Product Details

• Actors: Matty Simmons, Colin Campbell, Steve Andrews, Michael Ruppert, Michael T. Klare
• Directors: Gregory Greene
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Microcinema DVD
• DVD Release Date: November 27, 2007
• Run Time: 78 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 097369470X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,311 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Is the title alarms you, wait until you hear from experts who forecast an economic doomsday for America, and the world, unless the U.S. "addiction to oil" is curbed and transformed into a search for alternative forms of energy. Predicting nothing less than a complete upheaval of society's living habits just around the corner, this documentary warns that complacency guarantees a catastrophic future. 78 min. Soundtrack: English; audio commentary; bonus shorts "Destination Earth" (1956), "In the Suburbs" (1957).

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 77 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most important documentries you could watch July 13, 2005

By A. Curran

Format:DVD

Before I watched this documentry I never heard about 'Peak Oil' and it's implications for our future. I had bought into the common perception that most of us have that oil is resource that possibly may run out sometime in the future but long after my lifetime and my children's lifetime, and that before it does start running out some magical breakthrough will be made in alternative energy sources such as hydrogen fuel cells in time to save the day for our modern lifestyles. But this documentry shook the foundations of my perceptions. I was shocked by the reality that oil is a limited resource that will probably start running low within our lifetimes and also by the extent that our modern lifestyles depends on it. And what is almost more more disturbing is that I had to learn about it for the first time from this documentry - why is information of this importance and magnitude not in the headlines of our media? This is important information that everyone who is a consumer of oil/energy needs to know (that's most of us in this world with maybe the exception of a few of the remaining primitive tribes left in the world these days). For your own sake and the sake of your children you need to watch this documentry, you need to get all your friends to watch it. Only when the majority of us are aware of of this grave problem facing mankind will there be any chance of taking action to save us form the doom that this documentry predicts is in store for us. This is a gripping documentry that will change the way you think about the world we live in today.

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The end of the world as we know it? September 5, 2005

By Lleu Christopher

Format:DVD

This documentary raises a possibility with truly staggering implications --that the lifestyle Americans and other wealthy industrial nations have come to take for granted will soon come to an abrupt halt. The basic premise of the film is based on the theory that we have reached --or possibly passed-- the stage of "peak oil." That is, no matter how efficient we are or how many oil-rich nations we invade, there is simply not going to be enough oil in the near future to keep up with the ever-increasing demand. This, combined with an impending shortage of natural gas, which is required for electricity, means that some drastic and painful changes may soon be forced upon millions of people.

The End of Suburbia is definitely a film with a message. There is no attempt to present an opposing point of view here. I suppose interviewing an oil company spokesperson with a dissident opinion would not have added much value. There are, I believe, nonpartisan experts who do not agree with the peak oil theory, but interested viewers can do their own research, which is always a good idea. The film could be criticized for its mainly pessimistic slant, but this can hardly be avoided considering the topic! They do present some possible alternatives towards the end, such as the new urbanism movement, which seeks to create more livable cities in place of sprawl.

The experts interviewed in The End of Suburbia, such as Mike Ruppert and Jim Kunstler are articulate and convincing. Ruppert has a very informative web site where he gives updates on this and other important issues. The film handles its subject in an entertaining way, giving the history of American suburbia from the post-World War ll era to the present. The fact is, America has invested in and subsidized this automobile-centered way of life to the exclusion of all alternatives. The cost of this is something we may only be starting to realize. Ironically, I saw this film a week after gas in the U.S. went above $3/gallon, which would have been unthinkable a short time ago. This may be only the beginning.

The modern suburban landscape is, after all, fairly bizarre if we think about it and stop taking it for granted. Millions of people drive long distances every day, going from cardboard-cutout homes to office cubicles, Walmarts and gargantuan shopping centers. As The End of Suburbia points out, the suburb is an entirely artificial environment, neither city nor country and combining the worst of each. It is, perhaps, a good thing in the long run that its reign is most likely about to end.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Life-Changing Eye-Opener March 18, 2008

By Paul R. Edwards

Format:DVD

Life-Changing Eye-Opener, March 18, 2008
By Sarah Anne Edwards"

I am amazed there are so few reviews of this DVD. It was the feature at a conference I attended three years ago and watching it was an eye-opening, life-changing event. Yes, we knew about the drawbacks of sprawl and its effects on the environment. Yada, yada. What we didn't know about was that our entire "non-negotiable" American way of life is perched on, if not already tipping over, the edge of collapse in the not so distant future as a result of world-wide fossil fuel depletion, among other things. The implications of this well-documented DVD affect nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Every American needs to see this. Few if any will like it. Many will discount it. But hopefully most of us will wake-up and realize that we need to get real busy, real fast safeguarding our own personal circumstances and electing officials at all levels of government who recognize the impending crises we face and have the courage to take needed action to address it. Granted the DVD goes on a bit long on the same points and verges occasionally into unnecessary political commentary. But what is being laid out here bears repeating and is not a political issue. It is a survival issue. Over the past 3 years my husband and I have made many decisions about our careers, finances, lifestyle choices, and every one has been influenced by what we learned from watching this documentary. If only we'd seen it a couple of years earlier we wouldn't be trying to compensate now for decisions we made before we knew what was at stake.