Because I am a terrible person, I don’t generally find myself all that interested in stories about the environment. Yes, I try to do the right sort of things — reusing, recycling, I’ve been known to carpool and use public transportation, we bought a high MPG car, etc. — but I tune out a bit when the news switches over to news of that sort. I hope the world doesn’t collapse upon itself during my lifetime or that of my children, but I also have a remarkably short attention span when it comes to that stuff. Again, I realize this is a fault of mine.
So, I wasn’t terribly interested in seeing Chasing Ice, a documentary about the melting of the ice caps opening at the Loft this weekend, but geez, watching this footage of a chunk of iceberg nearly the size of Manhattan break off is pretty compelling film-making, right?
This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2012.
Mr. Gibson, (soon-to-be Editor of this paper which is “branded” to exemplify a progressive, human & nature-sensitive conscience):
My comment is longer than your whole “promo”, but the pithy insincerity here deserves some detailed commentary, I think.
Please enjoy the fact that you got a rise out of somebody out there, with your little scribble here. This was a forced little assignment given you, I’m presuming?
Regarding this blow-off of yours, acting as a promotion for this important documentary:
Your droll, seemingly tossed-off self-deprecation at confessing your conscious avoidance/disinterest, Andy Rooney-style, to any “news of that sort”, (aka, news of the most important issue facing the future of life as we know it), is pretty damn sad. I mean sad in the quality of your written “acting”. (Do you really think you’re “terrible”? Nah. You just wish you did…sometimes).
It would seem that educated people like yourself, in positions to positively influence progressive populist thought, really might aspire to be more high-minded than conveying that the peak of their concerns, for the future of living organisms & the earth, is that it “doesn’t collapse upon itself during my lifetime or that of my children”.
They, no doubt, would differ with that tragically minimalist view when old enough, ya think?
Just because you’re willing to confess yourself as a (supposed) self-loathing, (but somehow continuing) apathetic avoider of serious global warming events, and reiterate “I realize this is a fault of mine”, like an alcoholic says while walking into the liquor store, you STILL couldn’t even rise above your contentedly ignorant position at the end, when it was (finally) time to speak of the film itself.
Instead of giving the film what props you could for it’s intent, a bit of respect for the gravity of what it’s trying to awaken people to, you couldn’t help your “terrible” self, and went with instead:
“I wasn’t terribly interested in seeing…but geez, watching this footage of a chunk of iceberg the size of Manhatten….pretty compelling film-making, right?”.
The self-satisfied careerist dog will be learning no new climate-aware tricks today, thanks.
Obviusly your reader should be your writer.
This happens to be one of the most beautiful, stirring, dramatic–and compelling–films of the year, and it already is on the shortlist for an Oscar nomination.
Everyone, especially parents and teachers who care about future generations, should see it and at least try to learn the few things left we can do to stop our own destruction of our planet.
What kind of review would you expect from someone who works for the ‘weAkly’
not drownin’-wavin’: I think it’s really fascinating that you would somehow prefer that I not write about the movie at all, not share a clip from the film that I found to be stunning, not inform people outside of the particular bubble of environmental activists that a film they would have likely ignored might be worth seeing. But, hey, if you think that’s the attitude likely to win over people like myself (I don’t think the paper is branded with “a progressive, human & nature-sensitive conscience,” by the way, but that’s a longer discussion), so be it.
Also, we have a blurb about the film in this week’s paper by someone who actually saw it, for what it’s worth. Thanks for reading!
Dan,
I’m not sure, but it may some of your comments about the movie that are infuriating people, not the fact that you wrote about it. That part is a very good thing and I appreciate that you took the time to watch and write about.
But while your review tells people ‘hey, you should watch this movie’, if you read between the lines there’s a ‘nah, not really’ in there. That’s how i interpreted your review anyway.
Of course i’m only guessing because i have no way of knowing what was going through the minds of the comments’ authors. It could have been anger directed at your cavalier attitude about your admittedly ‘short attention span’.
I dunno.
Personally, i think this is something that should alarm every person on this earth, because it will affect us all – whether we pay attention to it or not.
It’s rather interesting to note just how ‘disinterested’ the majority of people are about things like this, isn’t it?
Curiouser & curiouser.