Forks Over Knives at the Peoria Theater

I attended a showing of Forks Over Knives at the Peoria Theater, located within the Landmark Recreation building just off of University. The Peoria Theater is host to cult films, documentaries, independent films, and even the occasional concert. The audience at five-fifteen in the afternoon on a Sunday was by no means large, let alone rowdy or overly social.

While Peoria is not known for its receptiveness to plant-based diets, there were several people at the theater ready to “fork over” seven bucks to reinforce their veggie-friendly mindsets (me included). The showing of Forks Over Knives is one of many trendy films and events informing the public about the industrialization of our food sources, diets, Western medicine, and the overall embarrassing health statistics in our society. Some other recent mentionable films are Food, Inc, Go Further and Farm to Fridge. While the Peoria Theater does not have the most high tech equipment or the biggest screen in town, their mission is to communicate the message of the film they’re showing, not to wow audiences with giant 3-D stadium seating, IMAX spectacular, or THX approved subwoofers. Forks Over Knives, I believe, has a different demographic from most of the hip vegetarian documentaries currently available.

Forks Over Knives has a different message than most of the recent documentaries pertaining to meat consumption, mistreatment of livestock, the definition of “Grade A” meat, and CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations). Forks Over Knives addresses the overall health of Americans, their diets, and the pharmaceutical companies directly. Most of the experts and patients involved are middle-aged or older. Instead of using abused animals to tug on your heart strings, they make it more humanistic by discussing obesity, cancer, heart disease and diabetes as examples of the downfalls of animal-based diets. Most documentaries have a bevy of graphics, interviews, and testimonials; this film was no different.

The graphics used in the film were satisfactory, but not revolutionary. The promotional advertising used to spread the word about the film was miles above anything used within the film. The 3D graphics used to portray statistics were clear, consistent, and easily understood. The lower-third graphics used during the interviews and datasets worked, but they weren’t very flashy or as professional as you would see on networks such as CNN or FOX News.

The interview progression throughout the film was well thought out and kept the movie flowing at a decent pace. The framing of interviewees was never fully centered, thus using the rule of thirds effectively. The interviews consisted of quick snippets and were never monotonous. However, there were no dramatic B-rolls or flashy zoom techniques which may have emphasized certain aspects. Like most informational documentaries, this film used interviews of experts to push opinions. Interviews with experts in the appropriate fields (PHDs, MDs, and political figureheads) as well as patient testimonials were used to provide the information and results in layman’s terms.

Unlike most infomercials, documentaries give you an in-depth approach to a consumer’s start and end point; Forks Over Knives was no different. The film used several examples of patients facing dire consequences, which were reversed with extreme diet changes. The beginning of the film showed the first patient, who drove to his destination while drinking two Red Bulls and nearly two Coca-Colas. He met with an expert in nutritional health, switched to an all plant-based diet, and within several weeks began showing vast improvement. The film never touched on whether or not the patient strayed from his diet, but the end result played straight into the film’s message. All of the patients portrayed in the film had similar positive results. However, patients with detrimental reactions to the diet (if any) were never addressed. This film may not have had the highest budget or flashiest graphics but I felt as though there were no loose ends once the film had ended.

In my opinion, Forks Over Knives is most likely the bearer of bad news to the human race. As we all eventually suffer from some kind of ailment, and we see our loved ones pass away from preventable diseases, we must question what we have been taught for generations or suffer the consequences. As they said in the film, we must learn to "eat to live, not live to eat."