Tedius bikini-waxing philosophical, pessimismm, hypocrisy and irony.
*Spoilers ahead*
*Rant ahead*
First lets start off with the relatively positive aspects of this documentary. If you haven't seen other doomsday scenario / "the sky is falling" documentaries on things like peak oil, capitalism, global warming, human greed and all of those other lovely subjects you'll get many examples of it here. If you have, there's nothing new here. No new insights, no revelations. In fact, the moral of the film still eludes me. I understand the gist of what the filmmakers are trying to say but the documentary (if you can call it that) itself is incredibly dense and laced with confusing metaphors that are all over the place.
And that's about as good as it gets.
Now on to the bad stuff..
For starters, the premise of the film is one we've heard a lot in the past few years. We're destroying the planet, we're destroying animals, we're destroying ourselves and we're destroying everyone else. We are a brain-dead society of war mongering, shallow, selfish, evil, burger stuffing greedy Americans. We have lost our humanity and our souls. Oddly enough, this happens to be the stereotype of the "fat American" overseas. It's also the narrative of the radical new age leftist movement and frighteningly similar to the rhetoric of the people who flew jets into the WTC on 9/11.
The "empire" is about to implode.
The reason these documentaries become cult-films is because of the witty combination of irrefutable evidence (thanks to science of course) and the use of fear inducing propaganda, hopeless narration and sad, moody music.
It is a celebration of pessimism. Unlike a Woody Allen film (who is quoted), this film offers no insight into the human psyche or the human condition.
We don't hear a word about American achievements, ingenuity, charity, wisdom, etc. Only the bad stuff we (namely our governments and corporations) do to each other and the planet seems to matter here. Science is painted as the enemy. The film itself was shot on a Panasonic AGDVX100b and edited on a Mac G4 -- which according to the message in this film, would appear to be tools of the devil, of evil corporations and American greed.
Bennett seems to have forgotten that the world isn't black and white, and neither is America or Americans. He seems to have forgotten about the millions of lives saved and improved with the scientific advancements in medicine, agriculture, etc. Instead of focusing on solutions like alternative energy, Bennett and his team focus on the "fact" that our country and the rest of humanity will never make it through these tough times. All hope is lost.
The people interviewed here range from scientists to Derrick Jenson to neighborhood friends, students, artists and a musician. Music by the way, is referenced here as some sort of "drug addiction". Any musicians out there know that nothing could be more human, more soulful, beautiful, harmonious or perfect than music. Once again, the point of this film seems to be that the viewer should "wake up" and realize that EVERYTHING about the American way of life, about modern civilization is evil and unsustainable.
Obviously Bennett and everyone else in this film still probably live in their houses or apartments. They still shop for groceries, still shop for clothes, still have their cell phones and still want to make some money while trying to change the world. Which brings me to my final point:
If you visit the official website you'll see DVD's for sale. I guess a film of such "dire importance" can't be given to us poor doomed souls for free. Another irony is that the "Dialogue Workshop Gatherings" are hosted at a B&B which (lecture included) range from 200$ to 450$. After over two hours of finger pointing at modern civilization and doomsday scenarios I find it odd that Bennet doesn't hold these meetings -- IN NATURE. OUTSIDE. FOR FREE.
So to wrap it up, this documentary may offer tidbits of information on the oil industry and climate change if you're completely unaware of these issues. Other than that it's pessimistic, dense, preachy, boring, pretentious, confusing and poorly scripted. It's more about the story of an impotent man who seems powerless, afraid (even paranoid) and hopeless.
And the ending? Well, you have to see it to believe it. After saying there is no "happy ending" to his story he goes on and on for about 30 minutes about how, lo and behold, there IS something that resembles a solution! And guess what it is? Just do what he says!
These types of documentaries, ironically, are one of the big reasons people these days are so paranoid and afraid. It's all Alex Jonesian conspiracy theories meshed with bits of accurate history and irrefutable scientific evidence. It's confusing to not buy into it but if you do enough research you begin to see that the world is NOT as black and white as it is painted in this film.
Anyways, sorta worth a watch if this is the first "doomsday" documentary you've yet to see but other than that I can't justify giving it more than a "1".
If you're in the mood for watching something of this nature I'd recommend "Collapse" instead. It's also gloom and doom but more entertaining and informative.