King Corn (2007)

King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from ... See full summary »

Director:

Aaron Woolf

Writers:

Aaron Woolf, Ian Cheney,

Stars:

Bob Bledsoe, Earl L. Butz, Dawn Cheney

Cast

Credited cast:
Bob Bledsoe	...	Himself - Bledsoe Cattle Company
Earl L. Butz	...	Himself - Former Secretary of Agriculture (as Earl Butz)
Dawn Cheney	...	Herself - Relative
Ian Cheney	...	Himself
Don Clikeman	...	Himself - Farmer
Elna Clikeman	...	Herself - Farmer
Ken Cook	...	Himself - Environmental Working Group
Loren Cordain	...	Himself - University of Colorado
Curt Ellis	...	Himself
Audrae Erickson	...	Herself - Corn Refiners Association
Dean Jarrett	...	Himself - Cattle Rancher
Sue Jarrett	...	Herself - Cattle Rancher
Rich Johnson	...	Himself - Farmer
Farida Khan	...	Herself - Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn
Steve Macko	...	Himself - University of Virginia

Storyline

King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat-and how we farm

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Plot Keywords:

corn | food | iowa | farm | food industry | 

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Taglines:

You are what you eat

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [jp]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 April 2009 (Japan)

Filming Locations:

Greene, Iowa, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$6,753 (USA) (12 October 2007)

Gross:

$81,368 (USA) (30 November 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

ITVS, Mosaic Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Color:

Color (HDCAM) Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Ian Cheney: [their 1 acre has been planted] Planting 31,000 seeds was not exactly a hands-on experience. But then again, it only took us 18 minutes.

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Connections

Referenced in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.9 (2011)

User Reviews

Removing the dubious conclusion, the work is excellent

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.