Customer Reviews:
 "Oil is the excrement of the devil" December 1, 2008
thus it starts and you know immediately you're not in for a documentary but an opinion piece that damages its underlying message that oil is running out and things are going to get really bad. I happen to believe exactly what they are saying but I want the presentation of all relevant facts and not this patchwork stitched up to produce a particular picture.
This film consists of the speech taken from a number of interviews with oil experts, spliced together and shown with a large amount of entirely needless stock footage of cars buzzing around, robots doing things, etc. There are intercuts with those actually being interviewed. Ironically, all the interviews used are provided as extras in the DVD so you can skip the main film and get it from the horse's mouth. I recommend you do exactly this because you get more information more usefully presented and -- why I consider this not to be documentary -- you get it unfiltered. In the main film you are shown selected extracts from an interview with former OPEC Secretary-General Fadhil Chalabi, and those extracts suggest he has a rather different view of the matter then he actually does, as you realise when you watch the full and unedited interview. He really doesn't believe we are short of oil, and it was dishonest of the filmmakers not to make this clear.
Curiously there is almost no mention of environmental impact, and it really doesn't tell you very much that couldn't be presented better, and quicker.
It's not very good, and it's certainly no Inconvenient Truth. Considering the mess we're in, that's a huge failing.
 Peak Oil Film March 25, 2008
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
This is a painstaking documentary about the frighteningly central role of oil in our lives. Made by two Swiss directors, one (Gelpke) with a background in anthropology, economics, war reporting, and science films, and the other (McCormack) who holds an honors degree in Environmental Policy and Management.
These two men make a documentary that manages to look at both sides of our oil needs and industry while not knocking our addictive behavior towards gasoline.
The film relies on interviews with notable academics, experts and advisors from across the political, corporate and economic spectrum. It has seems like there's no discernible political axe to grind - which makes it all the harder to ignore it's hard to ignore.
The focus of this all is our crude oil dependency, the manner in which access to oil is driving U.S foreign policy, the ubiquitous nature of oil in modern society, the lack of efficient alternatives to petroleum, and the concept of Peak Oil: that once world oil output reaches its maximum peak, recovery will plateau and then begin a permanent decline. Once this decline commences, all hell will break loose with the world economy. Depending on the experts, this decline could already be under way or it could be 20 years away, but it is generally accepted that it is on the horizon.
If you liked "An Inconvenient Truth", you'll be enthralled by this film.
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