Though Fruitlessly Sold By Leonardo DiCaprio, ‘The 11th Hour’ is Expertly Influential

CHICAGO – While the environment is a bitterly divisive topic with people of all politics often worlds apart, there’s one thing we can all agree on: Our world is changing.

As for the questions of by what, to what degree and what to do about it, we have dissertations of theories. What we need to impel real understanding and change, though, isn’t the opinion of the average Joe or Jane. We need expert testimony.


Leonardo DiCaprio in “The 11th Hour”.
Photo courtesy of IMDb
That’s what “The 11th Hour,” which opens on Aug. 24 in Chicago, delivers. Finally.

The film’s power is its objective, authoritative and expert declarations. Its message isn’t delivered by a politician (though I still enjoyed “The Inconvenient Truth” and do buy into Al Gore’s good heart on the subject) and its story isn’t told by actors.

Well, for the most part. My main criticism of this well-intentioned film is the selection of Leonardo DiCaprio as its mouthpiece.

DiCaprio, whose good intentions stem from his well-known passion for the environment, muddies the message because you know he’s acting. “The 11th Hour” would have been much improved had the narrator been one of the experts.


Co-directors Leila Conners Petersen (left) and Nadia Conners in “The 11th Hour”.
Photo courtesy of IMDb
Nonetheless, “The 11th Hour” is unique in that it aggressively portrays our past, present and potentially dire future according to the planet’s most brilliant minds on all facets of the global charge.

Scientists, mathematicians, oceanographers, economists along with experts on animals, ice – you name it – even band together with Stephen Hawking (accepted by many to be the most brilliant human alive today) to help get it lodged into our naïve skulls that the Earth is a living, breathing organism.

As humans, we’re the cancer making it sick, the film says. Just as it purged dinosaurs, cleansed itself and started fresh, the film says so could it – will it – again unless this generation makes major strides to reverse a wide array of destructive trends.

While so many people live indifferently to this topic and claim statements such as “The 11th Hour” are simply made as loud scare tactics, so emerges a global stampede of people who care, who want to understand and who are invoking change one lightbulb at a time.


Leonardo DiCaprio in “The 11th Hour”.
Photo courtesy of IMDb
I’ve never considered myself an environmentalist – and I still don’t – but I most certainly am a tenant of this planet. As a tenant with the Earth as my landlord, there are responsibilities.

If nothing else, this film is yet another piercingly loud wake-up call that’s playing a valiant part in a much bigger picture.

While it’s not necessarily your responsibility to educate yourself by watching this particular portrayal, it is your blessing and burden to stop, think and make some globe-shifting choices.

By Adam Fendelman
Publisher
HollywoodChicago.com

© 2007 Adam Fendelman, HollywoodChicago.com