Director - Nadia Connors, Leila Connors Petersen

Writer - Nadia Connors, Leonardo DiCaprio

Starring - Leonardo DiCaprio (Narrator),
(Rest as themselves) Kenny Ausubel, Thom Hartmann, Wangari Maathai, Stephen Hawking

Review:

The state of the world that we live in is something that we all need to take notice of. Just ignoring it and going on the way we’re used to is and will continue to cause virtually irreparable damage to our planet. That’s the ultimate message that The 11th Hour tries to and successfully gets across. It may be a given that the subject matter is an important one but the film is a big reminder and a huge kick up the butt for those ignorant and apathetic human beings out there.

The film gives an in-depth look at the state of the global environment including visionary and practical solutions to restoring the planet’s ecosystems.

Produced and narrated by none other than Leonardo DiCaprio, and containing some very intellectual insights by some of the world’s top men when it comes to this subject, The 11th Hour is clearly a film to be taken notice of. I am quite surprised that it hasn’t been making bigger waves in the film community. Al Gore’s documentary of a few years ago, the aptly titled An Inconvenient Truth, made a big splash when it was released and I am fairly shocked that The 11th Hour isn’t replicating that. In many ways it is better than the mentioned film, certainly as far as involvement goes. Let’s face it, Gore’s film was basically just about a PowerPoint presentation for 90 minutes (although kudos for making that work) whereas The 11th Hour has so much thought and attention to detail that it becomes another experience entirely.

As I said the attention to detail was fantastic in the film. There are so many images of the earth, and the state that it’s in around the entire world, that the brain barely has time to take it all in. This could be seen a s a weakness but personally I found the amount of information was set at the right volume.

At the same time as the film being filled with amazing and impacting images it is also one of those “talking-heads” kind of documentaries. There is a problem with that concept in general if the subject the film is taking a look at isn’t completely interesting and affective to the masses. In those cases the film will become boring before the first hour is up and loss of interest will hit the highest point possible. Needles to say The 11th Hour looks at what is probably the single most relevant and most important subjects today and therefore the film keeps you watching, interested and extremely involved until the final credits roll.

The host of intelligent people (including one Stephen Hawking) that they got to appear in the film were impressive. The film skilfully intersperses their insightful knowledge and input with the impacting images and video footage.

It’s nice to see an actor like Leonardo DiCaprio take an active interest in the subject of global warming. It shows that not all famous celebrities are just interested in money, fast cars and big houses (not naming any names of course). Some are acting appropriately in doing something about this mess that we have gotten ourselves into and although it may not be the most radical of attempts this still shows that they are interested in things other than their own lives.

I may have been affected so much by what the film had to say that I have praised it as highly as I have rather than thinking about the actual film itself and how it’s made. It’s not the perfect documentary, as far as how it’s been put together, but it’s not clunky and hap-hazardly done in any way either. It looks slick and polished; if nothing else it’s a fantastic film to look at.

The 11th Hour is an impressive documentary indeed; well made, informative, involving and very impacting it certainly deserves a hell of a lot more attention and praise than it has been getting up until now. The people talking within the film are interesting and they give us shocking information about the state of our planet. It may not be the world’s greatest documentary but it certainly gets across the world’s most important message.

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