Hyland,+11th+Hour

Title: The 11th Hour Director: Nada Connors, Leila Connors Peterson Release: 2007 This film provided a broad overview of the state of global climate change through various lenses as a way to inform the general public of the issues at hand. The main problem addressed by this film is global climate change. It opens with examples of what issues have already arisen from global warming such as the melting of the polar ice caps, draught, and greater intensity natural disasters. The movie continues to describe other ways in which we are damaging the environment through the use of fertilizers and pesticides and excess carbon production from fossil fuel consumption. The part of the film I found most striking and persuasive was the imagery they used. In addition to the stock footage of trees blowing over in a hurricane and polar bears floating away on a little lice drift, they also had a few striking original images. Most notable was the graphic describing the dead zones in the United States especially in the Gulf of Mexico due to fertilizer and pesticide runoff that would gather in the Mississippi river from the plains states and flow all the way down. Additionally, the film hosted a wide variety of experts. At first I thought this was a mistake having people like a former CIA director and popular physicist Stephen Hawking because you assume while he is plenty smart and probably well verse in the subject, he would not have anything to say that we wouldn’t hear from a true environmental scientist. However, the different vernaculars of the motley crew of experts helps you understand the problems in different ways and see the different walks of like this all effects. There were a few parts of this film that turned me off of it. Most frustrating was the style it was done in. Since there were so many different experts – and different kinds of experts, the movie was constantly switching between perspectives and topics and did not allow you to develop a special interest in any individual topic. The film also only presented a very light overview of a lot of topics. To someone slightly educated in sustainability issues, this was all old information. This documentary is made to serve as a bit of a primer in global sustainability problems for the general public. The importance of the topics it covers cannot be understated, however they get such a like brush-over that someone would need to consider inept in the subject matter to truly say they learned anything. Another hint that this is the group it is targeting is the mainstream feel of it. Leonardo DiCaprio is the narrator and sometimes expert which attempts to bring some star appeal to the stage. Also, the exciting background music and fast pace is much unlike the typical movie of this genre and a clear attempt at drawing in a potentially disinterested viewer. This movie could have really benefited from a few special interest pieces. After showing the dead zones due to the pesticide run off, they could have gone to a corn farm in Iowa and analyzed why the farmers were using this product and if they knew what the consequences of their actions were. They could have then used that to describe the need for giant cash crops due to a desire for cheaper food and products to fuel our huge consumer population. This would add some more fluidity to the film as well to alleviate the feeling that it was constantly jumping all over the place and spreading itself too thin. The film suggests a few ways to act against these problems, however, in keeping with the mass appeal it is made for, the suggested interventions are shy and seem like they do not want to scare anyone or make them think there is no point in helping the planet if they have to sacrifice their quality of life. I suggest actions like switching over to compact fluorescent light bulbs (a change which will be mandatory by law in a few years) in order to reduce a home’s energy consumption as well being responsible for one’s own carbon output and basic low level changes like that. The one somewhat controversial action it presented was the suggested implementation of a carbon tax to hinder peoples’ over consumption of fossil fuels. The inclusion of Leonard Dicaprio as the main narrator for this documentary made me wonder his – and other celebrities – level of involvement in this area and what effect they were having. As far as Leo goes, while many celebrities have a charity for a certain disease of poverty stricken region, his is dedicated to saving tigers and sustainability. It may well be good work by his publicist, but he seems to be pretty active with the organization more so than just putting his name with it and it give him credibility in the film. Dicaprio was also on the production and writing team for The 11th Hour and has two short films out on the subjects of sustainable water and global warming. [] The activity of various other celebrities is also encouraging. Everyone knows about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s adoptions and support of third world children, but there are also myriad other stars who are getting involved. Dave Matthews Band sponsors various sustainably charities and groups as a way of producing for their tours, a few other music artists have been commissioning biodiesel tour busses to cut back on their foot print. Various other celebrities serve as higher-ups on a variety of counsels and boards for groups focused on a greener planet and have begun to receive global recognition for their work. []