The 11th Hour
We live in dire times, as evidenced by the extraordinarily vivid warnings rampant throughout many of the most widely seen recent documentaries. And none – not Michael Moore’s recent works nor An Inconvenient Truth – has been quite so geared towards inspiring terror as The 11th Hour, which literally suggests the end of the world to be nigh if the many environmental problems we face aren’t solved. On the surface this seems a bit alarmist, even if the film does end with the usual hokey talking head users guide for changing the situation, but through various methods, and with the asset of some compelling footage, filmmakers Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen convincingly make their case.
The movie, narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, touches on global warming but doesn’t stop there. It is, in fact, a primer on the various natural catastrophes poised to envelop our planet. These include soil erosion, deforestation and species extinction, not to mention the diminution of our oceans. To highlight these problems the filmmakers incorporate serious, stern pronouncements by various experts, ominous footage of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina and other recent tumultuous activity, a fair share of facts and heaps of political outrage. There’s also the distracting spectacle of DiCaprio conveying his narration by directly addressing the camera while strolling through various landscapes.
The whole “11th hour” gimmick, which implies that we have collectively reached the edge of the environmental point of no return, seems a tad hyperbolic to me, as one would think our world leaders would act with far more urgency were we really teetering so precariously on the brink of disaster. Yet, the filmmakers and their band of talking heads, including everyone from Stephen Hawking to Mikhail Gorbachev, make several frightening assertions and generally support them with enough data. So it is possible to approach what they’re saying without the usual dose of skepticism. Also, the co-directors further drive their ideas home with several effectively incorporated graphics, like one that fades the space on a map taken up by trees one century ago into that occupied at present, after a century of widespread logging.
The picture also resonates because of the dark tone, which posits the dilemmas facing our planet as the stuff of movie horror. As the filmmakers meld terrifying, up close images of major storms and floods with the serious, uncompromised admonitions of the assembled experts the resultant effect is akin to that provided by such big-budget, weather-gone-amok spectacles as The Day After Tomorrow, sans the typically dopey dialogue and B-movie acting. It’s all very ominous and depressing, which is precisely the intended effect.
If The 11th Hour gets the fearful atmosphere right, it does fall victim to some structural deficiencies. The final, tacked on bit of rah-rah, you can make a difference posturing goes on too long and the picture relies a bit too heavily on its impressive assemblage of authorities. From a human standpoint, there’s nothing quite so engaging as Al Gore’s educational quest, and the movie often loses focus amidst its exploration of the wide range of topics. Yet there are unquestionably big problems afoot and the filmmakers understand a crucial, inconvenient truth: Sometimes you’ve got to scare people to wake them up.
© 2007 Robert Levin. All rights reserved.
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