Dom DeLuise's Fatso Had a Deep Insight into Our Modern Obesity Problem

It seems that out of all the comedic films the late Dom DeLuise acted in, his starring effort "Fatso" in 1980 is still one of his most popular. And yet the film has a divided audience on getting all the inside jokes. Mostly, it seems to be a problem of understanding the vagaries of an Italian family and whether you've had the same familial experiences utilized in the film or not. On a deeper level, the more universal appreciation of the film is in its hilarious depiction of emotional overeating and how it can be conquered through a relationship with a significant other. Before ultimately being cured by love, we go on an uproarious journey trying to explain why certain people go on huge eating binges, with quasi violence involved if they don't get a mountain of the worst possible food crammed into their digestive systems.

Obviously the irony of overeating is there in relation to the real life of Dom DeLuise. While he never seemed to conquer his own obesity problem, the film ultimately might have been off track in finding the true solution to obesity. Having the distraction of love might work for some people, yet the simplest solution of a balanced diet that doesn't leave you starving is really the ultimate and wisely gradual way to alleviate all obesity.

Leading up to that, though, is a sometimes complex psychoanalysis of how someone in the guise of Dominic DiNapoli (DeLuise's character in "Fatso") ends up in such an emotional state of eating himself nearly to death.

There seems to be a strong correlation between addictive ingredients in unhealthy foods and obesity when you hear reports of how food companies deliberately place those addictive additives in their products to make overeaters buy more. But there's also clear evidence emotional overeating can be the result of something missing in your life that leaves a giant chasm that needs to be filled. In "Fatso", the idea behind the premise more or less suggests this, and there's plenty examples right in Hollywood where creative stifling existed more than it should have.

For DeLuise, his Hollywood career was quite successful and lucrative, so his obesity was obviously the result of just the enjoyment of eating--if perhaps being a victim of those addictive ingredients in certain foods. I've written before here, though, about certain figures in Hollywood who ended up being blocked from the career satisfaction of writing, directing or acting in something meaningful. This situation resulted in several of them eating too much to bring a sense of fulfillment they couldn't get in their work.

The prime example is Orson Welles who was a reasonably fit individual when allowed to have complete creative control in his debut, "Citizen Kane." Once that was taken away after the infamous "Kane" controversy, he picked up a gallon of ice cream and didn't stop eating from then on. Welles always blamed his eventual obesity on other factors other than emotional. Yet other Hollywood legends in the same boat picked up on why Welles was eating too much: He was making up for his creative deficiencies. The late actress Shelley Winters understood it and once mentioned that she understood why she and actor Marlon Brando became overweight. Both of them could never get the movie parts they wanted in their later years. Ultimately, they also ate heavily until their health was irreversibly harmed.

If they didn't find a sense of fulfillment in a relationship with someone to stave off overeating, then it's a shame they didn't do one thing most obese people don't consider enough: The very workable procedure of a balanced moderation diet.
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Since "Fatso" was out to merely provide belly laughs at the insides of food addiction, they couldn't really play up the reality of how one can have a moderated diet and never have to put a chain and lock over the refrigerator door. Of course, an obese person has to have a true emotional commitment to doing that, but it's been proven to work without having to give up any particular type of food. Most diets, including the message of "Fatso", say that you have to give up something in order to lose weight. The moderation diets are designed to allow you anything, though just in smaller portions.

Out of the rare people who know how effective moderation diets are, they know you can eat virtually anything as long as it's all balanced to the point where your metabolism eventually straightens out. It's the philosophy of not being able to eat good food to be a normal weight that's kept the myth going of obesity being something that can't be controlled in those inclined toward loving an abundance of food. Nevertheless, "Fatso" gave an interesting message of how to find a distraction to avoid thinking too much about stuffing your face. Falling in love and marrying someone is always a useful way to get us away from certain addictions, or at least most of the time.

Had "Fatso" had a sequel, though, we'd probably find out that the marriage of Dominic and his girl Lydia sometimes means the usual path of eating more later and getting fat as a couple rather than singularly. The plain common sense of a moderation diet that can be done by anybody just isn't funny enough and doesn't satisfy many who think you need a diet fad to make any difference.

That means even more diet fad books hitting the New York Times bestseller lists every week will continue until better diet education gets out there. Once it does, it'll mark the old "Fatso" way of locking the refrigerator with a chain and lock as a prospectively banned method of torture...

Source:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080724/