The 11th Hour (I) (2007)

A look at the state of the global environment including visionary and practical solutions for restoring the planet's ecosystems.

Directors:

Leila Conners, Nadia Conners

Writers:

Leila Conners, Nadia Conners,

Stars:

Leonardo DiCaprio, Kenny Ausubel, Thom Hartmann

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Leonardo DiCaprio	...	Himself - Narrator
Kenny Ausubel	...	Himself - Founder, Bioneers
Thom Hartmann	...	Himself - Author, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight
Wangari Maathai	...	Herself - Founder, Greenbelt Movement, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Sandra Postel	...	Herself - Director, Global Water Policy Project
Paul Stamets	...	Himself - Mycologist, Author, Mycelium Running
David Orr	...	Himself - Chair, Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College
Stephen Hawking	...	Himself - Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, Cambridge University
Oren Lyons	...	Himself - Faithkeeper, Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee, Six Nations, Iroquois Confederacy
Andrew C. Revkin	...	Himself - Author & Science Reporter, New York Times (as Andy Revkin)
Sylvia Earle	...	Herself - Oceanographer, Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic Society
Paul Hawken	...	Himself - Author, Environmentalist, Entrepreneur
Janine Benyus	...	Herself - Author, Biomimicry
Stuart Pimm	...	Himself - Professor of Conservation Ecology, Duke University
Paolo Soleri	...	Himself - Architect, Founder of Arcosanti

Storyline

A look at the state of the global environment including visionary and practical solutions for restoring the planet's ecosystems.

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Plot Keywords:

environment | planet | overfishing | carbon neutrality | rising sea levels | 

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Taglines:

Turn mankind's darkest hour into its finest

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 October 2007 (Philippines)

Also Known As:

Leonardo DiCaprio Presents The 11th Hour

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$60,853 (USA) (17 August 2007)

Gross:

$703,464 (USA) (28 September 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Appian Way, Greenhour, Tree Media Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

In the subtitles of an interview with Mikhail Gorbachev, the former USSR premier is translated as saying that because we have strained nature to the breaking point, "we must, the generations living now, must take a principal decision that we will act differently because the ecological crisis is global." Taking "a principal decision" is an odd turn of phrase, at best, in this context. Almost certainly, Gorbachev said "we must take a principled decision."

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Quotes

Ray Anderson: So we've got bad things happening on a lot of fronts. And Earth is hurting... and we are the culprit.

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Connections

References 60 Minutes (1968)

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Soundtracks

"Svefn-g-englar"
Performed by Sigur Rós

User Reviews

Inevitable comparisons will be made...

Inevitable comparisons will be made with Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, and so we might as well go ahead with it.

The 11th Hour starts off with terrifying the audience, in contrast to Gore's more introspective calm before the storm. Gore also interjects humor and his own personality into a documentary about his own crusade, while DiCaprio's is more straightforward, inundating the audience with mind-numbing facts and portents of doom. He also doesn't focus attention to his own personality but stays merely a narrator.

The 11th Hour is more comprehensive, drawing from various sources, but lacks breathing room to digest each infoload periodically dumped on screen. It decides to interject these pockets of space for reflection far too late, already in the middle of the reel.

DiCaprio's narration is also a disappointment. He is great eye candy that serves to pull the crowd to the theater, a terrific actor and is capable of memorizing tomes of text in his movies, but in his own documentary, his eyes too obviously dart left to right at a teleprompter, which loses the impact and earnestness he needs to communicate and connect to the audience. Meanwhile, the less-physically appealing Gore successfully portrays himself in Rocky-like fashion, valiantly trudging on in his uphill battle, which makes the audience identify with and root for him.

To The 11th Hour's credit, it offers more solutions on an individual level than Gore's. Despite the fragmented expositions of its well-meaning interview subjects, it offers hope and a heroic sense of optimism that we can still do something about the issue.