We cannot drill our way out of this oil crisis. Since 2000, oil companies working in the U.S. have doubled the number of wells drilled per year.
Although increased drilling has added new oil to the nation's supply, it has not done so fast enough to offset the terminal decline of existing fields.
We are going to have to import more of our oil. Period.
Joined: Dec 28, 2005 Posts: 294 Location: Toronto, Ontario
Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 11:02 pm Post subject: Oil Crash Movie Review
I just got back from seeing Oil Crash Movie here in Toronto, and overall I'd give it 7/10.
The movie covered a broader spectrum of PO doomerosity than End of Suburbia, with some of those interviewed claiming solutions could be found and others laying bare a much bleaker worst case scenario than was presented in EoS. It didn't go into anywhere near the same depth of analysis as EoS in terms of presenting the likely effects of the progression of PO over the short and long term. The impression given was that everything will be pretty much normal until we hit the peak, then within a matter of a few years we'll find ourselves living a pre-industrial age lifestyle.
The visuals were far better than those in EoS. The scenes contrasting the optimism and affluence of Texas, part of Venezuala and particularly Azerbaijan in the early 1900s with the depleted, abandoned and rusting state of the infrastructure that remains today were particularly effective. I never knew that Baku was at one time one of the most affluent cities in the world- the opposite is clearly the case today. These scenes were included early on and shocked the predominantly pseudo-intellectual audience into actually taking the rest of the film seriously.
The film took on the effect that China and India will have in more detailed analysis than did EoS, though I don't think many in the audience fathomed the sheer amount of resources those nations will devour with the exponential function, or that they will be competing with them for what oil remains.
The film finally went through the same EoS analysis of discrediting all the alternatives that will supposedly save the day. The producers interviewed a lot of unversity professors to provide strong backing for their assertions, rather than merely relying on Matt Simmons assertions, as EoS did. All the professors clearly indicated that some of these could be viable alternatives with a HUGE amount of further research and investment (20+ years).
What was annoying was the insertion of clips from the 50s or 60s in between every segment of the film. I think everyone understood after the 4th one that back then people thought the US would continualy increase its oil production, and everything would be hunky dory.
The film interviewed a number of the usual suspects, such as Matt Simmons and Colin Campbell. Matt Savinar from lifeaftertheoilcrash website was very heavily featured, however, a statement that he made; that he wouldn't vote for a party that would try to power down the US economy really discredits him in my mind. An eq-Iraqi oil minister and an Azerbaijani official were also featured. Roscoe Bartlett, Republican congressman for Maryland was surprisingly PO aware, and appears quite the doomer, conceding that he's aware of the carrying capacity concept and the possibility of a large post PO die-off!
I don't see this film having much of an effect honestly. Anyone with any intellect and curiosity would be able to connect the dots by this point and would have found out about PO on their own. In the Q and A session after, the producers said they felt their film was distinguishd from EofS in that EoS was an 'activist' film, whereas they were trying to create mainstream awareness. I was disappointed to hear most in the audience talking about SUVs being the real problem as they were leaving, or that alternatives would actually save the day. I truly think it will take something shocking for the reality of PO to sink in with 99+% of the population. Since the frequency of hearing of a particular concept seems of greater significance than reasoned analysis for the majority of individuals in accepting that concept, this film will at least add to the growing chorus of outlets using the term of PO.
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 4:37 am Post subject: Re: Oil Crash Movie Review
Quote:
These scenes were included early on and shocked the predominantly pseudo-intellectual audience into actually taking the rest of the film seriously.
Just to confirm what you mean: how were they "pseudo-intellectual"? What types of people?
When you say, "into actually taking the rest of the film seriously," are you implying that it shouldn't be taken seriously, or that the producers were successful in pulling it off?
Nice review, by the way. _________________ "By the time individuals discover that remaining resources will not be adequate for the next generation, the next generation has already been born. " David Price
Joined: Dec 28, 2005 Posts: 294 Location: Toronto, Ontario
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:40 am Post subject: Re: Oil Crash Movie Review
Quote:
Just to confirm what you mean: how were they "pseudo-intellectual"? What types of people?
When you say, "into actually taking the rest of the film seriously," are you implying that it shouldn't be taken seriously, or that the producers were successful in pulling it off?
The Cinema that showed the film is renowned for its independent movies and is in an avante garde area of Toronto, The Annex. By 'pseudo-intellectual' I mean the sort of people who want to be seen to be into everything alternative and independent but whose interest is mainly superficial; to show how trendy they are.
My mention of shocking the audience into taking the film seriously was meant to credit the producers with being successful in pulling it off. I'm sure a significant percentage of the audience probably went in thinking this was some outlandish whacko theory being presented to them. The contrasting scenes of Azerbaijan brought home the geological reality to them, and removed some of the skepticism.
The producers said after the show that they plan on showing the film in independent theaters in a few other places (Dubai amongst others), and are eventually hoping to get it into mainstream cinemas in the US, although they conceded that they're at least a year away from that. If it does get into mainstream cinemas that would be massive... I'm sure all the vested interests will do their best to avoid that happening. So, unfortunately, it will be a very long time before the movie becomes available on DVD
For anyone going to the May 4th showing, get there early. It was sold out 10 minutes before start time and the HotDocs cinema is bloody big!
Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 12:11 am Post subject: Re: Oil Crash Movie Review
auscanman wrote:
I just got back from seeing Oil Crash Movie here in Toronto, and overall I'd give it 7/10.
I truly think it will take something shocking for the reality of PO to sink in with 99+% of the population. of PO.
Do you really want this to happen? What do you think the consequences would be if the average person understood these issues?
Joined: Nov 01, 2005 Posts: 763 Location: Euro high horse bastard on the run
Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 6:11 am Post subject: Re: Oil Crash Movie Review
Matt with due respect even most of the nastiest revolutions in history took off only with a few percent of the population concerned about the issue.
So if I may relate it to particular situation in Europe, first there could be longer strikes and blocades by truckers and farmes, next year some fires in the streets as the average city guy starts to feel the uncertainities, then some full blown massive revolts/riots, and finally populists/dictators rise to power etc.. One could say a classic timeline..
Obviously, the governments are not always that stupid, they called it damage control, so perhaps in their mind is better to create chaos than wait for the forthcomming natural meltdown. And we know the top brass knows about PO and its implications.
That correlates with the concept maintained by by the peaknik-911truthers who believe the recent surge of "terrorism" is of synthetic nature designed to smooth the transition into innitially covertly opressive state machinery, whereby you declare wars or ration food and energy in the end state quite easily to obidient and scared public..
If you look around, that's what is happening right now.. _________________ DOOMerotron: at all-time high [8.1] out of 10..
Joined: Jun 28, 2005 Posts: 498 Location: The Netherlands
Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 4:13 pm Post subject: Re: Oil Crash Movie Review
Mesuge wrote:
That correlates with the concept maintained by by the peaknik-911truthers who believe the recent surge of "terrorism" is of synthetic nature designed to smooth the transition into innitially covertly opressive state machinery, whereby you declare wars or ration food and energy in the end state quite easily to obidient and scared public..
If you look around, that's what is happening right now..
You mean, like peakoil.com actually being a bushite puppet front?
I wasn't aware I was working for the CIA, but yeah, it does explain those strange unaccounted for swashes of money, landing in my bank account, ever since I started news editing. _________________ The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.
Joined: Nov 01, 2005 Posts: 763 Location: Euro high horse bastard on the run
Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 4:53 pm Post subject: Re: Oil Crash Movie Review
waegari wrote:
You mean, like peakoil.com actually being a bushite puppet front?
I wasn't aware I was working for the CIA, but yeah, it does explain those strange unaccounted for swashes of money, landing in my bank account, ever since I started news editing.
? No, it's more like:
9/11 hoax => easier post PO full scale police state implementation _________________ DOOMerotron: at all-time high [8.1] out of 10..
Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 2:13 am Post subject: Re: Oil Crash Movie Review
It seems that the documentary is only being released to the film festivales and not a general limited engagement. Is anyone aware of a general North American release? I have sent Lava Productions a email some time ago concerning general release or dvd release and have not heard anything back... anyone? anyone?
Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 4:42 pm Post subject: I saw this last night at AFI Fest in LA.
This movie was presented at the Arclight in Hollywood under the title: A Crude Awakening - Oil Crash. It was not in competition for awards, but there was a good crowd, not sold out but about 70-70% full. I would say this documentary is comparable to The End of Suburbia and in some ways better in the information it presents. Comparable in that there was a lot of the same 50's documentary and cartoon footage used and presented with a similar dry ironic tone. One of the things I really enjoyed in the presentation was that rather than rely strictly on talking heads to explain Hubbert's life and theories, the filmmakers dug up TV footage from 1975 where M. King Hubbert was explaining his ideas. They even included subtitles as it was difficult to hear what he was saying at times. Regarding those talking heads, Simmons and Colin Campbell were in their usual good form. The surprise for me was seeing Matt Savinar from lifeaftertheoilcrash.net being interviewed. He is really funny, in a dry morbid way. Someone was comparing the crash program needed to address Peak Oil as comparable to Kennedy's call to put a man on the moon by the end of the Sixties. Savinar snorted and said the Peak Oil situation is comparable to Kennedy calling for the world to colonize Pluto by the end of the Sixties.
Funny thing about the screening was that the sound broke down with about 5 minutes left. They stopped the film, saying they needed a couple minutes to fix a speaker connection before they could restart the film. While they worked on that, the moderator asked the audience if they had seen The End of Suburbia. I would say that easily 75% of the audience responded affirmatively. Then we watched the final 5 minutes, which I can say are not nearly as optimistic as the last 5 minutes of The End of Suburbia. The filmmakers were available for Q & A after the screening, so I asked them if they were familiar with the Hirsch Report and if they were aware of any international research into what it would take to conduct a crash program on an international level. They responded that they had the Hirsch Report linked to their website, but that they thought the possibility of a worldwide crash program was unlikely.
In a final analysis, while this may technically be the best documentary on Peak Oil to date, it might not be the best for introducing Peak Oil to the uninitiated. Not because of its pessimistic outlook, I would say these filmmakers actually have a sobering analysis of what is reasonable to expect. But I think The End of Suburbia takes more time in really spelling out the nuts and bolts of Peak Oil. A Crude Awakening explains it all, but while you're watching the horrifying images of oil provinces gone to decay while listening to a haunting Philip Glass score, some of the finer details being relayed through voiceover might get lost unless you're really listening.
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