Hollywood Environmental Movies Assignment



Environmental Movie List 2011-2012

*many of the movies are available at our library!

Heading of paper should read: Title of Movie, Date it was made, Date you viewed it.

A Civil Action – John Travolta plays the lead as a civil litigation lawyer and his decade long case against an American corporation in a water pollution dispute brought by citizens of a Massachusetts town.

China Syndrome – Reality follows the movies in this story of problems in a nuclear power plant. Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas and Jack Lemmon star in this classic.

Erin Brokovich – America’s newest screen eco-hero. Julia Roberts portrait of a modern day file clerk in a law office brought suit against an electric company.

Fire Down Below – Steven Segal plays an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agent assigned to track down the killers of a colleague. Turns out the killers also happen to be involved in the dumping of toxic waste through Appalachia.

Pelican Brief – Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman star in this environmental and political thriller. Life should never be so exciting at the United States Supreme Court.

Silkwood – Cher, Meryl Streep and Kurt Russell lead the cast in a nuclear power thriller.

Danger Zone – Hazardous waste is nobody’s friend an in this movie Ron Silver takes on the role of an eco-villain responsible for dumping hazardous waste in an African state.

Hackers – Kids and computer movies have been a big hit since War Games. This 1995 release focuses on a bunch of misfit but computer savvy youths who discover and attempt to thwart a plot to steal corporate millions and dump millions of gallons of oil around the oceans of the world.

On Deadly Ground – Steven Segal as a director and actor. His character in this film is an ex-CIA agent on the trail of some oil executives in Alaska who condoned the use of sub-standard equipment that could result in spills and ecological disaster. The threat to Native Alaskans by oil companies.

Gorillas in the Mist – The joy and trials of Dian Fossey, portrayed by Sigourney Weaver, a famous woman know for her time living with gorillas in the rain forest for years. Exposes the culture of poaching.

Grey Owl – The true story of Archie Belaney who for years posed as a native North American Indian and wrote several books in the 1930’s promoting conservation under that guise. Pierce Brosnan is not bad as Grey Owl. Directed by Richard Attenborough.

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan – The 1984 adaptation of Borroughs. Great apes, gorgeous jungle. Tarzan is heir to a great estate in England, but he can’t take civilization, and he is especially upset about how the civilized treat the apes they’ve captured.

Sometimes a Great Nation - Paul Newman directs and stars. Based on the Ken Kesey novel; contemporary logging in Oregon.

The Grapes of Wrath – Adaptation of the novel; Henry Fonda; the dust bowl.

The Prophecy – An older late 70’s or early 80’s horror flick about the dangers of contaminating the environment; especially targeting mercury used by lumber mills.

The Lion King – Disney films seem to involve a strange mix of environmental themes with traditional themes of hierarchy, domination, etc.

Bambi – Though not environmentally messaged with a club, as say Lion King, it came out at a time that has seared it into the American psyche and has had lasting impact on how we view or have erroneously viewed hunting and forest fires.

Watership Down – Anthropomorphic look at an animal society struggling to survive and includes a few perils as a result of humans.

Clearcut – Based on M.T. Kelly’s book A Dream Like Mine about a native land threatened by logging and white liberal responses to the issue. Violent, but recommended; Graham Greene is incredible.

Medicine Man – Sean Connery is a biochemist in the Brazilian Rainforest doing

research on rainforest flora. He discovers a cure for cancer in a flower that grows in the canopy. The problem is, of course, that the forest is being destroyed.

Gods Must be Crazy – Part I – The introduction is especially contrasts the naturally rooted ways of the bushmen with our crazy “civilized” behavior.

Part II – A little assortment of White guys and soldiers get themselves lost in the wilderness, and get rescued by a tribesman. This is also fantasy, but the wilderness experience and real world (African) context look all too real.

Zardoz – A 70’s sci-fi classic (starring Sean Connery) set in the Earth’s future, in a post-cataclysmic setting where the division between human haves and have-nots is in no way ambiguous.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – Regarding the extinction of humpback whales.

Chinatown – a 70’s crime film classic starring Jack Nicholson as a private detective investigating an adultery case who stumbles on to a scheme of murder that involves abuse of water rights in California. You need to look hard for the environmental issues here and provide your interpretation.

The Day After Tomorrow

Finding Nemo

Wall-E

Avatar

Fern Gully (Disney)

An Inconvenient Truth – Al Gore's famous documentary on global warming

Who Killed the Electric Car? - Documentary on the how the technology of electric cars has been around for decades, yet hasn't been used. Why not??

Food Inc. - Documentary on the food production industry in the US

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