|
A Crude Awakening: The
Oil Crash
Directed by: Basil Gilpke and Ray McCormack
Starring: The World
Genre:
Documentary
Run Time: 85
min.
Release Date:
March 2006
On The Web:
Official
Site
Teaser:
Movie Trailer
Reviewed by
Byron Merritt |
The most fascinating aspect
to A CRUDE AWAKENING is that the film was made not by some
left-wing conspiracy theorists with ties to Greenpeace or The
World Wildlife Fund, but by two Swiss directors, one (Gelpke) with a
background in anthropology, economics, war reporting, and science films,
and the other (McCormack) who holds an honors degree in Environmental
Policy and Management. These two men know how to make a documentary that
looks at both sides of our oil needs and industry while not knocking our
addictive behavior towards gasoline. It does lack a few aspects in the
end, but holds your attention enough to make the whole watchable.
The focus, as the title suggests, is on our crude oil dependency. We all
know oil won’t last forever, right? Right? Please tell me you know this.
If not, you really need to watch this film. It looks at the boom and
bust methodology used in early crude oil finds and how we naively
thought (up until the 1970s) that oil/gas would last forever.
The story slashes across socio-economic ground, taking in opinions from
specialists in the field to Senators and economists. All of them,
without exception, realize that oil isn’t going to last much longer. The
need to find alternative fuels that are (and here’s the key) affordable
is on.
The great thing is that these men and women talk about how vital oil and
natural gas is to our financial existence, simply because it is so
cheap. You just can’t find energy this affordable. Fuel cell technology,
hydrogen fuels, solar, and many other alternatives are discussed but are
exceptionally expensive to produce and market to the general population.
No doubt we have a lot of worries coming our way as carbon-based fuels
become more and more scarce.
The only lacking aspect in this documentary was that there’s very little
time given over to these alternative energy methods, and no experts on
said same. All of the information comes from experts in the gas industry
or those who monitor it. To truly round-out the program I would’ve liked
to have seen specialists in alternative car manufacturing and other
items that are undoubtedly headed our way.
Still, this is an insightful documentary to get your hands on. And one
to show your kids to get them on-the-ball about what they can do to help
decrease our oil addiction.
(back to top) |
Image from A Crude
Awakening: The Oil Crash
DVD cost: $26.99
Purchase:
Barnes and Noble
Film Review Stew
Favorite? No.
Stew Poo-Poo? No.
Newsworthy:
The film received a
"Wake-Up Call" award from the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride,
Colorado.
Movie Quote: "Oil
is a magnet for war."
Other Actors/Actresses
from A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash
   |
