I watched this movie on the FX channel last night and see that it is on again tonight. If you didn’t see it, give it a chance on its second viewing. It was really very well done.
They use a documentary style with news bulletins and cable news type interviews and build a very compelling story about how ordinary families could be affected by a sudden change in our oil supplies.
A hurricane knocks out the main port where oil is received then a revolution in Saudi Arabia accelerates the process. It was all very plausible and realistic without any super special effects or super-heroes to the rescue.
It was brilliant propaganda and something every SUV-driving fool in America needs to see. I especially liked the farmer who becomes a populist advocate for “Food Not Oil” being the basis of what makes America great. The implication was that this guy was on his way to being president.
I’d like to hear what you think if you saw this movie or watch it tonight.
I’m having a hard day so I’m going to go lie down and watch Keith. But, I’ll check this thread later and give out 4’s appropriately.
THANK YOU! I’d have never caught this if you hadn’t posted this. I’ll watch it at 8PM PDT tonight.
It’s also on:
Oil Storm (2005)
FX, Sat Jun 11 08:00pm PDT
Oil Storm (2005)
FX, Sun Jun 12 02:30pm PDT
and was (as is many times the case) of three or four minds about it.
My first reaction was, here we go with more fear mongering…”look! look how EASY it would be to bring us to our knees (not that I think this is unrealistic, mind you, quite the opposite — hurricaines are only one of MANY of the refinaries’ and ports’ on the Gulf coast’s problems)
My second reaction was, well, give it a chance, at least it might get some people thinking about an issue they’ve never thought about before…. followed in the second hour by, OMFG, how WHITE is this?!? And I don’t just mean in terms of the color of the people’s skin (the only people of color I saw were the EMT, her mother and the guy in the ambulance — you can look for more!!), I mean in terms of the way the “effects” played out — only a very, very narrow segment of the population was represented.
There were a few lines in it too that made just want to scream — listen for this one:
“You know, when you saw those protesters out there in the 60s and 70s, well, you just thought they had some sort of mental problem. But now it was us.” ( not an exact quote).
It may or may not have had good intentions (I am suspicious, as it is on FX…) but I don’t think it would have taken a rocket-scientist and/or brilliant film maker to have made the effects of the “storm” more personal to a wider range of people.
All that being said, I still think it is worth watching and I won’t say anything else, in deference to those of you about to watch, but I will be most interested to hear what your reactions are!!
I was startled, too, by how white it was, brinnaine. Jeez, I wonder about the demographics of FX if they think they can portray this country as all-white? Apart from that,which is a big “apart,” I thought it was really interestingly done and probably, on the whole, a good thing in terms of increasing awareness of the need to change our ways. For a little while, I thought it was only going to preach the gospel of increased domestic production and I thought, nooooooo. But they did finally get to conservation.
the Russian UnderSec of Energy or whatever his title was? That was sort of odd, I thought, and how he went on about how he was surprised that Bush would appoint someone who wasn’t born in this country, but that he was smart to do so becuase he was the best person for the job…
I know FX will play it over and over all summer (that’s what they do) and I plan to watch it again — there was just so much in it that made me do double or triple takes….and several WTF did they just say??
I like semiotic anlaysis and am always interested in pop culture’s language (I actually developed and taught a course called “Language and Popular Culture” when I was teaching at A&MKingville a while back — lots and lots of fun!
I thought he was the one character who seemed the most phony and unbelievable. Remember his predecessor? I never believed he was a Bush Republican. I thought, this guys looks like a Democrat to me. Maybe his hair wasn’t short enough? lol
Yeah, he was pretty stilted, like the writers had no idea how to craft a character who actually wasn’t born in the US! 😉
I found the husband and wife just downright creepy too — I wish they weren’t belivable but unfortunately….
Did you notice the poster on the kid’s wall every time they showed him talking in his room? “The Radicals” lol
Wasn’t FX the same network that put on that virus docu-drama a while back?? (I forget what it was called…) I was thinking last night that they must have been put together by the same people….I’ll go see if I can find what I am talking about!
ah, well. Not important enough to do tons of research on in any case! 😉
The original premise for this movie was a great idea but that’s about all I can say for it. Like the above comments I wonder who the clueless writers were that this screamed white, white white america…blinded by the white. Seemingly also clueless as to ever hearing that someday oil would be in short supply as if people haven’t been talking about this since the 70’s. These people acted like they didn’t live through the gas lines of the 70’s..what planet were they supposed to be from anyway.
I also thought it a bit bizarre that the guy put in charge to come up with a Plan..his brilliant idea was to drive 50 miles an hour…might he coulda started talking about making auto companies produce cars that get 45 miles a gallon or more and much more on electric cars and half a dozen other ideas to implement right away.
The farm family and the suburban family, especially the suburban family were creepy to me. Were they supposed to represent ‘real’ america? If so, I’m freaked out. And did anyone think their son who died was a look alike for Pat Tillman in his uniform?