Sprawling from Grace (2008) User Reviews

Sprawling From Grace

[valerie-alba13 · 7/10 · 24 October 2013]

Valerie Alba Urban Planning 101 Ivis Garcia October 15, 2013 "Sprawling From Grace"

"Sprawling from Grace," written and directed by David Edwards expresses the dangers of suburban life. Edwards inquires about the dangerous effects that suburban life has on people and the city. Throughout the film, Edwards characterizes the failures of suburban of life by the increasing pollution and poor health as well as a decreasing quality of life. The film explores other commuting options such as expanding public transportation to decrease travel by car but more importantly to create a happier and more efficient community. People have become too dependent on cars but they do not realize how much it affects themselves as well as the environment around them.

A lot can be said about a person by the type of cars they drive whether it is a sports car, a luxury car, or a close to broken down station wagon. People mainly choose cars based on appearance and then they might think about how environmentally friendly it is. Suburbanization causes people who live in the suburbs to commute to and from work as well as other places that they need to go and this documentary shows how commute times are becoming longer due to the growing amount of people who are forced to drive to get to where they have to go. This growth of automobiles contributes to the rise in pollution as well as the high demand for oil. More cars on the road mean more pollutants contaminating the air hourly. But when it comes to oil, cheap oil is easy to find and distribute, but distributing the good oil, that's where problems come up. The price of oil continues to increase with the demand and alongside the price of oil increasing so is the price of gasoline.

The use of private transit such as cars causes people to spend much more money than is necessary and quite frankly unnecessary. In certain suburbs of Chicago, gasoline can cost up to five dollars a gallon. Families can fill up their gas tank once or twice a week and, depending on what type of car they drive, spend up to $50 every trip to the gas station plus other expenses needed to keep a car up and running. This is completely ridiculous considering they do not have to spend this much money if they merely switch their preferred mode of transportation. In Chicago, a thirty day CTA pass costs $100. $100! By simply choosing a public form of transportation they spend less in a month than they do every week and they slightly lower their part of pollution. Everyone wins. Aside from the public issues concerning the growth of automobiles on the road there are many personal problems as well. More cars mean more traffic. The amount of time it takes a person to drive to work has been increasing by about ten minutes due to the amount of traffic. This causes isolation because people spend so much time in the car alone which also affects their quality of life. A person's quality of life means their personal feelings with how things are going in various aspects of their lives. Not a lot of people enjoy being stuck in a car, usually alone especially when going to work, for hours a day. Also, the time wasted on the road takes time away from the home and family. I am positive people would much rather be at home than on the expressway. This is why many people take into consideration how long of a commute it would be when accepting a new job. Planners should take this information into consideration. They should carefully choose more effective patterns for land use to lower the use of personal automobiles. Instead of planners attempting to construct suburbs further and further away from cities they can build them closer to the cities but not close to the point where there is no distinction between the two different areas. The main reason people use their cars is for work. If people lived closer to their place of employment then the use of personal transportation would decrease. Also if suburbs were closer to cities then families could use public transit or even walk places for reasons other than work.

Edwards did a good job in enlightening the public of the problem that has been growing over time. He shows his viewers the consequences of overusing valuable resources such as oil for unnecessary reasons. Personally, watching this documentary has taught me that there is no need to drive as much as I do and there are other environmentally friendly ways to get where I need to go which also benefit my health, such as walking. These can be easy alternatives if city planners find ways to connect the gap of suburbanization to city living.

An informative look at the state of Americanm motorist infrastructure

[afadie2 · 8/10 · 24 October 2013]

David Edwards film, Sprawling from Grace Driven to Madness, is a look at the social, economic reliability issues generated by Americas fundamental reliance on the automobile in a post-World War II society that focuses on the marginalization of humans in the face of automotive culture. The film follows the current trend of American automobile dependency and how it impacts both American social conditions as well as global economic outlook into the foreseeable future. The film breaking down into three main sections which cover the current state of the American automobile culture and its impacts on the modern city, followed by issues raised by the impact of our dependency on fossil fuel and finally reviews the outlook on alternative means of urban development which could radically improve some of the issues included in the first two portions.

