...feels like something we've all seen and heard before.
All fair and valid, if not exactly evenhanded. Yet "The 11th Hour" feels like something we've all seen and heard before. It's too much like a documentary from the National Geographic Channel, the History Channel, the Science Channel, the Discovery Channel, or PBS. The movie and its message, no matter how one-sided, are important; but it's all so familiar and all so grim, with the feeling throughout that we're being lectured to, that it's no wonder the film attracted so small an audience.
Still, there is a place for movies like this. It seems ironic that the single most-disastrous prospect facing the world, the one that virtually everyone is aware of and that could eventually kill us all, is the one that ranks lowest among people's priorities when pollsters ask them to list the five or six biggest problems facing them. Polls show that concerns with the economy, war, crime, and education are more important to people than global warming, which, after all, doesn't affect many of us in the here and now.
A closing comment quotes Deepak Chopra, saying "People are really doing the best they can, given their level of awareness." The film, therefore, attempts to raise our awareness of the global-warming problem and the possible solutions to it. And one final line struck me: "The Earth has all the time in the world. We don't."
Video:
Warner Bros. present the film in a 1.78:1 widescreen anamorphic widescreen ratio and a video quality that varies from scene to scene. The movie is an amalgam of different film footage, so some parts of it look better than others. The interviews almost all look better than most of the location shots, for example. The result is that much of the film appears merely ordinary at best. When it's good, it's quite good, and when it's not, it looks fuzzy, blurred, and grainy. What we've got is generally clean documentary footage, though, which is exactly what we might expect from such a film.
Audio:
Although the audio engineers processed the soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1, there isn't really much beyond 2.0 in most instances. The film begins with a loud, thumping bass line, which is quite dramatic and helps set a tone, but this is obviously not a movie that emphasizes strong sonic characteristics. It's a movie about ideas; therefore, it needs to project a clear, natural midrange for dialogue and narration, which it does comfortably. Behind the voices, there is often a musical background, well spread out amongst the front speakers but doing very little business in the rear.
Extras:
The disc's primary bonus is a series of featurettes on possible solutions to global warming, lasting altogether about ninety minutes. Many of the same people who participated in the feature film plus a few others talk to us further about what we can do to help deal with the problem. The segments cover most aspects of the issue: "Nature's Operating Instructions and Solutions," "Solutions We have Right Now," "Wonder of the World," "Our Reactions in the Face of Environmental Collapse," and "Religious Perspectives."
The extras conclude with seventeen scene selections but no chapter insert or chapter listing anywhere; English as the only spoken language; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. The disc case reads "packaging made with 100%-certified renewable resources." I think that means something like cardboard, which is what it seems to be, so the studio is doing its part to fight global warming, too, in its own small way.
Parting Shots:
As I've indicated, "The 11th Hour" has its heart in the right place but may be preaching to the choir. Most anyone interested in sitting through the ninety-two minute presentation will surely already know and believe in almost everything the movie has to offer. The question is how to grab those people who don't already understand the magnitude of the problem, and it's here that "The 11th Hour" finds tough sledding. The film offers up its subject matter in too dry and too grim a manner, mostly talk, and talk of dire doom and gloom at that. The initiate might find Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" more compelling, and the true believer might need something more profound than "The 11th Hour" provides.
For additional information on the consequences of global warming, the film suggests you go to 11thhourfilm.com, a Web site devoted to the subject.
Still, there is a place for movies like this. It seems ironic that the single most-disastrous prospect facing the world, the one that virtually everyone is aware of and that could eventually kill us all, is the one that ranks lowest among people's priorities when pollsters ask them to list the five or six biggest problems facing them. Polls show that concerns with the economy, war, crime, and education are more important to people than global warming, which, after all, doesn't affect many of us in the here and now.
A closing comment quotes Deepak Chopra, saying "People are really doing the best they can, given their level of awareness." The film, therefore, attempts to raise our awareness of the global-warming problem and the possible solutions to it. And one final line struck me: "The Earth has all the time in the world. We don't."
Video:
Warner Bros. present the film in a 1.78:1 widescreen anamorphic widescreen ratio and a video quality that varies from scene to scene. The movie is an amalgam of different film footage, so some parts of it look better than others. The interviews almost all look better than most of the location shots, for example. The result is that much of the film appears merely ordinary at best. When it's good, it's quite good, and when it's not, it looks fuzzy, blurred, and grainy. What we've got is generally clean documentary footage, though, which is exactly what we might expect from such a film.
Audio:
Although the audio engineers processed the soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1, there isn't really much beyond 2.0 in most instances. The film begins with a loud, thumping bass line, which is quite dramatic and helps set a tone, but this is obviously not a movie that emphasizes strong sonic characteristics. It's a movie about ideas; therefore, it needs to project a clear, natural midrange for dialogue and narration, which it does comfortably. Behind the voices, there is often a musical background, well spread out amongst the front speakers but doing very little business in the rear.
Extras:
The disc's primary bonus is a series of featurettes on possible solutions to global warming, lasting altogether about ninety minutes. Many of the same people who participated in the feature film plus a few others talk to us further about what we can do to help deal with the problem. The segments cover most aspects of the issue: "Nature's Operating Instructions and Solutions," "Solutions We have Right Now," "Wonder of the World," "Our Reactions in the Face of Environmental Collapse," and "Religious Perspectives."
The extras conclude with seventeen scene selections but no chapter insert or chapter listing anywhere; English as the only spoken language; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. The disc case reads "packaging made with 100%-certified renewable resources." I think that means something like cardboard, which is what it seems to be, so the studio is doing its part to fight global warming, too, in its own small way.
Parting Shots:
As I've indicated, "The 11th Hour" has its heart in the right place but may be preaching to the choir. Most anyone interested in sitting through the ninety-two minute presentation will surely already know and believe in almost everything the movie has to offer. The question is how to grab those people who don't already understand the magnitude of the problem, and it's here that "The 11th Hour" finds tough sledding. The film offers up its subject matter in too dry and too grim a manner, mostly talk, and talk of dire doom and gloom at that. The initiate might find Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" more compelling, and the true believer might need something more profound than "The 11th Hour" provides.
For additional information on the consequences of global warming, the film suggests you go to 11thhourfilm.com, a Web site devoted to the subject.
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