15 Green Movies

Nothing's in a league with "Chinatown" but  John Sayles's "Silver City" is a very engaging developer movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376890/

It wasn't quite the ticket for me but John Sayles's "Sunshine State" was a hit with many enviros in Florida.  
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286179/

    From IMDB - "The loner crew member of a spaceship harbouring Earth's last nature reserves goes renegade when he is instructed to jettison his beloved forests and return home. Accompanied only by three robots, he ponders the fate of his last pocket of nature and the murders of his fellow crew members in this far-looking speculative film."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0067756/

    I can't believe you included the pop-trash "Day After Tomorrow" (which I enjoyed as escapist action-adventure fare but didn't take seriously) or "Fire Down Below" or even "Happy Feet" when this Hugo-nominated film speaks much more clearly to what could go wrong if we human beings who inhabit this planet don't become more active in the care and conservation of our natural resources. Was your list solely based on which films made the most money?

Blane Mather
 

"We ... dedicate these last forests of our once beautiful nation to the hope that they will one day return and grace our foul earth." - Silent Running (1972)

The Pelican Brief (1993)


~ Kay

PHHHTT!!

This film might not be the kind of "green" movie you are looking for, but it certainly shows what our world could come to if we aren't careful.

It is rather difficult to get ahold of, but if you can find this movie, you should definitely watch it.  Be warned, however- it is very graphic and depressing.  I believe every person on this earth should have to watch it.  It might make them care a whole lot more about what is going on in our world.

Another MUST SEE Green Film: The Power of Community- How Cuba Survived Peak Oil.  (2006) The dependency on oil in the Western (developed) countries is comming to a close. This documentry shows what will happen in the economy and society after the crude oil supply is gone.

Since both list are so varied, You many as well add the film about humans living in domed cities due to limited resources and over-population: Logan's Run.

Then there's the aftermath of Biological warfare in the film: Omega Man.

A film that I haven't seen (but probably fits) is: No Blade of Grass, {based on the Novel}

Great music from Joan Baez.  

Randy Cunningham

Randy Cunningham

But pace EMartin, I agree with Blane Mather that "Happy Feet" was disappointing.  Hopefully it works for kids.

On the other hand, I very much prefer "Over the Hedge," an excellent parable on the physical and moral corruption caused by the suburban lifestyle.  It deserves better than "Honorable Mention," and ought to bump "Happy Feet" if there is any justice in the world.

On other recent feature-length cartoons about confrontations between humans and non-human animals:

• "Open Season" is so-so;

• the story of "Madagascar" is weak, however instructive it might be on the wildlife of that island, and however delightful its casting of penguins against type (which Nick Parks had already done in "Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers"), and we New Yorkers hated all the NYC-bashing jokes at the beginning;

• but "Brother Bear" is wonderful;

• and Nick Parks' and Aardman's "Chicken Run" is an animal-rights and anti-industrialized-agriculture epic;

• and animal-welfare issues are central in the same artists' "Wallace & Gromit in A Close Shave," which introduces the heroic and resourceful Sean the Sheep, and "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."

• "March of the Penguins."  I have nothing against Morgan Freeman, but the text that he reads is miserably disappointing.  The same spectacular, laboriously made film should be re-released, with a scientifically more challenging soundtrack, including references to the effects of global warming on Antarctica and its wildlife.

• "Blade Runner."  The story by Philip K. Dick on which it is based, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," makes a great deal of the circumstantial die-off of nearly all animals on the planet, and the consequent desire, on the part of the humans, to replace them even by artificial means.  But all that is pretty much tossed out of the movie.

But in fact I recently saw the movie again, after decades, and I am afraid it did not age at all well.  For one thing, the way the Adamsons tried to return Elsa to the wild comes across as positively inhumane.  You cannot just abandon a sweet-tempered, all-trusting adult lioness overnight in the vicinity of real wild lions, and expect to find her alive in the morning.  No doubt the actual Joy Adamson was not nearly so naive and thoughtless, not to say flakey, as the air-headed character played by Virginia McKenna.

The stories of the separate murders of Joy and George Adamson, of her by a young former employee (and not by a lion with a sense of irony, as was initially reported), and of him by Somali poachers, might in fact be decent material for a pro-conservationist movie, along the lines of "Gorillas in the Mist."

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

The whole movie is a parody of GM's buy-out of LA's public transit system, and it is done in an ingenious way! I highly recommend you all to watch it again if you never noticed its environmental undertones!

www.campusprogress.org

Bambi. Man destroying innocence of nature.

