Movie Review for The 11th Hour (2007)

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Review #519 of 365
Movie Review of The 11th Hour (2007) [PG] 95 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $14.75
Where Viewed: Landmark Chez Artiste, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 4 September 2007
Time: 7:"00 pm
DVD Release Date: 8 April 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer

Directed by: Nadia Conners (debut) and Leila Conners Petersen (debut)
Written By: Nadia Conners (debut) • Leila Conners Peterson (debut)

Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Kenny Ausubel • Janine Benyus • Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond) • Sylvia Earle Ph.D • Gloria Flora • Michel Gelobter • Mikhail Gorbachev • Thom Hartmann • Paul Hawken • Stephen Hawking (A Brief History of Time) • Wangari Maathai • William McDonough • Bill McKibben • Wallace J. Nichols

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In the vein of An Inconvenient Truth actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio narrates and financially supports this unnerving documentary about the continued resistance to the idea that the fate of the planetary ecosystems is at risk. Where as its predecessor dealt more substantively with facts and figures and served as the colder scientific view—who can forget former V.P. Al Gore's trip up the side of his projected chart—Mr. DiCaprio's effort takes a more holistic, artistic, and humanitarian approach to get to the same conclusion. The film's net effect, if one is in tune with it, transcends the ordinary emotionally-charged response to yield something that could actually make a difference. Decidedly upbeat toward the end when the panel of experts begins to explore the possibilities for a sustainable existence for humans with the natural world we Westerners have all but abandoned, the film begins with the gloom and doom warnings that tend to put people off rather than raising their call to action.

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"… an amazing, life-changing film."

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It's a funny thing about USAers, especially, that we tend unite behind common causes of challenges to prove we can accomplish the unimaginable than to protect that which we view as already under our control. This foolish approach literally led us to land a man on the moon, while we continue to dump millions of gallons of toxic waste into the ocean every day as if, somehow, the stuff will just go away. The underlying message of the film is, though, that if we galvanize our efforts to prove we can live on this planet using 90% fewer resources than at present time, something no other civilized people on the planet believes us either capable or motivated to accomplish, we just might end up surprising ourselves, finding a greater quality of live than we've ever known, and restoring our own true humanity long lost in decades of limitless greed and consumerism. The film also correctly points out that each of us has a power to effect the necessary changes if not at the ballot box, where we are perpetually stymied by the lobbying dollars in the hands of big business, rather at the check out counter. After all, it is what we buy that determines what sells and not the other way around—as much as companies have worked so hard to persuade us otherwise. If every person in the USA committed tomorrow to never again buy produce that was grown and shipped more than 50 miles, this would have a radical impact on the entire food industry world-wide, for example. If we collectively decided, in one of the very few nations on the planet with uniformly drinkable tap water, to never drink another drop of bottled water, it would have an enormous impact. If we all never again purchased another incandescent light bulb with all due respect to Mr. Edison's legacy, it would…you get the idea. The largest problem is that we convince ourselves that either we cannot individually make a difference, or that we are entitled to be wasteful because we work so hard. Both of these are endemic signals of a weak and unimaginative populace that has lost touch with true reality and the spirit of ideals that catalyzed the materialization of our USAer spirit and pride in the first place two centuries ago.

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As the wealthiest nation in the world and also the world's largest polluter, the tipping point must come from us. If every other industrialized nation peer of ours steps up, added together they would barely be able put a dent in the damage we do. The film points out that the biggest problem we have is a leadership in place that chooses to ignore what the overwhelming majority of scientists worldwide, including those in the USA, is even an issue. The logical conclusion is that they either are doing so purposefully with grave intentions of malice, or out of shear, unadulterated ignorance unlike anything in our nation's history. These leaders of our are supposed to be among the most educated of our populace; and, yet, the numbers that still refuse to acknowledge that global warming is a reality already wreaking world-wide havoc is alarmingly high. The protection of current corporate interests vs. the future of not just our nation, not just our sovereignty, not just the rest of humanity, but of all the world's creatures is simply not a sensible operational ideal. Ironically, most companies that have switched their thinking to even the most basic of 'greener' ideals often find there is far more money and profit to be made when working to achieve harmony with the environment than to ignore it—and not just because consumers, on average, will pay more for products they believe are better for the environment or their own health—check out the profits of Whole Foods, Inc. if you doubt this claim. How much more profit does a laundry detergent company make off each gallon of detergent sold if they no longer have to add dyes and perfumes and chemicals to make the detergent bubble up (none of which, incidentally has one iota of an impact on the product's ability to function by the way)? How much less does it cost them to package this product and ship this product with the volume of these non-essential ingredients now gone? Of course, the manufacturers of the perfumes, dyes, and bubbling agents are suddenly without a market for their products. Which causes the inevitable--they must find new uses for their products, or switch to making different products. It's the way the world works—and, hey, isn't that the way capitalism is supposed to work anyway? What happened to all the companies that made cast iron stoves or carriages for horses? Progress causes change. The film promotes progress, however, that is no longer driven simply by the need for progress, but rather by progress that moves all industry and human activity back into the perspective of living in harmony with our planet and the millions of creatures that inhabit it.

