Customer Reviews

After The Peak: the end of cheap oil

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This film takes on an important subject: What will happen when we reach peak oil production? What will happen when gas reaches $10 a gallon? Most of us only think about the oil crisis as it relates to our gas tanks. This film looks at gas aspect, but it hits home in many other ways as well.

I really liked the way the filmmakers chose to use a small community as the backdrop for this film. I think most of us are so used to looking only at the national picture that we never think about how this issue can affect almost every aspect of our lives. This film forces you to consider the other hardships that will be a result of the end of cheap oil. No more fruit from Coast Rica, no more coffee from Colombia, and maybe even no more beef from Montana. We won't be able afford to ship these items to the thousands of grocery stores around the country (and the world for that matter).

And don't forget about the fact that oil is in countless different non-gas related products that we use. The end of cheap oil is going to force major changes on us all.

Oil production is about to peak. It's only down from here. What are you going to do about it?

After the Peak attempts to be your local news broadcast at some time in the near future when it is clear that rising oil costs have seriously changed normal life in America. Although I am sympathetic to the message, I don't believe that this effort will provoke a serious reaction.

The initial sound quality is uneven, which was distracting. On-screen graphics aren't as good as you might see on local TV news. Guy Fox's immense hair made him a caricature. Worst of all, the studio sequences didn't feel like a TV news show. Local broadcasters would have a snappier cadence, more screen presence and would be more upbeat. This crew was almost somber and a bit preachy. Had they been written as mainstream newscasters slowly forced to report increasingly unsettling stories, the show might have been much more persuasive. There was a hint of that kind of revelation when Gail Sun interviewed Grocer Chris Morgan about possible food shortages.

The news team actors were much better doing their "taped" interviews and most of the characters being interviewed were convincing in their roles. Motorist 2 gesticulated more than I'd expect. Ahmed Hasani stumbled over his lines. School Superintendent Karl Peterson was very believable.

A very clever piece. I believe it was created and produced well before the current $4-per-gallon climate, so the scenarios in the film don't seem at all hyperbolic. Of course the topic is somewhat somber, but I have to say, there was some subtle humor as well: the newscaster's overdone, overmoussed hair, for one thing, had me giggling more than once.

The worldwide oil situation is going to require some major lifestyle changes for all of us, to be sure.

An interesting movie, which unfortunately spares the viewer from any but the first consequences of peak oil. Gas shortages will be but the beginning; food shortages, the end of the aircraft and motor industries will follow. The accompanying massive unemployment will almost certainly lead to a social tensions as people look for scapegoats for the failure of the American Dream. A more honest portrayal of the consequences of peak oil is to be found in the books "The Party's Over" by Richard Heinberg and "The Long Descent", by John Michael Greer.