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
• Rating: 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 (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000PY52IG
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #16,152 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #5 in	Movies & TV > Documentary > Series & Studios > Docurama > Science & Technology
  #5 in	Movies & TV > Documentary > Series & Studios > Docurama > Politics

• For more information about "A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While the previous eco-doc Who Killed the Electric Car? spent some time on the world's oil crisis, A Crude Awakening (formerly OilCrash) builds an entire film around the subject. Swiss journalist Basil Gelpke and Irish filmmaker Ray McCormack have constructed their narrative in a conventional manner, alternating between talking heads, archival footage, and modern-day material, but the addition of several pieces by Phillip Glass is an artful touch (and evokes his work on 1988's The Thin Blue Line). Throughout, a diverse array of experts from the U.S., Azerbaijan, Venezuela, and other countries explain how the 20th century became addicted to "the blood of the dinosaurs," and why contemporary society needs to change course. As attorney/activist Matthew David Savinar puts it, "Oil is our God." As Stanford professor Terry Lynn Karl adds, "More and more oil is going to come from less and less stable places...places that actually challenge the taking of oil in the first place." One of the more chilling revelations concerns the discrepancy between the reserves oil-producing nations claim they possess and the actual amount. These padded estimates allow them to drill with impunity, leading to an abundance of wealth in the short term and cataclysmic consequences once they've depleted their supply of this non-renewable resource. A Crude Awakening isn't exactly a day-brightener, but Gelpke and McCormack are comprehensive and impartial in their inquiry, which makes for an informative examination of a vitally important subject. Extras include extended interviews with four participants and bonus chapter Petrostates. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 49 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 (REAL NAME)

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!

20 of 21 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

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.

50 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Like Snorting Cocaine: It's Addictive, July 5, 2007

By	B. Merritt "filmreviewstew.com" (WWW.FILMREVIEWSTEW.COM, Pacific Grove, California United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The most fascinating aspect to A CRUDE AWAKENING is that the film was made not by some left-wing conspiracy theorists with ties to Greenpeace or The World Wildlife Fund, but by two Swiss directors, one (Gelpke) with a background in anthropology, economics, war reporting, and science films, and the other (McCormack) who holds an honors degree in Environmental Policy and Management. These two men know how to make a documentary that looks at both sides of our oil needs and industry while not knocking our addictive behavior towards gasoline. It does lack a few aspects in the end, but holds your attention enough to make the whole watchable.

The focus, as the title suggests, is on our crude oil dependency. We all know oil won't last forever, right? Right? Please tell me you know this. If not, you really need to watch this film. It looks at the boom and bust methodology used in early crude oil finds and how we naively thought (up until the 1970s) that oil/gas would last forever.

The story slashes across socio-economic ground, taking in opinions from specialists in the field to Senators and economists. All of them, without exception, realize that oil isn't going to last much longer. The need to find alternative fuels that are (and here's the key) affordable is on.

The great thing is that these men and women talk about how vital oil and natural gas is to our financial existence, simply because it is so cheap. You just can't find energy this affordable. Fuel cell technology, hydrogen fuels, solar, and many other alternatives are discussed but are exceptionally expensive to produce and market to the general population. No doubt we have a lot of worries coming our way as carbon-based fuels become more and more scarce.

The only lacking aspect in this documentary was that there's very little time given over to these alternative energy methods, and no experts on said same. All of the information comes from experts in the gas industry or those who monitor it. To truly round-out the program I would've liked to have seen specialists in alternative car manufacturing and other items that are undoubtedly headed our way.

Still, this is an insightful documentary to get your hands on. And one to show your kids to get them on-the-ball about what they can do to help decrease our oil addiction.