King Corn

2007 "You Are What You Eat."
7| 1h28m| G| en| More Info
Released: 12 October 2007 Released
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.kingcorn.net/
Synopsis

King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.

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Reviews

Pluskylang Great Film overall
Crwthod A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
jfilm This film is a must see for anyone interested not only in food production and food policy in the United States, but also what ailes (sp?) us as a nation. The US government, and the agricultural industry has unfortunately created a system that is out of whack. While we spend less than at any time on food, we are spending more and more on health-care (the one point I wish the film had made more directly). This film should be seen by all Americans. I saw another comment that quibbled with the particulars in the film. The film is not a doctoral thesis, it is a piece of art trying to raise awareness. I also thought the device of the two filmmakers staking out an acre of corn and following it through the year as a spine to the story was quite wonderful, as well as the animations that they did with a still camera. As far as I know you can also get the film to screen in your community from the film's website. I highly recommend it - would be great food for thought.
tsancio King Corn is an excellent documentary of the entire process of the corn kennel, from its genetic origin to its final use in food. The young protagonists start out from their worry that the junk food they eat will make them live less years than the previous generation and use this energy to investigate the main column of American food which is corn. As they decide to grow an acre of corn in IOWA, they interview people from all stages of the process and make sure that their work is not seen as a all-out criticism of corn. Reading between the lines, you can conclude that although the corn subsidies have made food much cheaper for Americans, it has also reduced its quality. Of course, you have to figure that out yourself since they don't propose a solution. However, they interview enough people to allow you to think. For example, when talking to a farmer that operates a cattle feed lot in which cows are given antibiotics so they can process the excessive amounts of corn that will make them fat, the man replies bluntly: "yeah, we can have our cows eat grass, but that would make it more expensive".They also give a primer on high-fructose corn syrup, the preferred sugar in the USA food industry. Heck, it's sugar. But since it's so cheap, tons of food products contain it.King Corn is an excellent movie for those who don't understand farm subsidies and why they were put in the first place. It's also very balanced and does not cast any of the participants as evildoers. It's just the final (baseball) scene that lets in their youth idealism and pretty much disowns the extensive work they did for the past hours.
cumberpanda I was forced to watch this in my Tech class for our unit in Agricultural technology, and all in all, it wasn't bad, as far as amateur documentaries go. As with all food documentaries, it touched on the explicit dangers of obesity and how fat Americans are, but not to the point of preachiness. Most of the focus was on the process of corn, from growing to harvesting to the elevator. Although the subject content is not as exciting as the apocalypse, it's important enough to be seen. We really don't realize how much corn is a part of our daily food intake. While calling King Corn "enlightening" is a stretch for some, it opened my eyes. I not going to start obsessively reading the ingredients for every single food product I eat, but you can't accuse me of ignorance. In short, King Corn is good for a school assignment, but watching it on your own will more likely than not make you a grade one nerd.
sillygilly25 So you analyze your hair and naturally this takes you to your ancestral corn roots in Iowa so you can grow an acre of corn and track where every kernel goes. But you don't research anything prior to going to Iowa, even showing up when there is no reason to and waiting months to finally do some corn growing. Still, no research into your primary question - where would every kernel of corn you grow go after you harvest it? You get the answer (you can't track corn after it goes to the corn elevator) so you finally do some research using wiki and put up some percentages where you "think" it would be used. The only thing I got from it is that cows need to stay far away from corn. Seriously, how did the real farmers put up with two guys who have no problem wearing sandals while discussing their corn production? That's like showing up at a ranch and wearing a white cowboy shirt. You just don't do that. This was made in the style of Michael Moore but unlike Mr. Moore, this documentary was not even smart, witty, or informative. Skip it.