Customer Reviews

The 11th Hour

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This is a wonderful and important documentary. The film is full of terrifying images and fascinating interviews from some great minds. But, luckily, it does not spend too much time making its case about our destruction. After getting the viewer sufficiently terrified, the film shifts its focus to the causes of the problem. The film also inspires viewers to go out and make a difference (and tells them how).

Of course, comparisons will be made to An Inconvenient Truth, so I'll cover that too: it's clear that this project was always intended to be a film; it didn't begin as a PowerPoint presentation. It also doesn't waste time with a biography of it's narrator. But, most importantly, it's got a better mix of fear and inspiration; DiCaprio's film made me want to change the world.

THIS IS NOT JUST ANOTHER GLOBAL WARMING FILM...so let's start there!
THIS IS NOT AL GORE,DEMOCRAT or REPUBLICAN...so let's say that!
THIS IS NOT A BASHING FILM...so there is no excuse for anyone to not see it!

Anyone who follows the current trends in weather patterns,global warming,greenhouse gases and has seen 2006's Oscar winning AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH will not be a stranger to a lot of the material presented in this expertly crafted semi-doc narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio.What sets this film apart from it's predecessor is that real concrete solutions are brought to us and a great deal of the film concerns itself with renewable energy possibilities that are quite encouraging and challenging.If you want to do something more than what you have already done, then this film is for you.If you are a skeptic,go see it anyway and maybe this time you might be convinced that something IS terribly array with The Earth.

Yes, I am as "green" as I have been able to be in the last year (which has done wonders for pocketbook and self esteem!). This film takes you even further. If the future life of this planet is of any concern to you, THE 11TH HOUR will give you hope and determination to do all that you can reasonably do in order to hold back the hands of time from striking 12!We are the generation that can do something great instead of the generation that sees our planet extinguish itself.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FILM.DO NOT MISS IT!5 STARS because it is a solid and excellently crafted film.(Forget it's DiCaprio if you don't care for him.This is not TITANIC...or is it?)

This film is leagues beyond the Al Gore film and does not have any politics riding it like a donkey either.

Is the planet warming? Yes. Is man the cause? Not 100% sure. Should we be way more responsible with the environment regardless? You better believe it!

This film is not just some scare tactic movie with charts and graphs guilting you into buying a hybrid car. This film brilliantly proposes a fundamental shift in humanities overall attitude and approach towards just about everything.

I could not help think of Star Trek and feel hopeful for our future provided we stop fighting, come together as one people and see ourselves as a single race of humans on a single planet rather than a bunch of disparate peoples arguing over semantics while inefficiency is the norm.

The future is now people. We can all change our ways almost effortlessly while saving ourselves money as well. Simple changes will collectively have a huge impact on the world and will send a powerful message to the business world that we want change for the better now.

I personally have a very small car and have switched my home to energy efficient light bulbs. I also now use my own bags in stores when I shop. This has saved me money with little expense up front.

No need to debate global warming. Making changes for the better is simply the right thing to do, and as stewards of this planet there is no time like the present.

Let me just give you some pros and cons, as that's what seems to work best in reviews for things like this:

Pro's:

1. Well written, well produced. This is a pretty slick presentation.
2. The running time is long enough to make a strong argument, but short enough to not put a casual viewer to sleep.
3. The soundtrack was gentle, austere and not too over-dramatic which would've obscured the telling of the narrative.
4. Leonardo DiCaprio, surprisingly, has a good voice for narration which isn't that bad to listen to, unlike other productions which can just turn a person away.
5. A lot of the diagrams, charts and animations are incredibly overwhelming and informative. This is a cleaner presentation than what was done in 'An Inconvenient Truth'.
6. The story presented flows well and is educational to anyone who hasn't yet heard any of this information.
7. $4.99 at Target was a fantastic price. Nice touch.

