Review of The 11th Hour (2007) by Hardy H — 06 May 2010

Leonardo DiCaprio hosts â??The 11th Hour,â?? a documentary released in 2007 about the state of our Earthâ??s health. I saw this film when it was released, but now three years later Iâ??m writing a review about it because I got to wondering how much of the â??factsâ?? are true or will be in the near future.

DiCaprio presents his argument for humankind to change their ways over a 95 minute period. During this time he hosts multiple interviews with professors and ecologists as well as other experts in the field. This film echoes Al Goreâ??s Oscar winning planetary documentary, â??An Inconvenient Truthâ?? about global warming. DiCaprioâ??s primary aim is to alert and educate Earthâ??s population to the harm it is causing its lifeline. Fortunately for this documentary it is smart enough to know it shouldnâ??t just point the finger and say, â??look what youâ??ve done Republican scum,â?? it provides solid suggestions for change so that humanityâ??s footprint on Earth is reduced. For this reason, the film is very easy to watch. Complaining gets us nowhere.

DiCaprio provides plenty of evidence (be it fact or fiction) for his argument and his narration is placed against a backdrop of many different kinds of scenery: city as well as wilderness. To help his point along, DiCaprio employs the use of some computer generated images to reflect what he and others believes will happen to the Earth if humans do not change their ways. The documentary is also very well written and easy to follow; it is written in a way so eco-dummies can keep up with the rest of the class.

Who knows the premise of the South Park episode entitled, â??Smug?â?? For anyone who doesnâ??t watch the show or otherwise has not seen the episode the idea is as follows: Kyleâ??s parents move the family to San Francisco for a better quality of life. Stan misses his friend Kyle and writes a song about how people need to change their ways, clean up the environment and drive hybrid vehicles. Stan performs this task in order to show Kyleâ??s parents the people of South Park can be just as ahead of the curve as the environmentally conscious people of San Fran and thus will move back to South Park. While the song does not yield the results Stan had hoped, it is a partial victory in that it convinces the people of South Park to begin driving hybrid vehicles. The awful backlash of all of these people driving hybrids is the drivers become unbelievably smug. Yes, theyâ??re driving cleaner cars, however, is the cost of treating other people like crap because they donâ??t drive hybrids truly worth the effort for a cleaner environment?

I bring this episode of South Park into the light because the same douche bag attitude the people of South Park carry around all day is the same attitude a lot of the people involved with the documentary carry around. Countless times during interviews the interviewees get a certain sense of scum bag about them. They speak in high and mighty ways which ostensibly could be written off as simply being informative to the audience. However, with a closer look it appears to me theyâ??re saying, â??Iâ??m better than you because Iâ??m educated about global warmingâ?¦and did I mention my house is made from recycled Chinese newspapers?â??

Iâ??ll be the first to admit I love DiCaprioâ??s work. However, even he is guilty of acting like a pompous twat. During one segment, a press conference, DiCaprio lists a myriad of things he has done to help the environment: his house is â??green,â?? heâ??s been driving hybrid cars for six years, he is friends with Al Gore who introduced him to the problems at hand more than a decade before â??The 11th Hourâ?? was produced. My question is, â??why should I care?â?? The fact that DiCaprio is friends with powerful people doesnâ??t affect me. I donâ??t care if he and his friends drive the Prius. Though I donâ??t personally buy into the global warming hubbub Iâ??d be lying if I said the documentary isnâ??t well done. As always, judge for yourself.