a crude awakening

time to be environmentally responsible and see this film about the oil crisis
get the low-down on where it's at and what needs to be done
now obviously this is not any kind of feel-good, everyone lives happily ever after film
but i was prepared for that and settled on the only enjoyable part being the previews
there weren't any
not a good sign i'm thinking but oh well better go with it
the film is presented as a series of chapters each with a name
peak oil, can technology save us, etc
and the same experts kept popping up in each segment
university professors, politicians, government advisers, oil ministers
the other thing that kept popping up was old tv footage
car advertisments from the 1960's, black and while documentary footage
explaining how and when certain oil reserves were discovered
there's footage of the 1969 lunar landing
used to explain that the same foresight and drive from john f kennedy
to take american technology to enable that to happen
should have been in place a long time ago to get america off it's oil addiction
one of the experts had a very sobering outlook on the state of the situation
he suggested that compared to putting a man on the moon
america would have to have colonised pluto by now to have had the necessary drive
to have avoided the situation with peak oil that america now faces
he continued to say that no politician is ever going to suggest a radical change to our way of life
simply because it's not a message that anyone is going to vote for
hell, he said, i probably wouldn't vote for it
just about fell out my chair i did - thanks for the encouragement
at that point i decided this film is actually not very good
admittedly by then i was sick of the continual flashbacks
that occurred to me were there as the entertainment component
i was also feeling a little irate at the koyaanisqatsi and powaqqatsi image rip-offs
and the music had echoes of those films (philip glass was credited at the end)
the big climax also basically wrote off any alternative energy form as being significant
though showing it's american bias there was no mention of geo-thermal energy
in a positive note it did suggest nuclear was not the way to go
only because the world would run out of uranium in a decade
no mention of all the other scary considerations re nuclear energy
the little things like construction costs, risks, waste disposal, long-term effects, etc
china and india got a bashing for wanting to do the same as the western world
and the numbers mentioned there were admittedly overwhelming
the film ended quite suddenly
and i sat there for a while wondering what their intention was
all i could come up with was that actually it's just all too bad
too hard, too over-whelming, well even too boring
may as well just keep on partying
couldn't help but think the oil companies could have been behind this one
i wanted to come out of the theatre seething with a desire to get rid of the car
but instead i was wondering what was for dinner
seems the messenger let down the message
at least i walked to the theatre...