Synopsis: Edwards begins the documentary by overviewing the initial causes of American automobile culture, focusing on the height of popular American values following the economic boom after World War II. These values are relayed mostly through short examples of American automotive advertisements around this time demonstrating the importance of choice in the newly exploding American culture. Many of the commentaries of these clips present the argument that what began as a choice and a luxury have since become a necessity which most Americans rely upon to fulfil basic daily needs. This portion mostly acts as a staging for the contrast delivered by the next portion which brings the viewer back up to present time in order to witness a state of despair among motorists. Focusing on the issues of crowding and congestion within the interstate system, Edwards explains how the speed at which this network developed was ill-equipped to handle the demand which soon followed. As the popularity of the automobile skyrocketed following the growth of both American families and overall population, the only reliable option to handle this growth was expansion of lanes within the interstate. Critics in this portion of the film agree that automobile growth overcame the expansion of these roads, leading to solutions to these issues become short term fixes to very long term problems. Edwards then moves the focus to the cause of these infrastructural flaws which he points toward the suburbs. Automobile reliability and large populations generated in these suburbs caused a steep need for expanded infrastructure and the current model employed in and around urban zones. This solution however was short term and cased the crowded state of the highways. Edwards finishes this portion by moving to the dangers of this situation using the example of the I35 collapse in Minneapolis. The film relies on this example and an overall evaluation by and unnamed American engineering group which gave the infrastructure a low grade in terms of upkeep to convey the dangers of the decay in the system and further enforce the idea that it is aging past its ability to be maintained.

At this point the movie shifts to the issue of reliance of fossil fuel. Edwards argues that American consumption of oil has reached a point of critical consumption and that it is only going to continue on its downward path. This portion of the movie is the longest and includes a great deal of his guests in the documentary commenting on the various facts and myths of the energy crisis. A large emphasis in this portion is placed on the availability of oil around the world and the possibility of global depletion. A small amount of effort is placed in examining the potential involved in alternative fuel types, but most of his critics reinforce the idea that finding new forms of fuel is only delaying an inevitable outcome of disaster. Contrasts to the oil crisis in the 1970's are included and expanded on. Another topic covered in this portion is the more recent onset of this type of culture in the newly emerging eastern world such as India and China. Comparing America's current infrastructure with the greatly expanded infrastructure planned for those countries, Edwards paints a particularly grim picture of how the global economy will react to this stress. One such bit of grim outlook included here is the discussion of the conflict in the Middle East, which Edwards seems to blame exclusively on oil conflicts without directly stating it.

The final portion of the film, which regards urban planning and city design, picks up a noticeably lighter tone and ends the film on a positive note. The film seeks to answer some of the questions raised up to this point by allowing for examples of successful urban communities which derive inspiration from pre-World War II planning. This idea is carried throughout the section, emphasizing the amount of cultural knowledge of human settlement evolution which Edwards considers lost after the period. Many of the scenes in this portion display scenes of small town living and examples of diverse and more compact societies with a greater reliance on public transit such as railways and street cars. Another huge emphasis in this section is the argument that public transit is a cornerstone of success in these areas.

Overall the film raises a number of interesting points and expands on many of the problems facing the American city and condition of the modern motorway and commuter lifestyle. Many of the problems which are diagnosed in the early portion of the film are later touched upon in the later portions and various examples of means of improving these problems are given. The film also presents an interesting cause and effect relationship between historical behavior in the US and its direct impact on the conditions which affect drivers and commuters alike. The commentary early in does a good job of adequately framing the lifestyle of the American commuter and touches on why the battle to fix these situations is uphill.

Automobil, oil and suburbanization

[juanj_delgado · 8/10 · 17 March 2014]

Spoiler alert

How frightening, a world full of exciting options for public transportation, cleaner environments, more social society this must be the apocalypse! In fact, this description of a fictitious frightening world is exactly what America was like in the early 20th century and it was far from scary, it was paradise! "Sprawling from Grace" directed by David Edwards examines the consequences that stem from Suburbanization and how every day millions of Americans continue to dig themselves deeper into oil dependency ensuring that in the near future dream lives will become nightmares if something is not done about it. The film is full of dramatizations that are unfortunately more true than not and stresses the need for altering how we develop are nation and more so the world. The main argument in the documentary is that we've created the American dream in suburbia and segregated our neighborhoods beginning after World War 2 separating housing, industrial development, commercial development, education and transportation increasing dramatically the need for more energy. The documentary focuses more on the oil aspect of energy and how the automobile in America has slowly but surely led us to our own destruction not only financially but environmentally, and socially. In the end, the movie stresses that it is our standard of living that will eventually lead to our demise as a species shall we not choose to alter our lifestyles to live more sustainably. The film presents itself in very compelling arguments led by some of the top scientists, environmental geologists, doctors and even previous U.S. presidents.

