Product Details

• Actors: Wade Adams, Abdul Samad Al-Awadi
• Directors: Ray McCormack, Basil Gelpke, Reto Caduff
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: DOCURAMA
• DVD Release Date: July 31, 2007
• Run Time: 85 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000PY52IG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,400 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

An unforgettable and shocking wake-up call, A CRUDE AWAKENING offers the rock-solid argument that the era of cheap oil is in the past. Relentless and clear-eyed, this intensively-researched film drills deep into the uncomfortable realities of a world that is both addicted to fossil fuels and blissfully unaware of the looming "peak oil" crisis. Drawing on an international cast of maverick energy experts and thinkers, directors Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack debunk the conventional wisdom that oil production will continue to climb, and instead stare bleakly at a planet facing economic meltdown and conflict over its most valuable resource. Featuring a haunting score by Phillip Glass and a fascinating array of rare archival footage, the film explores oil's rocky relationship with human progress in locales ranging from ancient Baku, Azerbaijan to dusty oilpatch town McCamey, Texas.  Amidst a dark and disturbing vision of our future, A CRUDE AWAKENING hints at a humbler way of life built around sustainability and alternative energy, providing a visually stunning, boldly prophetic testament which provokes not just thought but action.

Q&A with Basil Gelpke

1. What inspired you to make this film?

I thought it was the most underreported burning issue at the time when we embarked on the project back in 2005.

2. What kind of response have you encountered from audiences who’ve seen it?

We’ve got a lot of feedback: Either people would deny our conclusion or they would see the film as an eye-opener.

3. What, if anything, do you think has changed since you made the film about the oil situation?

The current financial crisis has lowered the overall consumption but it’s interesting to see that not very much as oil consumption is so vital to our societies. While demand goes down in the US it’s still increasing in places like China.

4. Do you feel that the high price of gas last year and the current economic crisis has changed our oil addiction?

Yes, and I think there’s a growing consensus that we have to change our dependence on imported energy and now there’s a remarkable push to look for alternative sources of energy.

5. How much do you think things have changed now that there is a new administration in the White House?

The Obama administration is definitely very aware of the issue and they have taken lots of promising steps to change our addiction to oil and fossil fuels in general. Whether they’ll be successful remains to be seen but it’s certainly going into the right direction.

6. Can you discuss your decision to use animation and archival footage that sings the praises of oil?

It seemed a good way to show how perceptions change over time and how we’re all conditioned by history.

7. The score by Philip Glass is remarkable. What made you choose him for the film?

Yes, we love his work too!

8. Faced with the alarming future shown in the film, what, if any, is your hope for curing our addiction to oil?

There’s always hope. However, I strongly believe that when the financial crisis has subsided there will be a next crisis caused by nature: The dwindling resources of the planet simply can’t satisfy the ever increasing demand arising from a growing population. So over time we’ll have to rethink our way of life.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This film should be mandatory viewing in colleges & high schools, August 3, 2007

By 

David A. Marks "norcalidave" (Paradise, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash (DVD)

I've bought and read most of the major "peak oil" books that have been published the last few years, and so I didn't expect that much from this film when I ordered it using my Neflix subscription (now I'm buying a copy here on Amazon, for a mere $19.99).

Boy, was I ever surprised when I viewed it today! This documentary is so well done, that I really feel it should be required viewing in all high schools and colleges, and I wish everyone in this country could in fact see it.

Virtually all of the major energy experts, most of whom have written books on Peak Oil, are interviewed in this film, with a multitude of scores of video clips from the past and present, including an interview from the 1970's, with M. King Hubbert (the originator of Hubbert's Peak).

This film shows the power of video documentaries, when they are produced with style, creativity and true expertise. Just about every conceivable concept related to the world's energy use, past, present and future, along with great comments regarding the various alternative possibilities (solar, wind, nuclear, hydrogen, etc.), are illustrated here.

Five stars without any doubt!

