Synopsis

Leonardo DiCaprio produces, writes and features on-screen in this documentary about the damage done, and continuing to be done, to the planet.

Rating: PG
Time: 93 minutes
Country: USA
Directors: Nadia Conners, Leila Conners Petersen
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Stephen Hawking, Kenny Asubel, Mikhail Gorbachev
Distributor: Roadshow
Worth: 3.5/5
Released: October 11

Review

For the most part, this film is profoundly depressing, and indeed terrifying. It could hardly have been otherwise: the possible imminent extinction of all life on this planet is not a prospect to gladden the heart. What we have here is a mass of compelling evidence from about 50 people - mostly scientists, and mostly "talking heads" - about the havoc we've wrought and how much worse it's expected to get, in the form of global warming, air pollution, sea pollution, extinction of species, soil degradation ... and it's all illustrated with graphic and appropriately horrifying footage.

The onscreen "anchorman" is Leonardo DiCaprio, who co-wrote the script and resists any temptation to dumb down or sentimentalise its message. The assembled experts start with the problem, contemplate the fundamental "thinking disorder" that makes us believe that we're separated from nature, and get steadily more specific and factual from there on in. They ask, "What are the forces that are blocking change?", and conclude that the biggest impediment is not so much public opinion as Big Money (e.g. oil companies) and the governments that do its bidding.

You might say that none of this comes as a blinding revelation, and nor do the various eco-friendly alternatives which are subsequently espoused. The makers of The 11th Hour may be preaching to the converted, and the unconverted may be impervious to anything that gets in the way of their short-term greed. Still, as a former CIA director (of all people) says, quoting Winston Churchill, "The Americans always do the right thing... but it's only after they've exhausted all the other possibilities."

The 11th Hour is an intelligent and well-constructed documentary on a (literally) burning issue.