Apocalypse now!

11th Hour is a call to action

NICK MACMAHON

Screaming fans will be back in the theaters this month, paying to be satisfied by eye-candy Leonardo DiCaprio many times over for the first time since that poorly designed raft sunk in the Atlantic. Instead of teenage girls stealing from daddy’s wallet to finance their celebrity obsession, granola-munchers will flock to Leo as he globe-trots promoting The 11th Hour. They won’t be impressed with his flat and forced narration on such a serious issue (he’s as interesting as a confident ninth-grader who takes the stage at a speech competition, complete with robotic gesticulations). Instead, tree huggers will be thanking him for giving his partying a break and sinking his teeth into an urgent matter, rather than crack-addicted supermodels.

The 11th Hour does what An Inconvenient Truth failed to do. It emphasizes why we should act and how we can go about doing it. This film focuses solely on the facts and we’re not bombarded with Leo’s face in every second frame even though he penned the script alongside Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen.

A good portion of The 11th Hour focuses on global warming. It doesn’t add much to Gore’s argument. Yes, the planet is warming up. Yes, if it keeps warming up, coastal cities will be wiped out, according to basic computer animation. Yes, if you have genius Stephen Hawking confirm this information with his sinister robotic voice, it is more effective. Although the film states that we’re causing it to some extent with carbon emissions, they still evaded the question that continually comes up as a point of contention in the global warming debate: by how much? The film doesn’t delve heavily into the science of how human pollution contributes to global warming, except for a quick flash of a diagram with colorful, squiggly arrows rising from the earth and a lot of chemical formulas that I should have memorized in grade 10.

The first half of the film zeroes in on the death and destruction caused by human apathy and greed, notably corporations and politicians who like breathing smog and a have a bizarre fetish for seagulls covered in oil with plastic rings choking them. If you’re having a panic attack by this point in the film, the second half will be sedate you, as it deals with alternative solutions to creating a sustainable economy. Suzuki, who stole many of the film’s best scenes, illustrated that the environment saves us trillions of dollars each year.

Asthma, according to the film, is increasing in the U.S.. Thirty per cent of children suffer from the disease. The film attributes it to increased pollution, without proving the linkage, a tendency of this film — slighting over issues.

If the film had fewer examples, but explored them in depth, I would have parked my mom’s car on an angle behind a gas-guzzling SUV and walked home with a proud smile on my face. Fortunately I’m kidding, as the film shies away from environmental extremism (no Greenpeace plugs) and encourages us to vote with our dollar. You can create the future. Also, remember to use those blue bins (I heard that paper is recyclable) and don’t pick up your dog’s shit — it’s great compost.