11TH HOUR THE

• Actor(s) : diCaprio, Leonardo/
• Director :
• Studio : Warner Home Video
• Running Time : 90 minutes
• Date : 2008
• UPC : 7321902183510
• Format : DVD
• Condition : New

Review
The 11th Hour may not have enjoyed the profile of the last major documentary to tackle the issues and challenges of climate change (that'd be Al Gore's engrossing Oscar-winner An Inconvenient Truth), but it's no less compelling, and proves to be a thought-provoking feature in its own right.

Producer and narrator Leonardo Di Caprio, who also shares a writing credit, is the glue that holds The 11th Hour together, and this diligent documentary presents a lot of information. What's more, it balances its subject matter a little more accessibly than An Inconvenient Truth. The latter appeared to rush through the segment where it addressed the things we can do to help fight climate change, but The 11th Hour--in among some very hard-hitting material--makes sure that it devotes enough of its focus to the what-happens-next.

To top it off, it's attracted some heavyweight world figures to stand before the camera. Some you will have heard of (Professor Stephen Hawking and Mikhail Gorbachev, for instance), and others are less known, but the cumulative effect of their contributions gives The 11th Hour a gravity and power that is hard to ignore. And while occasionally you can't help but feel it slips into being a little too preachy, it tackles a serious subject exceptionally well. A documentary absolutely not to be missed, for more than one reason. --Jon Foster

Synopsis
Leonardo DiCaprio (THE DEPARTED, TITANIC) presents this thought-provoking documentary about the fragile state of our planet's ecosystems and the dangers we face. We've all seen the devastating effects of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, and now scientists and experts from around the world believe that unless we act immediately to cut carbon emissions and switch to renewable energy sources, humankind is in very real danger of becoming extinct. The film explores how we arrived at this unfortunate predicament, blaming industrial civilisation for much of the damage and world leaders for allowing it to happen. It's not all doom and gloom though; if we reduce the human footprint on Earth by a wide enough margin, we can effectively change the course of our planet's future. THE 11TH HOUR gathers an impressive list of supporters, including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, former head of the CIA R. James Woolsey, and over 50 leading scientists.