses JetBlue to travel to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where outdoor advertising has been banned.  What do companies there do?  A crazy thing called customer service…

Brand integration has so aggressively conquered our daily experience in so brief a period that it’s hard to imagine a time when bowl games had no corporate sponsorships and urinals used to face the wall rather than an ad.  Spurlock is primarily here to declare the war lost:  his goal isn’t to overthrow our corporate overlords but rather to ensure we understand that filmmakers don’t say “You know, my artistic vision really calls for a bag of Dorito’s in this scene:  call Frito-Lay and see if I can use them.”  Because Movie’s advertisers aren’t national names, they’ve got a willingness to let you see behind the curtain in exchange for being seen at all that is invaluable, and I was really interested to see what a brand integration meeting looks like.  I’m right in the heart of Sheetz country (their food is great, by the way; nobody paid me to say that), and I can attest that their stores were jam-packed with Greatest Movie promotional materials even though the movie only played a one theater in a 50-mile radius, and then only for a week.  
     

Check it out:  my very own commemorative cup purchased at my local Sheetz!

And that’s the thing about Movie’s tone; it’s wry when many movies would be enraged, so much so that even Ralph Nader himself ends up in on the joke, “noticing” the Official Shoes of the movie and peppering Spurlock with questions about them before getting his own pair over the end credits.  Morgan slips a couple times, and leaves in self-serving confessional scenes where he worries that the movie might not be taken the right way and could damage his reputation. But by and large, he keeps his tongue in cheek while seeing his quixotic quest through to its conclusion.  While the movie is never quite as crazy or satirical as you might hope, that’s part of the lesson too:  we see him pitching POM Wonderful some really off-the-wall ad ideas, and they simply take a moment to be shake off their horror and then have him walk through a store aisle and talk about the drink’s nutritional benefits.  You can’t fight city hall when city hall is paying your bills.

While it won’t reach the audience that could most benefit from seeing it, POM Wonderful presents ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold’ will fascinate those who can’t get enough of the business side of the movies and intrigue those who never knew that business side existed.  Granted, the only place they’re ever likely to see it is on an airplane… JetBlue, of course.