THE GREAT CHICKEN WING HUNT (review)

There are so many documentaries out there. Sometimes it is hard to wade through all the dreck to find a really good one.

Well, I am happy to report that this is one of those.

A good one. A really good one.

This one happens to be about The Buffalo wing.

I know. The Buffalo Wing. Who’d a thought?

The Great Chicken Wing Hunt was engaging and fascinating to me.

Once thought of as the unusable part of the chicken that even the chickens can’t use them.

The wing was the part that was thrown away, in most cases.

That is, until an Italian America couple, from Buffalo NY, received a case of chicken wings instead of their normal order of breasts, by mistake.

However, in a panic stricken epiphany Theresa Bellissimo created the Buffalo wing, just to get rid of them. Deep Fried and covered in vinegar and hot sauce, they were served for free at the bar of their little restaurant.

History was made.

That little mistake became one of America’s favorite snack foods. Soon over the next half a century the Buffalo wing spread like hot sauce all over the country and then the world.

Fast Forward half a century later.

That is when Rochester, New York native, international journalist and wing enthusiast, Matt Reynolds took his Slovak film crew to trek the “Wing Belt” of Upper New York State (With a brief stop in Manhattan) to find the perfect Buffalo Wing.

This documentary focuses on a ragtag group of Buffalo Wing Lovers, including Reynolds’s own Slovak girlfriend as they search high and low for that illusive perfect wing.

The 14 day chicken wing hunt was wrought with tension and turmoil as sickness and ulcers take over the judges and crew. Matt’s girlfriend also begins to have doubts to whether or not his obsession with wings will be their undoing and end their long relationship once he rests.

After testing over 270 types of wings in 72 restaurants, consuming 4,000 total wings (equivalent to 400,000 calories) I wondered if Matt and his team would ever find a true Perfect Buffalo wing.

Would their search be for naught?

Throughout the trip, interesting new variations of the famous Buffalo wing are discovered and heated debates arise, between the judges, over the validity of what they eventually call “the novelty wing”. Should those be counted in the contest? Do they find the perfect wing? What does it all mean?

One of my favorite scenes features the Slovak sound man describe to Matt how he thought this was one of the stupidest ideas he had worked on. It wasn’t until the end, after talking to a ton of strangers, all of whom were so excited when they found out about the project, that he realized that this film is not just about finding a delicious wing. It is about identity. It is about discovering the identity of America.

It being such a young nation it is constantly grasping for it’s true identity.

The Wing may be it.

I suppose that is America in a nut shell.

Taking something insignificant and something others would discard and making it into something everyone wants and desires.

At least that is what it meant at one time.

Hopefully, one day it can mean that again.