Con's:

1. The strong endorsement of Biofuels, which is now a dead issue makes this DVD Documentary outdated, antiquated and seemingly foolish to have released without editing out. This drastically cuts into the credibility of this Documentary and thus a lower Amazon star rating. Leo is more of a victim of early adoption than anything, which is forgivable, but not something to overlook.
2. Overpopulation is mentioned a few times in the documentary, just to make rebuttal to the other reviewers, but only briefly and in passing. Overpopulation is not something that was focused on, which probably should have been the opening segment. To be fair though, the subject of Overpopulation is not something that the media mentions a lot, so it's not a surprise that Leo would've also overlooked it, as he's more of follower with this production than a leader. And a populist rather than a modern thinker.
3. There are many shots of Leo standing around observing the scenery in different locations throughout the World, which is something Orson Welles was fond of doing in his footage, but it just comes across as 'Where's Waldo', instead of adding to the narrative.


There it is in a nutshell. Hopefully that helps. I was able to get through to the end, where I was greeted by Coldplay, but I doubt I'd watch it again. Maybe his next effort on this subject will be more carefully thought out, but equally crafted.

Do we have "all the time in the world"? We never do. The clock is ticking, and so live well. In this profound assemblage of sweeping themes and smart people, we are reminded how lovely, how lovable, how tragic and how complicated life is now on Planet Earth. "The 11th Hour" transcends the genre of environmental movie; it takes on LIFE as we know it. It is a collage, spliced together to great effect with a fantastic soundtrack, an homage to the globe as we know it today, in 2007. It may be the best human document of the year -- and even of the decade (we'll see). "The 11th Hour" brings together threads that in so many other works remain disparate. Here, the collective tapestry is compelling, tying together plants, animals, biodiversity, food, population, immigration, migrations of all sorts, global climate change, pollution, politics, religious strife, war, conflict, the human will and the human spirit and what it will take to counter these challenges, to reverse the tide of dangers we face.

The selection of talking heads is stellar, and there are 55 interviewees cited in the credits, ranging from Stephen Hawking to Paul Hawken to Jerry Mander to Paul Anderson to Hermann Daly to one of my ultimate environmental heroes, David Suzuki, who, in my mind, provided several of the most evocative moments in the film.

Perhaps the talking heads are not household names, but this is not a film of, by and for nerds. It may be of and by nerds, but it really is for anyone who loves the planet and is looking to connect with the best minds and the best innovations in which we may realistically base some hope for improving things soon and in the near future.

Not all is gloom and doom in "The 11th Hour." The last third of the film is filled with a vast array of innovations that we can get going with now. They come by at a fast clip, so much so that after seeing the film once just a few days ago, I was almost immediately ready to watch it again. And perhaps that is the best compliment for any film, and especially a documentary. Could you watch it again? Would you want to? I think thousands of viewers will give a resounding "YES" to both questions.

Surely, the added bonus features to be included on the DVD will add even more to the richness of the experience -- and the power of the messages, the insights and the WISDOM of "The 11th Hour."

Thanks to Leonardo diCaprio for producing the film, but alas, it is because of diCaprio that it loses one star. His periodic narration is journeyman quality at best, not stellar, and strangely, his segments are shot in nice outdoor locations but poorly lit with subpar sound quality. Perhaps a more compelling narrator would have strengthened the film even more. But that is a small quibble in the big scheme of things, and this is an important work about the biggest of all things, so don't let any quibble stop you from getting a copy of this film to share with family and friends who care enough to pay attention and perhaps even, when it comes to our greatest challenges, to act for the greater good of all people and life on Earth.

There are so many nasty comments about this before it even comes out, what kind of people want to attack ideas before they even know what they are?

I wanted to see this movie ever since I have seen the previews of it almost a year ago.

This movie follows in the format of the documentary "The Corporation" in that is has brief interview excerpts from lots of very bright people all talking about what humanity is doing to the Earth.

