The 11th Hour (2007)

Leonardo DiCaprio narrates a documentary about the human destruction of the global environment. It looks at the entire history of human exploitation of the world's resources, its devastating effects and possible solutions. It concentrates on global warming with a large scattering of every scary environmental fears.There are way too many talking heads. Some faces are recognizable but most of them are unknown environmental scientists or writers. The scope of the movie is so vast that it becomes a laundry list of everything. For environmentalists, this is preaching to the choir. For opponents, this is a slick propaganda throwing everything into the stew presented by Hollywood. For those in between, it doesn't really convince but it summarizes. This is a repeat of 'An Inconvenient Truth' and then piles on everything else. There is just more stuff. I don't see this as anything new or convincing anybody not already convinced. There are so many issues being touched on that I think most independent viewers would throw up their hands and give up long before the end.

I was glad to see that this documentary covered just about every major environmental problem, including overpopulation, which is often left out of such presentations; it gets treated as somehow unavoidable.This film was themed like a number of Peak Oil documentaries that show the collision between human excess and natural systems, and repeatedly point out that attitudes need to change.Despite the usual hopeful pleas, you get a sinking feeling that not much is going to change because the momentum of economic growthism and consumerism is too strong. I see little reason for optimism when observing the shopaholic drones around me. I can see this triggering standard denial mechanisms among right-wingers who cling to religious dogma and dominion attitudes toward nature, which the film constantly dispels. I'm sure they think DiCaprio is just another Hollywood "elitist" with the luxury of having a good life while "honest working stiffs" just want to be left alone to pilfer nature and bring home a paycheck (the usual tunnel-visioned attitude).I wish some of the talking heads had singled out those types for criticism instead of dwelling on a few rotten politicians and corporate entities. Not all corporations are mindless. There are just certain people throughout history who've never respected nature. Those are the ones who need the biggest attitude adjustment (or maybe an intelligence pill).Still, I liked the overall coverage of issues. I would recommend this as a primer for those who (somehow) aren't aware of what people are doing to their only means of life-support.

This movie is an excellent documentary about the current state of our planet and the direction mankind is heading. I feel very strongly about environmental issues and have developed some sensitivity and understanding of the topics covered in the movie.The persons interviewed in the movie have a profound understanding of what they are talking about. The movie is very intelligently made and visualized.People who at least feel sympathy towards environmental issues will find this movie to be highly interesting and enlightening. On the other hand I think the movie is to intellectual and complex to introduce the covered topics to environmental newbies who I guess could find the movie dull due to a lack of understanding.

I went into The 11th Hour expecting a straightforward, didactic documentary summarizing the current threats from global warming. If not for a momentary interest on the subject, I would have probably passed it up altogether. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was extremely nuanced, being an insightful and scientific investigation on mankind's role in global warming.Rather than spurting out random facts and events (like most documentaries), The 11th Hour uses a wide range of viewpoints to build a conceptual foundation that explains the general scientific impression of global warming. Some of the ideas may end up being wrong, but all of them are at least plausible. The different speakers include Paul Hawken, Wangari Maathai, Mikhail Gorbachev, and (my favorite) Stephen Hawking. There are many different ideas communicated, but they are all based on the same underlying principle. The structure of the documentary is very dialog heavy, which can feel overwhelming at times but is guaranteed to bring forth new knowledge to viewers.The main ideas are nothing new for most people educated on environmental news, but the speakers submit some profound new ways of looking at them. A common theme was relating Earth's existence to the human civilization's existence. If we continue to progress global warming, the planet might be able to heal itself eventually, but only once humans are gone. One thing I found especially interesting was the consideration of the economic value of nature, which ended up being roughly two times greater than the world's industrial wealth.My only significant complaint is that the film is often rough in style, organization, and editing. The images sometimes feel out of place or even distracting from the message. Occasionally, the images rapidly jump between completely different environments, which can be hard to process. To be sure, most of the cinematography was excellent, but it just wasn't put together in the best way. Overall, it could have been more focused.The 11th Hour is an insightful and inspiring documentary on one of the most important topics to date. It provides a balanced and comprehensive conceptual overview on the human role in global warming, but also expects viewers to take this knowledge out of the theater and implement it into their own lives. It is extremely educational experience.