The 11th Hour

Let me just give you some pros and cons, as that's what seems to work best in reviews for things like this:

Pro's:

1. Well written, well produced. This is a pretty slick presentation.
2. The running time is long enough to make a strong argument, but short enough to not put a casual viewer to sleep.
3. The soundtrack was gentle, austere and not too over-dramatic which would've obscured the telling of the narrative.
4. Leonardo DiCaprio, surprisingly, has a good voice for narration which isn't that bad to listen to, unlike other productions which can just turn a person away.
5. A lot of the diagrams, charts and animations are incredibly overwhelming and informative. This is a cleaner presentation than what was done in 'An Inconvenient Truth'.
6. The story presented flows well and is educational to anyone who hasn't yet heard any of this information.
7. $4.99 at Target was a fantastic price. Nice touch.

Con's:

1. The strong endorsement of Biofuels, which is now a dead issue makes this DVD Documentary outdated, antiquated and seemingly foolish to have released without editing out. This drastically cuts into the credibility of this Documentary and thus a lower Amazon star rating. Leo is more of a victim of early adoption than anything, which is forgivable, but not something to overlook.
2. Overpopulation is mentioned a few times in the documentary, just to make rebuttal to the other reviewers, but only briefly and in passing. Overpopulation is not something that was focused on, which probably should have been the opening segment. To be fair though, the subject of Overpopulation is not something that the media mentions a lot, so it's not a surprise that Leo would've also overlooked it, as he's more of follower with this production than a leader. And a populist rather than a modern thinker.
3. There are many shots of Leo standing around observing the scenery in different locations throughout the World, which is something Orson Welles was fond of doing in his footage, but it just comes across as 'Where's Waldo', instead of adding to the narrative.


There it is in a nutshell. Hopefully that helps. I was able to get through to the end, where I was greeted by Coldplay, but I doubt I'd watch it again. Maybe his next effort on this subject will be more carefully thought out, but equally crafted.

This is such an eye opening movie. It truly is a must see, or we may not have much to see in the future.

This is a very well documented dvd. I loved it. I learned a lot of things about the environment that I didn't know.

It's tough for global warming believers (of which I am one). On the one hand, we have to present scenarios that make the everyday person recognize the scope of environmental problems, but not make the potential outcome seem so bleak as to discourage action. The 11th hour doesn't help much.

While I guess it's a good idea to have scientists speaking for themselves, it's not so useful when all you get from them are a sentence or two--devoid of context and essentially serving as a plug for their pet issue. As usual, big business is presented as a "villain"--the issue of why businesses full of smart people would choose to completely ignore seemingly unchallengeable science avoided. The implication is that they are "greedy" ready to destroy the planet for that extra dollar. Not so convincing to anyone that's worked in big business.

I've read things by most of the commenters that compose the film, and most of them have more depth to their ideas than is apparent here. Maybe it would have been better to have 5 people talk about their ideas in depth rather than 100 speak for 30 seconds. You essentially have to be a "believer" going in to the film or take them at their word. Wouldn't convince any smart person I know of anything.

This film is the best of the bunch on the coming shutdown of human life on our planet unless humans cooperate, work together, and solve our probems of greed, envy, infantile self-interest, and lack of intelligent living. This film offers targets for those who have none, chances for commitment, and opportunities to do the most important work possible.

As a grandfather, I thank DiCaprio for producing this film, an addition to a needed awakening of all humans who want this life giving planet to last a while longer.