The Journal

Issue date: 9/6/07 Section: Lifestyle

Director Leonardo DiCaprio films "The 11th Hour," a Warner Independent Pictures release.

Leave it to America, a place where it is never too late to unite for a good cause, to rally behind the rich and famous when dealing with such a vital issue as the self-destructive path we have traveled for nearly three centuries. Producing and narrating his contemplative "The 11th Hour," actor Leonardo DiCaprio has joined the likes of former Vice President Al Gore and many others in fostering one such ecological movement for this generation.

Beginning with the current polluted state of earth and the human race, dozens of esteemed professors, anthropologists, entrepreneurs, architects and others make their case for why a pivotal change in global thinking is necessary to sustain consumers' comfortable ways of life.

Anybody who has taken a history class knows how the Industrial Revolution transformed how things are done within a functioning society. In fact, we still go on with our lives not thinking twice about how this period switched our thinking from raising our own food and making our own tools to relying on a supposedly infinite supply of natural resources to be used for mass production in factories.

It is this way of thinking Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev and others believe trapped us in the current unstable period of global warming and wasting. A former corporate executive, Ray Anderson, believes time is running out for us to quit denying the obvious impact our lavish lifestyles have created. Being at the top of the food chain, we are the ones who are at the most risk if we do not act soon.

In the movie, first-time filmmakers Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Peterson show their novice skills, following DiCaprio's inspiration. They gather dozens of stunning nature videos and interviews of experts including Gorbachev, Stephen Hawking and many others, switching from talking head, to a shot of a volcano erupting, to another speaker, to yet another ocean wave splashing ashore. At times, it becomes difficult to concentrate on only one subject at, and it seems a split screen technique would have consolidated things better for the filmmakers.

Another vital aspect in the film's approach is the constant musical score underlying literally every second of footage. At times eerie, and at others obnoxiously bombastic and monumental, the soundtrack reveals that the filmmakers were going straight for the viewers' hearts with their dire message.

The final portion of the film refreshingly focuses less on preaching about where we humans have failed in our industrial rise to the throne, and more on the ways we can still save ourselves, our ways of life and the natural beauty that surrounds us.

An elongated PSA-like plea for universal awareness, "The 11th Hour" will do moderately well at the box-office, making less of an initial impact than its counterpart "An Inconvenient Truth." The reasons for this may be simple denial, or that the American psyche is so glued to the one-man-show type of production (i.e. Michael Moore) that it is simply not ready to accept the kaleidoscope of other brains in this world ready to make change a reality. It could be that the subject of this film is better suited for the small screen and has too broad a scope for people to focus on anything palpable or revolutionary.

"The 11th Hour" is currently playing at Landmark's Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools