Does Will Smith’s Seven Pounds Have A Subtle Veggie Agenda?

by Michael dEstries December 20, 2008
Categories: Eats, Film/TV
Tags: rosario dawson, will smith, woody harrelson.

Reviews of Will Smith’s new film Seven Pounds are rounding the web — with one in particular giving us some potential insight into one theme the producers are trying to communicate. From the review:

Woody Harrelson, showing a sweetness we haven’t seen from him in years, plays an unflappable seller of frozen steaks. (The movie has a strong vegetarian agenda: Harrelson’s character doesn’t eat his own product, Dawson’s eats no meat at all, and the word “vegan” is prominently shown behind Smith on a hospital chalkboard.)

Subliminal veggie messages in a movie that deals with life-or-death choices? Interesting angle. Check out a clip from the movie after the jump — where we see that even Rosario Dawson’s character’s dog is vegetarian!

About Michael dEstries

Michael has been blogging since 2005 on issues such as sustainability, renewable energy, philanthropy, and healthy living. He regularly contributes to a slew of publications, as well as consulting with companies looking to make an impact using the web and social media. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his family on an apple farm.

View all posts by Michael dEstries →

http://elainevigneault.com Elaine Vigneault

The preview makes it seem like it’s anti-vegetarian, not pro, but whatevs.
http://BrainyBlonde.com erin

seemed pretty anti veg to me too (except that at least a big strong great dane was vegetarian says something for how we can look
http://www.ecorazzi.com michael

I don’t know — I think Smith’s reaction to hearing that her dog is vegetarian is a pretty realistic one. Not many people I know, including vegetarians, keep their animals on a purely vegetarian diet.

Should be interesting to see the other scenes in relation to this one.
angeni

I just went to see the movie and came away with the same idea, thought I would check around the internet to see if I could find anything out and stumbled upon this site. The movie was very poignant in spite of the obvious bias…By the way I aspire to become a vegetarian but haven’t gotten past the flexetarian phase.
maya

Definitely, just saw the film and was thinking there were an awful lot of vegetarian references…the tofu and broccoli for the great dane thing was a bit too out there, imho.
http://thedailyconservative.net Patrick Britton

I love vegi’s but nothing but? I mean, they have their place, next to the steak with gravy on them.
ed

hey patrick not sure why you’re on this site but if you consider yourself “eco-conscious” and are STILL eating meat you might wanna so some research on the environmental consequences of raising 10 billion (in the usa alone) animals for food…more greenhouse gas emissions than cars worldwide (based on 2 recent studies including one by the United Nations), rivers and streams tainted by fecal runoff from farms, millions of acres of forests cleared to graze cattle, etc. Not to mention that diverting edible plant protein (16 lbs. of grain to produce 1 lb. of edible beef) away from starving humans to fatten up cattle is an inefficient use of limited arable land. Yes, it’s true, livestock in the USA eats better than millions of people across the world.
brad

broccoli and tofu? why do i suddenly have the urge to give my vegetarian dog a steak?
this is pathetic.
http://www.cafepress.com/ybveggie nina

I saw the movie and I picked up on the vegetarian theme. I’ve been a vegetarian for over five years, and was pleased to see a movie that featured so many vegetarians! Did you notice that the vegetarians were the “good” people? And everyone loves dogs, so of course he would be veggie
SRF

but why is the whole vegettsrian vegan thing have to do with the movie? I seriously want to know. i just dont get it. it seems like there are so many signs in the movie but i just couldnt put it all together. is there some sort of hidden uniqueness about this movie toware you have to watch it again in order to put all of the pieces together? After i saw the movie i felt lke there was more that i just didn’t realize. i had something to do with vegetarian/vegan. What really made me think this was when he was sitting down in the hospital and written on the dry erase board behind him was the word VEGAN written in all caps.Please answer this because i was so confused. I got the point of the movie but i don’t know how the vegetarian/vegan factor ties in…
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VeggieNinjaChan

Dogs are naturally omnivorous, not carnivorous, so a vegetarian or vegan diet can be very beneficial to a dog, similar to the benefits of a vegan diet in human beings.

I loved this movie, and was pleased to see the exposure to the vegan and vegetarian lifestyles. Especially showing that a woman and dog with *heart problems* choose a veg diet, as a healthy lifestyle, and a preventative measure against heart disease.

Woody, who is vegan in real life, did fantastic as well. Everyone did great, awesome movie.
Mia

I think the connection to vegetarianism is that Smith’s character is looking for people who are ‘good people’. Though not everyone’s choice towards vegis is for ethical reasons, it is a common one. I, for one, love meat, I just don’t like eating animals for whom I feel a strong life connection, and have therefore become vegetarian. Add that to the eco reasons above, and you have just one more indicator to help him in his quest to find out the morals of these people that he wants to help.
Dj Laser Vegi-Lite

The movie conveys an overall pro-vegetrian stand point. Will Smith plays a repressed soul who has not examined his sensitive side questing to be “a good man” as he states several times in the movie. The scene people are talking about finds Will Smith feeding his future lover’s dog meat much to her
dismay. She is vegeterian and raises her dog vegeterian as well. He makes a comment that is not well recieved about it “sucking to be the dog”.
Obviously this is not how one would show that they are respectful to some one elses way of life and it is not well recieved in the movie. He later mumbles
under his breathe,”maybe we should not feed him meat” in the next scene after the dog starts pulling to hard. This is an obvious implication that the meat is
making the dog agressive which his own realization apart from his future vegetrian lover’s own views. He
admires his future vegetrian lover so that he dedicates his own heart to her in a transplant surgery . The overlying message of the movie applaudes his heroic-altruistic behavior not his
insensitive /repressive appetite for chowing down on animal flesh. Overall the movie was written with good taste …very subtle and non offensive.
VEGIMITE

Will Smith and 7 pounds De-encrypted
This post is in answer to those for those pondering what the meaning of the word vegan is behind Will Smith in the movie 7 pounds. Ofcourse the best one can do is take an edjucated guess since there will probably never be a official release on the movies vast symbols. In analyzing this specific symbol lets gradually look at the scene from different aspects. We know that Will Smith is questing desperately to find out if giving his heart is the only chance of saving his lovers life. He asks the doctor what the percentage of his vegetrian/vegan lover has to live. The doctor says 3 -5 percent. The percentages are a direct parallel of vegans to vegetrians aka the symbology of the rare blood type needed that will smith wants to perserve. Here is A 2002 Time/CNN poll found that 4% of American adults consider themselves vegetarians, and 5% of vegetarians consider themselves vegans. You could reference this at wikipedia.

This a huge leap foward for Will Smith the person in taking a real step in putting himself out there to artists. This movie represents a smooth transition from his last character depicted in pursuit of happiness. It kind of takes over where the last one left off and asks “ok, well now you got the money are you going to do anything of substance or eternal with your life? Many questions are posed such as is the character acting out of guilt or sincerity or do the two exist in harmony?