Reviewed by Neil Davey
Featuring Leonardo DiCaprio (narrator), Oren Lyons, David Suzuki,
Mikhail Gorbachev, Sylvia Earle, James Woolsey, David Orr,
Stephen Hawking, and many others...
Written by Leila Conners Petersen & Nadia Conners
Certification UK PG | US PG
Runtime 91 minutes
Directed by Leila Conners Petersen & Nadia Conners
On the assumption that our star rating is based on "essentialness" of viewing, the The 11th Hour is, undoubtedly, a 5-star film. It would be easy to knock the earnest nature of the subject — the impending ecological disaster that is Planet Earth — and many will no doubt poke fun at Leonardo DiCaprio's involvement in such a "hippie" project. We're not going to do that. We want people to see this film and to go home fired up, to campaign for changes, to try and ensure that the world powers get off their mollycoddled, oil-funded arses and do something about it. And if you even dare to think along the sneery lines of "What's the point if India and China are becoming industrialised?" you can sod right off. We need to lead by example. We need to take steps. Doing something is, clearly, better than doing nothing — and hopefully, after seeing this film, you will be inspired.
It's basically a more entertaining companion piece to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. The makers have assembled snippets of interviews with ecology experts and scientists to form a highly accessible but very pointed picture of how we've reached "the 11th hour": the last possible moment when change is possible. As one talking head explains, we're not at the 11th Hour. It's actually 11:59 and 59 seconds ... If it all sounds a little too tree-hugging / hemp-sandals-and-mung-beany, well many of the experts on hand aren't particularly fussed about the long-term problems for the planet. The planet, they argue, is resilient. Mankind isn't. The problem is if we, the humans, don't change, then we're not going to be around much longer as a species. We need to learn harmony with the Earth so that we survive. The planet predates us and will outlive us. The planet has all the time it needs. We don't. And if that doesn't wake people up, or fit neatly with the general selfishness of the population, then nothing will.
This is a very informative, well-paced film. Yes, you'll know some of the details but some of the angles explored and opinions presented were certainly new to me. It's not preachy — which probably gives it the edge over Gore's movie — but its evangelical zeal certainly convinces. And it's all done in terms that even the American president could understand...