Riveting, Terrifying Documentary on Climate Change, #BeforeTheFlood "Review"
Even if you subscribe to the view that a problem isn’t a problem until a Hollywood celebrity tells you it is, “Before the Flood” feels out of phase. It’s a documentary in which Leonardo DiCaprio sounds the alarm about global warming, something that could not possibly have escaped anyone’s attention in recent years and is at this point probably beyond discussion,
Either you think climate change is real or you don’t, and the battle lines aren’t likely to be shifted by an earnest movie star.
The film, by Fisher Stevens, follows the usual bearing-witness template of the celebrity-with-a-message genre. Mr. DiCaprio, acting in his capacity as a designated United Nations Messenger of Peace, visits melting ice fields, flies over a bleak petroleum landscape, pats an Indonesian elephant, and so on. But anyone who has paused even briefly on a nature or science program on television has seen such images repeatedly, often with faces just as famous as Mr. DiCaprio’s.
This film promises early on to set itself apart by detailing specific things individuals can do to mitigate the environmental damage, but those suggestions end up being disappointingly few. Carnivores should eat less beef and more chicken, we’re told, because raising cattle damages the planet more than raising chickens does. Stop buying products that use palm oil (whose production degrades rain forests), if you can figure out which those are. Stop electing climate-change deniers.
And yes, those things might help incrementally. Yet they come after Mr. DiCaprio’s globe-hopping has pinned the problem on corporate and political interests that seem vast and entrenched. The film wants to spur individual changes in behavior, but there’s a fair amount in it that might discourage you from even trying.
Overall
While the movie documents many gloomy and depressing aspects of climate change—like pollution in China, sea level rise in Florida and on low-lying Pacific islands, the climate denial industry in the U.S. and the failure of the U.S. to lead on the climate change issue—the movie shows there is a lot of optimism that we can avoid a fate like depicted in “The Garden of Earthly Delights”.
One of the more hopeful moments comes during DiCaprio’s interview with Tesla founder Elon Musk, who is building the world’s second largest building—a lithium-ion battery “Gigafactory” near Reno, Nevada. Musk estimates that 100 such factories would be enough to power the entire world.
DiCaprio, who admits to a profound pessimism about climate change several times during the movie, brightens, as he and Musk use the word “manageable!” to describe the issue of powering the world with renewable energy.
For every use of #BeforeTheFlood across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram between October 24 – November 18, 21st Century Fox and National Geographic will together donate $1 to Pristine Seas and $1 to the Wildlife Conservation Society, up to $50,000 to each organization.
About Before the Flood:
Before the Flood, directed by Fisher Stevens, captures a three-year personal journey alongside Academy Award-winning actor and U.N. Messenger of Peace Leonardo DiCaprio as he interviews individuals from every facet of society in both developing and developed nations who provide unique, impassioned and pragmatic views on what must be done today and in the future to prevent catastrophic disruption of life on our planet
While the movie documents many gloomy and depressing aspects of climate change—like pollution in China, sea level rise in Florida and on low-lying Pacific islands, the climate denial industry in the U.S. and the failure of the U.S. to lead on the climate change issue—the movie shows there is a lot of optimism that we can avoid a fate like depicted in “The Garden of Earthly Delights”.
One of the more hopeful moments comes during DiCaprio’s interview with Tesla founder Elon Musk, who is building the world’s second largest building—a lithium-ion battery “Gigafactory” near Reno, Nevada. Musk estimates that 100 such factories would be enough to power the entire world.
DiCaprio, who admits to a profound pessimism about climate change several times during the movie, brightens, as he and Musk use the word “manageable!” to describe the issue of powering the world with renewable energy.
DiCaprio gets the science of climate change right in “Before the Flood”, and addresses pretty much all the key issues—an impressive feat for a non-scientist. The only major dings I give against the movie—it is, after all, a documentary—is that it has no real plot, not much action, and runs a little long at 96 minutes. Nevertheless, I highly recommend checking out “Before the Flood”, and give it three stars out of four.Act Now #BeforeTheFlood:
For every use of #BeforeTheFlood across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram between October 24 – November 18, 21st Century Fox and National Geographic will together donate $1 to Pristine Seas and $1 to the Wildlife Conservation Society, up to $50,000 to each organization.
About Before the Flood:
Before the Flood, directed by Fisher Stevens, captures a three-year personal journey alongside Academy Award-winning actor and U.N. Messenger of Peace Leonardo DiCaprio as he interviews individuals from every facet of society in both developing and developed nations who provide unique, impassioned and pragmatic views on what must be done today and in the future to prevent catastrophic disruption of life on our planet