One focus in on temperature. Global Warming, Climate Change call it what you will, the concensus is explained to people in a way non-scientists can understand by scientists. One example is how the polar ice caps function to reflect some of the heat radiation from the Sun away from Earth out into space. As we warm the planet the polar ice caps melt and we lose this balance so that not only do we not reflect heat to space, we actually absorb more heat causing a positive feedback look. This system can push us past a tipping point from our nice comfortable zone of termperate stability into an unknown weather system that could conceivably take up to the extreme of our other to solar neighbors, Mars or Venus.

Another focus of this movie is human population which we all know is a problem. The problem is explored in terms of the net energy use by our species and the need to "mine" stored solar energy in the form of oil/coal since we surpassed the number of humans the Earth can comfortably support living on current solar energy the way we used to live in non-technological times.

Then some solutions are explored, and new terminology is explained. I have been familiar with these ideas and terms for a long time, but I was glad to see a well done popular explanation of them in documentary form that was not a political diatribe and in fact almost had a spiritual twist to it. Because that is what is going to be needed because as most scientists agree not only are we in the 11th hour, we are at the 59th minute of that hour and counting.

Humanity has to move fast, and it has to do something it has never done before and may not be capable of doing, and that is to change our nature and act like the intelligent creatures we purport to be rather than the unthining animals who foul their nests and destroy their habitat.

The movie is a powerful outcry to the passive behavior and disbelief that each of us can make a difference in saving our home, our planet, our children, and even maybe ourselves. We made changes to the climate almost to the point of no return. Only drastic change in our attitude, government policies, and actions can soften or slowly reverse these changes. The movie is a very vivid presentation of the above ideas. It has passion. It has life.

Thank you Leonardo diCaprio and all those involved in making this film and bringing it to the people's attention. I live in Alaska, the effects of our warming planet is before my eyes every day. The sink-holes here (created by melting perma frost) are getting bigger, big enough to swallow trees and small sheds. I pass two glaciers on my way to Anchorage every month; For the past 15 years the glaciers that use to be very close to the road have receded back about ½ mile. There is black mineral where glacial ice once stood; and for the past 10 years our politicians in Juneau have been telling people in Washington "there is no scientific evidence of global warming" (our Juneau politicians are in bed with the oil barrons) I ask you, does one need "scientific evidence" when the effects grow before our eyes daily? My fear has been that people outside (lower 48) would believe the politicians from Alaska. One of our city mayors is smarter than our politicians in Juneau; he invited some people from "outside" to come and see for themselves, the bare ground that has never been seen before. There are many more signs of too much warming. My Great Grandmother used to say "when there is no more land for them to take, they will take it away from their children." This film tells the truth about how the land is being stolen from the children. I was paying so much attention to the message that I did not notice the technical aspects of dialogue, staging, lighting, or any of that other stuff.

I'll keep this review short.

To be sure, the 11th hour was an interesting documentary of the effects of global warming. However, much of what was stated in the video was nothing new. One can get the same information after taking a geography course on global climate change. What is the most disapointing feature is that it did not discuss in greater detail the politics of ecological destruction and the politics of capitalist ventures that prevents the possibility of an alternative future. In fact, the 11th hour streamlined the environmental issue into a logical-positivist frame.

Finally, the solutions they offer to mitigate the ecological crisis is geared towards those who are privileged. Where is this in the video? I found it quite unfortunate that one of the biggest problems behind mobilizing the green revolution was not discussed--that the consolidation of power in the hands of the few prevents distributing the means for which mobilization can take place. The environmental problem likes to pretend that it is not a class issue, but nothing could be further from the truth. Proper education, affording organic products, making simple changes that reduce one's carbon foot print and so on are only available to those who have the time and money to do so. I think this discussion needs to be situated within a Marxist orientation so that the problem of environmental disaster is more contextualized.

I love this documentary. I've loaned it to many of my friends and family because I think it's so important to see. I highly recommend it.