A Crude Awakening – The Oil Crash
what?The news, according to this well-made, frightening documentary, is by no means good: not only are Western economies bound inextricably to a rapidly diminishing global oil supply - one which has made us dependent on some very nasty regimes in some very unstable parts of the world - but those very suppliers might have seriously overestimated their own reserves. So when will the crash come? And what will its effects be? This well-researched, slickly assembled documentary provides some of the answers - though you won't exactly be cheered by its findings. Balancing superb found-footage from educational films of yesteryear - sunny 1950s shorts promising endless oil and a paradise on Earth – with the dire warnings of contemporary scientists and political experts, this is one of the essential titles of the year.
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A Crude Awakening – The Oil Crash (12A)
Director:Basil Gelpke, Ray McCormackYear:2006
Duration:83 mins
Review by Alison Rowat © The HeraldForm an orderly queue to see an economic horror story that will have you digging out old videos of The Good Life for survival tips. The premise of Gelpke and McCormack's documentary is brutally simple: the black gold, source of as much human misery as advancement in the past 150 years, is running out and no-one has a clue what comes next. It's not just the usual suspects saying this, though they make an appearance, but a Republican congressman, geologists and economists. Some fear oil production has peaked, and with India and China on the march, the shortages can only grow worse. A compelling film, but don't expect a lot to be said on Scotland - which features in a blink and you'll miss it cameo - or hear much advanced in the way of solutions to a problem that isn't going to go away any time soon.
Review by Andy Dougan © The Evening TimesIronically this film finds itself released at the same cinema - the GFT - in the same week as In the Shadow of the Moon.
The Apollo documentary tells of our soaring ambition while this hard-hitting polemic tells the story of a runaway folly.
Swiss film maker Basil Gelpke is like Al Gore, but not so polite. What he has here really is an inconvenient truth. The bottom line in his argument is that the oil will run out before we find a replacement, so what do we do then?
Gelpke has lots of people to back up his theories and doubtless there are plenty more willing to shoot them down in flames. Nonetheless the film does leave you with the uncomfortable notion that he might be right; and if he is what do we do then?