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Clear man vs. nature, man respecting nature story.

For All Mankind. Mostly a celebration of NASA's space program, with a clear message that the earth is but a tiny speck in a vast universe, deserving our protection.

Having lived through TMI and seeing the China Syndrome in the theater afterward that movie is too close to my reality for me to see it objectively.  I urge others to rent it and then think if you lived next door to TMI and had to evacuate for 10 days not knowing if you would ever be able to return home and see those family members and friends again who didn't leave (farmers mostly who stayed with their animals).

Someone should make a documentary of what us evacuees went through - our story has never been told.  I moved away 2 months later because of TMI and have never moved back, but too many of my friends back home have strange cancers and their children have strange cancers (cervical cancer age 2?  eye cancer age 3? 2 cases of sarcoidosis-cause unknown, but no one wants to hear about it.

When that documentary or film based on actual events is made it will make this list.

"Finding Nemo" is similarly two-edged.  One would have hoped it might teach something about the fragility of the ecosystems of coral reefs, and about the injustice of keeping aquariums of tropical fish.  And yet, what happened?: All these kids who saw the movie wanted to get aquariums of their own, with clownfish as the main attraction!

"The Lion King" is an example of a cartoon-movie with lots of animals, which really has nothing to do with animals.  Of course there is some very good animation based carefully on the movements of animals.  But the story is really a beast-fable, about humans in animal-form trying to acquire power and sexual fulfillment, and possibly including racist and homophobic elements.

Thanks to those who recommend "Koyaanisqatsi."  It is a mystery why I have never seen it.  From everything I have heard about it, I would like it very much.

Thanks also for the Miyazaki recommendations.  "Spirited Away," the only one I have seen, is so creative and complex that I was overwhelmed, and a bit nauseated.  But perhaps I shall give "Princess Mononoke" a try.

The selection of #3 in the original list above, "Winged Migration," should be heartily affirmed.  It is phenomenally good.  The spectacular beauty of the birds, and of many of the landscapes through which they pass, joined with the totally unsentimental witnessing of the deaths of many of them, is breathtaking.  This is a classic.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

I heartily second previous commenters' nominations of Princess Mononoke and Ferngully.   Finally, I know it's short, but can we ignore The Lorax?  It teaches millions of kids to speak for the trees!  

You should also check out Bob the Builder: Bob's Big Plan. Bob enters a design competition for a new town and wins with very progressive green design. The local architect's scheme would have destroyed the landscape and valuable habitat. Bob proposes earth sheltered buildings and wind farms.

I show it to my classes every year.

In Steven Spielberg's "Artificial Intelligence: AI," there is a great deal of coastal inundation, and NYC is submerged to half way up its tallest skyscrapers, but there are still inland regions that are dry.  So while it is not what I would call a "green" movie, the scene of NYC under water is powerful.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

Also try Instinct, with Anthony Hopkins.  

http://imdb.com/title/tt0116329/

Oh, the horror of having to be 14 and sit through such bad eco-television as "Apple's Way":

http://www.tv.com/apples-way/show/3201/summary.html

Los Angeles architect George Apple decides to leave the hustle and bustle of big-city life and return to the small town where he grew up, Appleton, Iowa, which was founded by his ancestors. He drags along his wife Barbara, their four children, and Grandpa Alton, all of whom had some difficulty making the adjustment. The idealistic George often increased their difficulties by getting involved...

http://images.tvrage.net/shows/3/2634.jpg

Shark Water (www.sharkwater.com) is a Canadian film, just recently released in the US.  It explores how the eco-system of oceans affects oxygen production, and therefore, climate change.  It's beautifully shot in places.  I had the chance to see the director speak.  He didn't intend to make an entire movie, but got caught up into something bigger when hitching a ride with a Greenpeace boat and getting arrested with them.  His editing needs some work, but definitely see it.  (Like Blue Vinyl - which could be a much better film.)

Dawn of the Dead - what better way to explore the issues around mass-consumerism than with zombies!

THIS IS A CLASSIC
...and hilarious

1. the very new release of the Leonardo DiCaprio effort "The 11th Hour". Note that it comes packaged in a cardboard sleeve made from 100% renewable resources instead of the usual plastic box.
   
2. the movie "Phenomenon" with John Travolta. After he gets smart, he starts to develop his own solar projects, his own organic fertilizers and alternate fuels. His message is that everything is connected. A funny movie with a green message. I highly recommend it.

any takers?

Lex. lexischoltz@gmail.com Cape Town, RSA