"11th Hour" and My Space

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Leonardo DiCaprio's My Space page has just posted a video message about The 11th Hour (Warner Independent, 8.17), which he produced, co-wrote and served as one of the principal talking heads. Sound words, riveting message, and a film that definitely said it all but didn't quite have that schwing when I saw it last May.

I don't know if the trio behind The 11th Hour -- DiCaprio and co-directors Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen -- have followed the suggestions I posted after seeing it at the Cannes Film Festival. Good and worthy as it is, I said it needed more in the way of personality and warmth and meditative passages.

"There's no argument at all from this corner about the alarming things it says (and shows) about what amounts to a kind of mass global suicide," I wrote, "but it's a movie, and the fact is that it doesn't breathe and engage the way a piece like this should. After 20 minutes or so it makes you feel like you're being hammered. It needs to pull back and relax and...I don't know, throw in some jokes or something. A little more heart and soul and meditation.

11th Hour "has exactly one laugh moment -- a quote from Winston Churchill that says Americans "always do the right thing...unfortunately they only do the right thing after exhausting every last wrong possibility." Or words to that effect.

"I hate saying this about a film I respect and that I want people to absorb for the content alone, but you can't expect well-honed information and slam-bang visuals alone to do the trick. A movie needs to generate human warmth and aroma...some kind of emotional connection that really sinks in. As it is now, The 11th Hour is too dry and didactic, and it doesn't even try to generate the amiable personality that An Inconvenient Truth had by way of the reborn Al Gore."

I'm just saying this in order to help. It would be an excellent thing if everyone (and I mean everyone) saw this film and then sat down and thought hard about where to go and what to do.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 9, 2007 at 12:50 PM

comment #1

NYCBusybody says ...

Didn't having a bunch of corporate rockstars spewing CO2 into the atmosphere as they jetted in for the horrific, poorly received Lame Earth already kill off all this nonsense?

Posted by NYCBusybody at July 9, 2007 1:26 PM

comment #2

OddDuck says ...

No.

Posted by OddDuck at July 9, 2007 1:42 PM

comment #3

gruver1 says ...

Wells to NYC Busybody: "All this nonsense"? It's the attitude of serious morons like yourself that is paving the way for global ruin and calamity more than any other single factor. The trailer slogan says "you are the solution." And I am telling you straight from the shoulder that you, NYC Busybody, are the PROBLEM. You and your arrogant scumbag brothers in guzzling and despoilation, I mean.

Posted by gruver1 at July 9, 2007 2:12 PM

comment #4

renorambler says ...

I'm sure it's just easier to heckle leaders, icons, and entertainers for speaking out about a problem in our world then actually looking in the mirror and seeing that WE are part of the problem. If we wait for these "leaders" to be 100% "pure" as environmentalists or as arbiters of morality before we allow them to speak out on an issue then where will we be? I dare say that the thousands of people who took the pledge this last weekend to be a little more responsible about their carbon footprint can make more of a difference in this world than a few rockstars. But if those rockstars can help nudge the public conciousness a little bit I'm all for it. Sitting cynically on the sidelines making snide comments only makes you part of the problem.

Posted by renorambler at July 9, 2007 3:23 PM

comment #5

OddDuck says ...

NYCBusybody is definitely part of many problems.

Posted by OddDuck at July 9, 2007 3:46 PM

comment #6

Stephe96 says ...

Live Earth tanked huge. Thank God most rational people aren't eagerly gulping down the 'Global Warming' Kool-Aid. If if makes you guys happy to be terrified that the world is about to end, feel free. But please...no preaching, OK? These 'True Believers' are worse than ANY religious zealot I have ever met. In their minds there is no argument, no room for debate. They simply KNOW the end is nigh and that THEY are the only ones who know the Truth! You can see in their eyes that they've given up all semblance of rational thought on the issue. And a couple of rocket scientists like Al Gore and Leo DiCaprio are your prophets? Please.

Oh, and don't bother insulting me. I understand I'm a heretic and going straight to hell. I've accepted it, thanks.

Posted by Stephe96 at July 9, 2007 6:05 PM

comment #7

Stephe96 says ...

