“The 11" Hour” is Here
Movie Review

Aaron Read, OP Contributor

t

+. encyclopedia defines the
eleventh hour as “a figure of speech
referring to the last moments before
a deadline, or meant to imply that a
decisive or ‘final’ moment is near.”
Taking this into consideration while
entering a movie about our planet, I was
frightened. However upon watching
The 11" Hour | became captivated by
the tools used by its creators to reveal
the true meaning behind this figure of
speech. The film, written, financed and
hosted in part by Leonardo Dicaprio,
and directed by Nadia, and Leila
Conners, cleverly used a collage of
powerful images and an impressive
score to create a sincere and harsh tone
forthe whole film.

The 11 Hour features interviews
and contributions from over fifty of
the world’s most prominent thinkers
and activists. Scientific powerhouses
like Stephen Hawking and David
Suzuki established the film’s message
of anthropogenic environmental

‘ insight on the subject

deterioration, while world leaders like
Mikhail Gorbachev and Nobel Prize
winner Wangari Maathai lent the film
some political clout. The interviews
were all interesting,
if not necessarily in
the information being
delivered, then by the
variety in which they
came, from Suzuki’s
messages of hope
and opportunity to
Hawking’s raw truth
of our future. Each
message had purpose
and delivered a new

matter of global
warming.

While exciting,
the length and sheer
number of consecutive interviews
rushed the pace of the film, making
it hard to keep up with some of the
information. When the film slowed
down and allowed the dialogue to soak
in it was much more convincing and

“Tt’s not often that a
movie can convince
the viewer to
examine his or her
own lifestlye, ethics
and morals, but The
11" Hour did just
that.”

moving. Images of stagnant oceans,
forests transformed into deserts, and the
sick getting sicker forced me to question
why I didn’t know about these facts
already. I began to
recall my own days
of waste and reflect
upon then in the face
of the consequences.
It’s not often that a
movie can convince
the viewer to
examine his or her
own lifestlye, ethics
and morals, but
The 11 Hour did
just that. It wasn’t
just a two hour-
long PSA either; it
brought the effects
of global warming
to a personal place. As the shift from
fact to reality began to take place in the
interviews, so did my desire to change.
The movie and its message, much
like An Inconvenient Truth before it,
has not been without its critics. Close to

home, Dr. Patrick Moore, one of the co-
founders of Greenpeace, called the film
“another example of anti-forestry scare
tactics” in an article for the Vancouver
Sun. Moore also suggested that the film
“should be a good, clear reminder. for us
to put the science before the Hollywood
hype.”

Critics aside, the movie balanced
its chilling and urgent message with an
abundance of optimism. A number of
interesting solutions and alternatives
to our current way of life — including a
dance club powered by the movement .

' of those on the floor — reminded me

that our desire to change isn’t dead, its’
just buried under our obsession with
consumption. The 1/1 Hour forced me
to think. It brought realizations out of
me but it didn’t leave me scared, it left
me feeling determined. Conner and
Dicaprio’s film is as important as its
title. It is the eleventh hour, but it is also
the perfect time to show the world the
power of change.

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