Fat Man Walking


Steve, at the end of his walk in 2006, after losing 100 lbs and making it NYC.

We saw a great doc called Fat Man Walking tonight. The guy that it's about, Steve Vaught, walked from San Diego to Manhattan in 13 months back in 2005 to clear out his head and lose some weight. I'm pretty sure lot of the people who showed up were expecting an oprah-style feel good hit, and that's not at all what they got. This film is so real it's almost painful at times. Vaught tells the truth unashamedly about his marriage, his anger problems, his weight and how he ended up where he did. He uses the words "fuck" and "cocksucker" quite a bit. A number of people walked out in the middle, only fat middle aged women because I'm pretty sure they were offended. Vaught was there for the Q&A, and listening to him speak was really inspiring. He totally reaffirmed my philosophy and basic opinions about the world, how it works and who we are as people. His newfound outlook on life, garnered from walking across our country, is "Fuck it, there's nothing you can do about it, so don't worry about it". On paper he's much worse off after the walk than before he started. He's divorced, broke and doesn't get to see his kids hardly ever, but he's so much happier because he feels good about himself for the first time in 20 years.

The cut we saw wasn't final, it's still a work in progress, but it was beautifully edited. There were SO MANY cuts, so much footage, and it all came together really well. When it's actually finished, I think that you MUST see it.
- posted by Mason @ 11:55 PM