"No Human Being is Illegal"

Last week Morgan Spurlock expanded the simple pictures in our heads concering minutemen and illegal immigrants. He did this by presenting this controversial issue through an episode of his reality show 30 Days entitled "Living as an Illegal Immigrant". In case you haven't heard Spurlock's name before...he's the Supersize Me dude. Some critics say that Spurlock seeks to challenge the participants of his show "...in body and soul..." source

This show achieved what many documentaries set out to do - it informed it's audience of the facts that surround the immigrants of illegal aliens in our country. We learned by observing Frank (the minuteman, once a legal Cuban immigrant himself) live in the Gonzales home for a month. He was literally on the doorstep of enemy territory. I learned that the Gonzales' left their home in Mexico in hopes of finding a job and making a better life for their children. Many anti-immigration people find this distrubing because Mexicans are taking away jobs and opportunities from deserving Americans. The Gonzales family is not a mean group of people, nor do they seek out trouble, but they are still here illegally. (This also raises the point of how Armida, the eldest daughter was accepted into college without a social security number...curious.) At the end of the 30 days, Frank goes home and continues his work as a minuteman, but he did recognize that we can still "...love people for who they are - all politics aside...". I believe that is a main theme that many of us in the audience picked up on.

I was very interested in this show and it kept my attention the entire time. While it was very informative, Spurlock also added to the drama by adding sappy music and using strategic shotting angles. I would be inclined to watch 30 Days again based on this one episode. Although it may be reality TV, it is informative and not petty like many shows can be. I feel others could benefit by watching this show because we should try to strive to expand upon our pictures and stereotypes in our heads.