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars POWERFUL AND COMPELLING, May 25, 2007

By 

Mark "a longtime record buyer" (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash (DVD)

Stark and sobering but refreshingly intelligent...

Oil is depicted as a "miracle elixir" -- an incredibly efficient energy source so cheap it has transformed human civilization, and makes it possible for us to sustain a global population of 6.5 billion people (and projected to reach ten billion this century).

Yet in the big picture the "oil age" will be remembered as a mere 200-300 year "blip" in human history - a brief orgy of cheap energy.

Much is made of discovering more reserves and expanded production, but these are being absorbed by huge new markets in Asia and Africa and so merely accelerate our dash toward depletion.

This is a limited commodity and when gone we are unlikely to have a good replacement.

Alternate energy sources lack oil's cheap abundance and efficiency. If we convert to nuclear on a global scale, in addition to hazards of waste disposal, we will shortly deplete the earth's uranium. Solar and wind power are simply inadequate to the task of replacing petroleum. Hydrogen and ethanol are expensive and require petroleum to produce. And so it goes...

There is surprisingly little political agenda here, as there seems no obvious solution to the crisis. It is suggested we might "soften" the shock of oil depletion by immediate serious (not token) efforts at conversion to alternate energies. This may help "ease" us out of the oil age -- but at present is too expensive for most people, and the political will is near non-existent on the scale needed.

It is predicted that the immediate future will see increasingly violent military struggles for control of diminishing reserves. The history of warfare is much older than oil, so oil does not "cause war" as the film states - but it seems likely wars will be fought over it (as in Iraq).

The next prediction is darker still -- a cataclysmic implosion of the world's six to ten billion population.

Think about it... Most people today are concentrated in vast urban areas which produce no food and little water. These must be shipped in 24/7 via truck, rail, and air on a massive scale. When that becomes economically unfeasible, a few local farmer's markets will not fix it. Starvation, disease, and local militias could run rampant until populations are reduced to economically sustainable local levels. The film does not state this is how the world will depopulate but it seems an obvious scenario.

The film fails to predict a seemingly obvious positive side to all this -- a new oil-free world should help with the global warming.

Bottom line:

The world as we know it is a brief unsustainable period of cheap energy. True or not? This film makes a thought-provoking case... well worth seeing.

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most important films of the decade., August 12, 2007

By 

Preston C. Enright (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash (DVD)

This outstanding documentary has won many awards, and has been called "possibly the most important film of the decade." Although, there are several other documentaries of the past few years that should be required viewing.
As a film, "A Crude Awakening" is brilliantly crafted. The cinematography and the music are moving. While the message of the film is of utmost importance. For years, environmentalists have been advocating for a more sustainable energy system. In this film, they have their concerns and goals validated by Republican representatives like Roscoe Bartlett, several energy industry investors, and the former head of the CIA - James Woolsey. While "Earth First" and the CIA may seem like strange bedfellows, there appears to be a shared interest in avoiding an amplified global catastrophe that is pulling them in similar directions. I say "amplified" because in many ways, there is already a catastrophe related to oil going on - the megadeath in Iraq, the propping up of dictators, the oil production waste sites in Nigeria and Ecuador, and much else.
As disconcerting as this film is, there are hopeful developments. Documentaries like The Power Of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil and the recently released film "The 11th Hour" point towards the ways in which global society can transition from the oil economy. Journals like Plenty Magazine and Sustainable Industries Journal also help people to avoid being neutralized by despair, and also provide entrepreneurs and investors all sorts of leads as to where money can be made in the "next industrial revolution." Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
But, this transition will face a lot of opposition by extremely wealthy entrenched interests that have designed society to addict the world to their products. Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives
and Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back
These are perilous times; but if people discover their power as consumers, investors, citizen advocates, conversationalists, socially responsible entrepreneurs, organic farmers/gardeners and so forth, we can make our way towards a world that would be not only sustainable, but a lot more fun. This film is an excellent tool to begin that process.