Now On DVD: Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, The 11th Hour

Photo Credit: Circuit City

by Freeman Montaque
04/09/2008

Coming just a year after the Academy Award-winning An Inconvenient Truth, last year’s globally aware documentary The 11th Hour played in just a few theatres before quietly making its debut on DVD this week. While it doesn’t pack as much of a punch as its more well-known predecessor, the film is still a documentary worthy of your time and consideration.

Three-time Academy Award nominee Leonardo DiCaprio narrates through a good portion of the film as several top professors and scientists explain in detail how we as humans have ravaged our planet. Time is of the essence, and we don’t have much of it, is the general consensus among those interviewed. By acting now, they suggest, we can offset a potentially catastrophic event.

Several things about the film work fairly well. One thing, and without question one of the most important aspects of any documentary, is the pacing. The camera never stays on one image or person for more than a few seconds, guiding your attention without losing you or boring you. The interviewees are among some of the most diverse I’ve seen in one documentary, which is not only beneficial in a cultural sense, but also in a global sense, showing how universal the issue at hand truly is.

As much as the film blames humans for the current state of the Earth, it also offers up a number of solutions. Some of these are long-term, high-scale suggestions, such as reducing income taxes and increasing energy taxes, and converting to alternative forms of energy. But some ideas are practical ones that could be seen as stepping stones toward solving the issue, like deciding not to buy or support certain products based on the potential harm they could cause the atmosphere.

The absolute best thing about the documentary is the imagery. Many of the shots you see help drive the issue home, such as when a few men are walking on an icy landscape as it begins to melt, or when inner city kids are seen running half-naked through garbage-filled areas. Aside from this, the moments captured on camera are gorgeously shot, even breathtaking at times. When you travel underwater with whales or schools of fish, or you see a swarm of butterflies crashing toward the camera lens, or when ocean waves jut out of the water and seem to swallow the sun, it’s hard not to watch with gaping eyes and an open jaw.

The one major flaw of the film is its mood. While we know the issue at hand is a major one, and you have several interviewees warn of little time, you don’t ever really get a sense of urgency or immediate danger. Maybe it’s because this is an instance where a powerful underscore will help drive our emotions, or when more animated persons would have been more effective. The message of the film is clear, and I admire the filmmakers for not manipulating us into feeling certain ways at certain times, but without any real energy exuding from a source, the interviews, and therefore, the film as a whole, feel somewhat
restrained.

The DVD bonus features are titled “The 11th Hour Solutions,” and they’re essentially five categories of deleted scenes. The last segment, entitled ‘Religious Perspectives,’ includes an interview with political activist Rabbi Michael Lerner. Here we find the kind of emotion and energy we could have used for the feature, so it’s a shame his segment wasn’t included in the actual film. In any event, at least we get to see it at all.

The film isn’t perfect, or altogether groundbreaking. And if you feel you got enough of an environmental lecture from last year’s winning doc, I can understand why you might be hesitant to give this a shot. But I think the camera work and the diverse perspective are reason enough to reconsider. If none of what I mentioned swayed you at all, I would still suggest buying the film, because doing so actually helps the cause. Since it is packaged with renewable resources, the DVD, even though it’s new, will only cost you around $5.00, and the proceeds go toward a web site devoted to combating global warming.

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