A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash

While the theme of this documentary is important, it offers nothing in the way of information or insight into our oil problems that couldn't be earned from a few minutes of reading or searching around the Internet. A great deal of time is spent trying to fuel fear - we use oil for a great number of things, and we'll sure be sorry when it's gone. The film gives a brief and scattered history of oil productions; a limited look at the relationship between oil, politics, and war; and a fruitless, half-assed introduction to energy alternatives. The handful of interviewees throw out endless statistics and numbers - but their point remains uncertain. In the end it is a propaganda film with an obvious goal of frightening people more than educating them - but, while it repetitively asserts a dire need to brace ourselves for the impending oil crash and the problems it will bring, it seems to suggest that there would be no problem if the world's oil supply was limitless; there is no mention of the environmental implications of burning fossil fuels and the fact that we need to readjust our consumptive lifestyles and restricted thinking regardless of how much oil exists. A better film would focus on the possibilities for alternative energy rather than trying to insight paranoia and panic.

Um?
2 out of 5
Buy this film: A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash

Plot: 2
Imagery: 2
Originality: 2
Soundtrack: 2
Overall: 2