What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire (2007)

Absolutely Fantastic

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This film is tough to watch. It is information dense and the narrative is fast-paced throughout the two-hour length. Watching it by re-playing bits of it, pausing in-between to read about the people interviewed and the books they've written will take better part of an entire day. But it is that good. Even if you think you know about these issues inside out, you should still watch. I made the mistake of letting it sit on my computer for a long time. Even after starting to watch a couple of times, I lost interest after a few minutes as I was put off by the lack of pauses that allow you to assimilate what was just said and also because I did not find any new information in the first 20 min of it or so. It is only in my third attempt that I managed to watch it in full and realised that it goes much deeper than other films. The first 18-20 min is about the personal struggle of the film maker. The conflict that comes from trying to live an ordinary life with a back-of-the-mind awareness that at some level things are deeply wrong. It's the double life we all live, those of us who understand the severity and scale of these crises but do not know what to do about it. The next 40 min or so is about the crises, categorised here into peak oil, climate change, mass extinction and population overshoot. Then it goes deeper into the ancient origins of the problems, the part that was most revealing. It then explains how modern science and technology perpetrated the "fantasy of no limits", gave us a false sense of control, argued that technology is not neutral, and that technology fixes do not always work in the long run. There's much more. You'll have to watch it for yourself. A word of thanks to the film makers for making this documentary and making it available on YouTube.

I've seen a number of these "doomsayer" documentaries and I'm mostly in agreement that the human race is out of control and trashing nature to death. This one did a good job of outlining the major aspects of our predicament, but it lacked stunning examples to convince Joe Six Pack that the problems are severe enough to warrant the grim tone. It seemed to assume viewers were already advocates for sustainability, while at the same time acknowledging that most are too brainwashed by "Empire" to care. (As an aside, I've never seen the word "empire" used without "an," "the" or "our" preceding it; something about that annoys me.)I found about two thirds of the presentation solid and informative, but it strayed into preachy areas that were overwrought and repetitive, especially the "walkabout" segment toward the end. It kept seeming like a closing statement was made, then it cut back to more interview segments and the message got scattered. Also, some of the interviewees didn't exactly come across as ecology experts (e.g. artists), though they were on the right track. I'm more pragmatic than a Kumbaya type.When I watch these documentaries I'm looking for something that will sway the tiresome global warming & peak oil deniers, and leave no room for snide "tree hugger" remarks. We really have to get those people on board if there's hope of averting mass chaos. Skeptics of a finite Earth aren't all that bright, but they could be better convinced by irrefutable evidence vs. touchy-feely commentary, which this film lapsed into heavily at times. A lot of people simply lack the empathy to be concerned for nature, and they will only act out of self-interest. I can imagine this film being snickered at by them.To improve it, they could have trimmed the beginning and ending for a more concise message. Some of the interviewees were especially strong, and some could have been left out. I give it a 9 for thematics but a 5 overall for its repetition of New-Age mantras.

Now aside from the director's glum sounding narration (and with the gravity of the subject is warranted) this film is very engaging and thought provoking. Unlike Leonardo DiCaprio's 11th Hour and Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, this film delves deep into why no technology will save us from the impending collapse of industrial civilization. The director focuses on four main crises: Peak Oil, Climate Change, Mass Extinction, & Population Overshoot. Among other things you'll learn: How oil is embedded in our food production and when it's gone so is our food; How extinction rates are one thousand times greater than normal background extinction rates; How agriculture itself is inherently unsustainable; How earth can only support one billion humans without petroleum; How the myth of the technofix keeps everyone believing in a "happily-ever-after" scenario that won't come true. This film gets ten out of ten for it's level-headed approach to what could possibly be the end of our domination of the earth. It is REQUIRED viewing for anyone concerned with humanity's future.

I gave this movie 10 out of 10 not because it is a great documentary or because it is written so well or because of the editing, etc. but because IT CONTAINS THE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION THAT YOU MAY EVER FIND IN A DOCUMENTARY! This does not mean it is a pleasant experience. On the contrary, I don't think most people can handle what this move has to say. It is an unflinching look at the dominant culture currently in place on Earth and how we are on a collision course with the destiny of our own making.This movie is similar to "An Inconvenient Truth" in that it discusses climate change but it also talks about Peak Oil, Population Growth and Mass Extinction. Do you think that this is all bullsh*t? See the movie, read up on the people who were interviewed and what they have to say. Read Ismail by Daniel Quinn, read anything by Derrick Jensen. Make up your own mind, talk to people about what this movie has to say.This is the most important thing you can do with you time. Drop everything, find a copy of this movie and watch it now! No, I'm not associated with the film-maker. I just watched this film and it blew me away!