Sprawling from Grace opens up with a scene in black and white of a young boy fantasizing about the American Dream and what it is he wants from it. At the end of the dream the young boy says "I wish I was old enough to drive". This opening scene sets the groundwork for the documentaries two main culprits the automobile and suburbia. The movie goes into how the automobile embodied "wealth, freedom and independence giving individuals a false sense of achievement and security if they could obtain one. It even goes into detail about how cars are giving names in order for the consumer to be able to relate to them such as "Pathfinder or Trailblazer" reinforcing that false sense of security. With the automobile began Suburbanization, the movie goes into how after the second World War people began sprawling out from cities (mainly returning veterans from the war) hoping to get as far from urban dwellings as possible. With the sudden shift from urbanization towns began being planned out, houses and neighborhoods were secluded far from walk able distances to grocery shopping, entertainment, work and public transit. The way suburbia was planned out created the need and dependency for the automobile. This dependence on the automobile seems to be the main focus throughout the entire documentary. As human population increases so will automobile use, the documentary draws one of its main points from the expansion of highway systems. The main point being while you can add a lane or two to ease congestion its overall effects are minimal. Shelly Poticha comments that while 'it takes billions of dollars to add one extra lane to ease congestion it will only save one minute overall in commute time". So for billions of dollars we save one minute which is nothing and better yet that minute will dissolve in 5- 10 years reinforcing the fact that we are only delaying the inevitable "self-destruction" thanks to our transportation problems. President Clinton in the documentary made a rather scary projection, within my own life time if oil consumption patterns continue we will no longer be able to sustain our current way of life. This brief statement by the President is followed by music set in a tone that creates suspense and leads to conversation on the oil crisis in the 1970's. A shortage in oil production of just two oil refineries caused drastic and catastrophic results all across the U.S. The documentary shows how gas rationing became the number one priority across the land causing long lines at the pump, strict pumping regulations such as even and odd day pumping, and disruptions in all commercial trucking including the delivery of food and medical care were all effected. The documentary wants to make us realize that the crisis in 1970 has been lingering ever since, the only thing that temporarily relieved it was the discovery of new oil basins once again reinforcing that we are only prolonging our destruction but it cannot last forever. With the emergence of new countries such as India and China the demand for oil will only go up. So to reiterate what does the automobile, oil use and suburbanization have in common…they all depend on one another. But can suburbanization exist without the great weight it plays on our environment and way of life. The answer is simple, yes it can. Towards the end of the movie King Hubert PH.D tells us that before world war 2 we had the idea of city planning "right". It wasn't until after the war that we abandoned everything we learned about planning from the previous 1,000 years and drifted off until almost no return. He simply states that "all we need to do is return to the era of the trolley car", it ran throughout the city making frequent stops allowing people to get everything they needed to get done within walking distance (many shops were situated around public transit). At this point a brief slide from the early 1900's plays and shows a community in action, fully thriving the entire time with minimal automobile usage. The availability for "alternative transportation is what made this work" he states and all we must do is make it more efficient and easy for people to be able to walk to these destinations such as public transit, and areas that they can get all their shopping and social needs done without feeling burdened.

Tremendous insight into the conundrum we have built ourselves into!

[playsviolin · 10/10 · 16 November 2008]

This film is able to make visible the intangible links between transportation, sprawling land-use patterns, and the "New World" of diminishing petroleum-oil reserves which threaten our security.

We as Americans have lived with cheap oil and now we will have to transform our cities to be more sustainable, walkable, and healthy environments.

As a political and environmental production, this feature-length Documentary Film gives an authentic and informed voice to the possible solutions, without preaching, or praying for some technological fix to replace the energy we consume---madly commuting to and fro in cars as we find ourselves no-where. Stalled in Sprawl.

Smartly filmed and edited by David M. Edwards, the Director-producer, is able to let the Film breathe, allowing the all-star cast of experts from different fields speak for themselves and really explain the terrible conundrums we have built to accommodate the car. Great urban footage helps the viewer envision the solutions that will protect the future health of our cities and suburbs.

An amazing production.