Movies on Global Warming to Save the Planet
An Inconvenient Truth, A Civil Action, The 11th Hour, E. Brockovich
Feb 12, 2009
The buzzwords continue to be green, sustainable, eco, and renewable. In Hollywood, there have been powerful green movies too, when it comes to looking after the welfare of our environment. They have served as eye-openers to the sustainability of planet Earth.
Here are films that focuses on global warming prevention, as well as global warming solutions.
A Civil Action (1999)
Director: Steven Zaillian. Starring John Travolta as John Schlichtmann
A Civil Action is about two companies being sued by families of children who died for dumping toxic waste. This is not that easy to prove. John Travolta plays the lead role as Jan Schlichtmann, a tenacious civil litigation lawyer. He has a ten-year long case against a corporation in a water pollution dispute brought about by small-town citizens. Schlichtmann is called in by a group of families. While investigating the case, he finds it to be a major environmental issue with a strong potential impact. A leather production company could be responsible for several deadly cases of leukemia, but the conflict arises as it is also the main employer of the area. Schlichtmann and his colleagues set out to have the company forced to decontaminate the affected areas. In all this, Schlichtmann and his friends battle to save their own skins. Justice has its price.
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Director: Steven Soderbergh. Starring Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich
Erin Brockovich won Julia Roberts an Oscar for best actress, another 26 wins & 42 nominations for this film.
An unemployed single mother, Brockovich becomes a legal assistant. Based on a true story, Erin Brockovich is a modern day file clerk in a law office. Desperate for a job to support herself and her three children, the feisty young mother convinces attorney Ed Masry to hire her, and promptly stumbles upon a monumental law case against a giant corporation. Now Erin Brockovich is determined to take on this powerful adversary even though no law firm has dared to do it before. While Masry doesn't want anything to do with the case, Brockovich won't take no for an answer. She sues the electric company almost single-handedly and brings it down by accusing it of polluting it's city's water supply. The two, Brockovich and Masry, begin an incredible and sometimes funny fight that will bring a small town to its feet, and a corporate company to its knees.
An Inconvenient Truth (2006) with Al Gore
Director: Davis Guggenheim. Casting Al Gore as himself
Won 2 Oscars for 2007 Documentary Feature and Best Original Song, other 21 wins & five nominations.
An Inconvenient Truth is a global warming documentary providing a portrait of former US vice-president as he takes a ride with his global warming show entourage about what he calls "planetary emergency" in which he calls on all citizens of the world to take heed before it's too late. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, humankind has about ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send the entire planet's climate system into an epic destruction involving extreme weather, droughts, floods, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything ever experienced – a catastrophe of our doing. What's thoughtful is that Gore interspersed his own personal journey: from an idealistic college student who first saw a massive environment crisis looming to a young Senator facing a family tragedy that changed his perspective; to the man who almost became President. Instead, he returns to his most impassioned life-cause, which is, to convince humankind that there's still time to make a difference. It is engaging and entertaining, but with frightening realizations. The documentary leaves audience to draw their own conclusions rather than to be preached.
The 11th Hour (2007) Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio
Directors: Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio
The 11th Hour is another documentary about global warming similar to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. It provides a bleak picture of humanity in an awful mess. Issues such as deforestation, depletion of the oceans' habitats and extinction of mass species are all addressed. The film argues that it's in the final minutes of the 11th hour, the very last moment at which humankind can act to save the planet. The frightening scenario is written with numerous speakers drumming up what the planet will become if nothing is done about it! Array of celebrities include authors, scientists, and environmental leaders, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Stephen Hawking, and more. The film calls for a restorative action as a potential solution by reshaping and rethinking of human activity mainly through technology, conservation and social responsibility. The 11th Hour is an insightful look into what our world might become, down to our own lives, if we don't take action fast. This documentary provides a more serious presentation and less humor, but still a significant documentary.
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The actual films
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