One more thing:

"As it is now, The 11th Hour is too dry and didactic, and it doesn't even try to generate the amiable personality that An Inconvenient Truth had by way of the reborn Al Gore."

In other words, Leo managed, against all odds, to be more boring than Al Gore. Wow.

Posted by Stephe96 at July 9, 2007 6:08 PM

comment #8

NYCBusybody says ...

But you idiots don't seem to get the point: if rockstars THEMSELVES are not willing to live how we need to live to save the earth, the question is then why do we expect normal people to do so?

Let's take Cameron Diaz - on stage and Lame Earth, she suggested people take communal showers to save water. Does anyone REALLY believe that Leo DiCaprio or Cameron Diaz will take communal showers? And if they won't, why do we think anyone else will be motivated to, especially people who don't care as much?

And why should we expect people to take mass transit over large areas when elites aren't willing to sacrifice and not fly? Why are we suggesting that people make sacrifices when NO ONE who says we should actually does? I'm not attacking them for not sacrificing, I'm pointing out that no one is REALLY motivated to stop living lives of Western consumption, ESPECIALLY rockstars.

Wells, taken any communal showers with the proletariat recently?

Posted by NYCBusybody at July 9, 2007 7:32 PM

comment #9

Ogami Itto says ...

"A movie needs to generate human warmth and aroma...some kind of emotional connection that really sinks in."

I know that when I think of "human warmth and aroma" two words immediately spring to my mind:

Al Gore.

Please. Gore's about as amiable as an animatronic puppet. Someone charismatic like Bill Clinton should be narrating and presenting these documentaries, not humorless blandroids like Gore and DiCaprio.

A shame Bill's too busy chasing pussy and campaigning for his "wife" to concern himself with such things, because I think he could actually have a positive impact on environmental issues.

Posted by Ogami Itto at July 9, 2007 7:51 PM

comment #10

BurmaShave says ...

As long as there are real world problems to fight like HIV/AIDs, Malaria, Dysentery and many of the other diseases that kill thousands of people every day, this Global Warming movement is a disgrace. Do you know how much clean drinking water you could buy with the amount SPENT on Live Earth on Saturday, much less the pittance it raised? Until we solve the real crisises, I don't care how many fucking Polar Bears drown.

People Come First.

Posted by BurmaShave at July 10, 2007 3:18 AM

comment #11

SaveFarris says ...

I dare say that the thousands of people who took the pledge this last weekend to be a little more responsible about their carbon footprint can make more of a difference in this world than a few rockstars.

I don't. The amount of carbon Snoop Dogg burned while flying over to Germany is more than I will use in 10 years. Now multiply that by 200 other acts and presenters.

Posted by SaveFarris at July 10, 2007 6:58 AM

comment #12

OddDuck says ...

Raising awareness and changing public opinion could eventually lead to more environmentally friendly government policies in this country and elsewhere, which in turn would positvely affect our overall carbon footprint in ways far larger than a million of Snoop Dogg's transatlantic flights.

To say the global warming movement is a disgrace is borderline looney. One can have problems with the approach taken by some of its proponents, but get real here. Global warming has the potential to negatively affect the poorest of the world in ways that make their current conditions look like suburban living.

Posted by OddDuck at July 10, 2007 7:37 AM

comment #13

SaveFarris says ...

"Raising Awareness"?!? C'mon now, you're smarter than that. Show me ONE person who isn't "aware" of the issue. Many people may disagree with the severity of the issue and/or the methods to combat it, but you'll be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't at least heard about global warming. There's been a nonstop bombardment on the issue since at least 1989. (Time's "Planet of the Year")

Posted by SaveFarris at July 10, 2007 9:46 AM

comment #14

Krumly says ...

On a lighter note: Did you hear the way Leo said his name? I've only ever heard it pronounced Lee-oh-nard-oh -- four syllables. He said it more like "Leonard" with an "o" on the end, like Leh-nard-oh -- three syllables. Have we all gotten it wrong all these years?

Posted by Krumly at July 10, 2007 11:02 AM

comment #15