The 11th Hour (2007)

Don't Fear the Opposition; Use Them!

THE 11TH HOUR is a cautionary and doomsday documentary with a powerful line-up of intelligent men and women speaking to the destruction we as humans are doing to our planet Earth. Hosted by film star Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed) and with a stunning array of cross-cultural people backing up claims surrounding the terrible price of the human footprint on the globe (from Stephen Hawking to Michel Gorbachev and David Suzuki), the stories of doom and gloom will most likely make your hair stand on end.

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this documentary, let me say that I believe in human causes for global warming. And that we have polluted -- and continue to pollute -- this pale blue dot we call home. Governmental apathy and greed have played a huge role within this problem, but so has the greed of your average Joe with a 401k (ever look at where your money is invested? Which stocks? Is Chevron or Mobil or Shell in there?).

The 11th Hour lays out a great set of problems facing us as a planet, not as individual nations. But what it failed horribly on is showing us those that don't believe what is being said by the ecological community. Yes, they probably are backed by Big Oil. Yes, they probably aren't looking at the scientific data and only the emotions behind them. But I still would've liked to have seen SOMEONE (anyone) with a dissenting opinion so that the documentary had a better balance to it. I've complained about this before, and I don't think it is beneficial to those with a genuine concern for the planet to simply eliminate opposition. I say take them on! So what if they have more money than you. So what if they can bend the ear of every Senator and Congressman in Washington. Let's see their faces and let us know who they are. Those DVD watchers with even half an intellect will be able to sort through the details and understand what is being done and by whom. Don't fear the opposition. Use them to your advantage. Show how weak their arguments are and put them into the debate.

That being said, the study of Earth's problems (from globalization to the destruction of species and habitat) is a hoary one. The advancing issues aren't going to go away as we use more fossil fuels, pump out more babies (no population controls), and desire more "things" that we feel will make us somehow better than the Joneses ...until nothing of humanity remains. October 12, 2008

YOU have to watch this !!!

Everyone should watch this documentary, and think of the little actions we can all do to preserve our future. We are not trying to protect the Earth, WE need to protect ourselves from extinction !!! The Earth will be fine after us ... Remember that 99.9999% of the species that walked the Earth since its birth are extinct. We need the Earth, she doesn't need us. WE NEED TO ACT NOW !!!! WATCH IT, TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO WATCH IT. THE SOLUTIONS ARE RIGHT HERE, AND WE HAVE TO START RIGHT NOW. September 21, 2008

The 11th Hour review

I've purchased and watched three different videos on global warming: "An Inconvenient Truth", "The Great Warming" and "The 11th Hour". There are advantages and disadvantages to each. "An Inconvenient Truth" does a great job of presenting the science behind GW but is not well received by some due to the political image of the narrator. "The Great Warming" a Canadian documentary film, is a very comprehensive and well scripted presentation on GW suitable for all audiences. They have two versions tailored for churches, one for wildlife organizations and a general version. "The 11th Hour" is a hard hitting video. The first 2/3rds left me believing we are all screwed. The last segment demonstrated a lot of technological remedies to reduce GHGs but I wasn't left feeling hopeful. Everyone should see at least one of these. Maybe then we can convince our elected officials to take some action. July 14, 2008

More comprehensive and balanced than Gore's "AIT"

Much better and less biased than Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. First, in a wise decision, Di Caprio appearances in the documentary are limited as opposed to Gores's egocentric presentation, thus providing more neutrality for Trojans and Athenians audiences. Instead, the experts on each field are the ones presenting the issues and concerns. Second, and more important, Di Caprio went beyond the global warming domain, as the scope of the documentary also touches on several key issues regarding pollution and the environment that have been overshadowed during the last few years by the bombardment on man-made global warming. A nice touch was the brief presentation of the world famous scientist Stephen Hawking supporting the man-made theory of global warming, given more credibility to the cause. July 8, 2008

WAKE UP

Lets do something for our home. Yes our home! Great follow up to "An Inconvenient Truth" July 6, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...