The diverse and interesting panel of experts includes people from all sectors of human activity. They paint a grim picture ahead if we continue on the path of doing nothing or assuming that others will do something so we need not worry. Their words of wisdom serve to inspire and to coalesce the minds of a nation that must get on board if there is to be hope for a planet restored to the harmony upon which we evolved in the first place. The problem is that the time to act is now for no one can predict when the critical point of now return will be reached. It could be next week, it could be in 30 years, or even 100 years. None of the scientists could foresee the point being reached beyond that however, and everyone emphasized that the potential to create an insurmountable catastrophe is near. Because everything in the living system that is our planet is connected, no matter how hard we've worked to disconnect ourselves from it, it actually would not take much to throw everything out of wack quickly and end our ability to survive as we know it if at all. A 1-degree rise in the overall global temperature may seem like nothing. But, if models are correct and we've already done the damage that will lead to a few degrees more in rise, which results in the complete melting of the polar ice caps now responsible for reflecting a huge percentage of the solar radiation back into space which would then cause greater rises in temp, the conversion of more land to dessert, the flooding of sea-level land, the end of the proper convection of the ocean's warm and cool water, the possible stagnation of the ocean, the end of oceanic food sources, increased temperature as ocean plants fail to survive and carry out essential photosynthesis and carbon fixation, leading to greater temperature rises, and the chain just escalates from there. Too many of our politicians claim that global warming is a fallacy, a myth, a speculation. Eventually, one has to start asking why they believe this in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence much produced by our own scientists. Eventually, one has to start holding their feet to the fire and challenging them to explain their position and advising them that (a) they represent us, not corporations, (b) while corporations can fund their campaigns, we are the ones who vote, (c) we will no longer accept leaders who fail to pledge their terms to working toward solutions to ending the climate crisis, and (d) each one of us, including them, has an opportunity to use readily available and currently existing technology to create a far, far better world than one that will result from our current course.

Toward that end, I pledge to send out today to every US Congress person from the State of Colorado who represents my zip-code (find yours at www.congress.org), as well as the Governor of Colorado and the Mayor of Denver a letter asking him or her to see The 11th Hour, and then to explain afterward to us how they plan to become part of the solution instead of continuing to be part of the problem. I would ask for citizens in every state of the USA to join me in this pursuit to ensure that every member of the House and Senate and every state Governor and city Mayor has no excuses to avoid seeing this film. We need them to lead with not just the best interest of their constituents in mind, not just the well-being of this nation in their hearts, but with the preservation and longevity of the earth's quintillions of inhabitants in their souls. (Add your pledge to write letters by posting below—and yes, the more people from an area who send letters the better!)

My thanks go to Leonardo DiCaprio for The 11th Hour, it truly is an amazing, life-changing film. I've seen a lot of environmentally concerned films in the past 18 months, but none has motivated me to immediately begin making seriously different choices than my already quasi-environmentally-friendlier lifestyle was leaning. I would urge all of my readers to join me in making pledges to this, the most important cause of our time.

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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]

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Other Projects Featuring The 11th Hour (2007)
Cast Members
Kenny Ausubel • Janine Benyus • Leonardo DiCaprio
Sylvia Earle Ph.D • Gloria Flora • Michel Gelobter
Mikhail Gorbachev • Thom Hartmann • Paul Hawken
Stephen Hawking • Wallace J. Nichols • William McDonough
Director
Nadia ConnersNadia Conners Leila Conners Peterson

DVD

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Review-lite The 11th Hour (2007) [max of 150 words—I broke this rule because the cause is just too important]

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If you can see The 11th Hour and not want to join the green movement, I would be very surprised. For me, this was a personally life-changing film that has motivated me even further down a path toward focusing on the movement to get everyone on board toward the universal cause of protecting our planet from any further cataclysmic change brought about by our selfish wasting of resources in the name of mass consumerism and away from those things in life that really do bring us pleasure and joy. With great panelists that touch just about every pulse be they a corporate tycoon or a misguided politician assuming the only way to keep themselves in office is to keep corporations happy, The 11th Hour stands as more than a wake up call, it stands as a call to action. We can either sit and watch our world die in front of us, or we can use the great gift of our brain power to live in harmony with it using technology that already exists. We don't have to live in the forest on nuts and berries, we can invent wild and cool new ways to design and build the most incredible things we've ever seen. We simply have to change our mindsets and our goals. In the end, we have everything to gain or everything to lose. They say the choice is ours; but, really, do we have a choice when so many of the planet's organisms live at our whim?

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