Public Reviews
Post your reviews and ratings of The Age Of Stupid below. There's also tonnes of viewers' feedback from screenings here, as well as lots more reviews of varying levels of hysteria on other sites: Rotten Tomatoes - Amazon UK - Amazon USA - IMDB - BBC.
If you hated our film and want to be very rude about it, go for it. But any comments from climate deniers/sceptics will be deleted. The debate about whether climate change is partly man-made is over. One of the key reasons we are now so desperately short of time in which to act to avert runaway climate change is that decades were lost to the deniers' pointless, ill-informed, obfuscating arguments. See Climate Denial for more.
it's a very beautiful movie that makes me think about problems as climate change and what we can do about it , and that we don't always have to think about ourselves , but also about other people .
x
We chose this film to show to our East Devon Village as we thought is was humourous and very human as well as highlighting Climate Change issues.
The day of the film and our village was covered in snow and ice but we carried on and were delighted to welcome 45 people to our village hall.
We had a great Q&A session afterwards with a leading Met office scientist and an industry expert in Renewable Energies.
Most people felt the film was very good and enjoyable and we were really pleased with the outcome and encouraged everyone to go away and make positive lifestyle changes for themselves and to encourage others.
Well done to all involved. You should all be very proud of yourselves.
Absolutely an amazing piece of a work, I truely enjoyed the way of storytelling and think it'l get it's point across to everyone out there, yet I also fear it'l discourage people because you and I cant make such a big difference as long as oil companies are burning up gasses and stuff like that is happening...
A million thanks to the whole team !
You've made a great film there, and I have done and will do all I can to let everyone know about it, in France where I live and elsewhere. You've managed to illustrate in a short film so many points that I've been trying to explain over the last decade or two ! Smashing job, you deserve all our thanks and encouragement.
Franny - it's strange how much it feels like you're part of the family. I'm 32 but have been working in various organizations since I was a teenager, trying to make people realize what's going on. They are slowly getting there, even though it's still tough on most people to realize they must change their entire lifestyle, not just give a little money to an NGO or get a different car, and films like yours are what they need to accelerate that wake-up process. So thanks for being you and having done this ! Working on campaigns or other such projects can be highly unrewarding, so please at least remember that you have masses of fans out there who are terribly thankful for all you've done/are doing !!
About Copenhagen, no you haven't done all that for nothing. A whole movement is getting going, people all over the planet are getting in contact, networking, working on common solutions. In France, lots are creating associations to work with local producers, cut transport, create eco-villages. There are the Transition Towns and lots of other seeds growing.
I'm pretty sure with time this will also give you new ideas for the next step ahead. Take care, best wishes to you, the whole team and the climate for 2010 !
I can't really select a rating yet as I have not seen the film. I'm in BC Canada. I can't order the Euro version on DVD as it is PAL. AFAIK the film will not show in my very stupid provincial town. I may be able to order it from Amazon in a week or three, but I'd rather give my money directly to the producers -- let's face it, Amazon is fairly evil (union busting, hyperconsumer outlet etc). I can't download the digi version from the official website because they won't download to Canada. I could rip off a copy via Torrent (if I'm willing to tie up my not-so-hot connection for a couple of weeks), but that would mean not sending money to the producers and I'm not happy about that.
What are my options??? I'd just like to get a copy of the flick in NTSC format, by paying my money primarily to the actual makers of the film and not some buncha marketeers.
Frustrated.
Concerning the documentary about funding and making the film - screened on the Community Channel:
Given that you're preaching to the choir here. It came across as wasteful of donator's resources as I followed the seemingly direction-less franny around with her less than half-baked ideas, many of them off-topic. I feel that anyone sitting on the fence would be unlikely to be convinced by the hackneyed doomsday undertones and lack of subject knowledge by the film-maker.
I got the impression that the film crew were the only ones to benefit as they globe-trotted the money away. Sorry, but this is what I truly feel; nowadays, one can save resources by (extensively) researching via the web and buying cheap (or free) stock images and film footage. So much more could have been achieved if the funding had been used prudently and the film-maker had even an average understanding of the key issues and where most impact can be made, before embarking on the project. That said Franny's heart seems to be in the right place.
Considering the method of funding and final budget the end result, for me, is superb, (despite others criticism of the graphics). The oft quoted "keep it simple, stupid", I think helps to get the message across and is appropriate for the story. Other films/documentaries, over complicate by use of scientific and statistical headlines that appeal to the cranial geek, the human and holistic approach used is far more appealing to the generation of short attention span, on-line gaming, television couch potato idiots. (It isn't going to change their ways but it is more watchable and may hopefully create a sleeper generation of environmentalists.)
Why five stars? Because this is an amazing, (yet incomplete), description of climate change focused on two aspects of anthropogenic activity, i.e. oil and consumerism. The examples depicted are wholly relevant, accurate and timely.
There needs to be a follow up.
I wanted to be able to say really good - but I felt there was there was not enough time dedicated to the failure of society - ie the rampant consumerism, very apt at the moment after the 'credit crunch' when all Govts around the world have responded by tax cuts and stimulus packages to get people spending and consuming again...aagh.
Also felt there was too much time on the wind turbine issue, not a solution and certainly not environmentally friendly (all that concrete couldn't be much worse). What about solar? hardly got a mention. Solar panels on every roof and strict rationing of energy use is the only thing that might save us. Not going to happen? You're right - we are doomed - and we deserve to be. This truly is the age of stupid. Thanks for trying. By the way BBC you could put this on primetime BBC1 is you were serious.
Very depressing film and I hope for my childrens' sake that it doesn't happen as predicted. I still have hope for the human race but only if we can focus on achieving what seems to be impossible now. We can all work together to do this. I'm sure we can do it.
Thank you for all the hard work you put into this, you are truly heroes of our time.
With or without climate change - the world as we know it will come to a grinding hold soon thanks to our blind dependency on finite fossil fuels.
I really hope that your next movie is going to be about peak oil and the energy crisis we're in for over the coming decade!
People need to understand global energy politics and act themselves - there's no way governments can sort out this mess!
All the best
Meike
Hi,
Just wanted to say I found your film very moving and disturbing (in the way it was meant to be). My wife and I have been discussing what we can do to make a positive difference to the situation and are currently hatching a plan.
Thank you
Alex =]
I believe climate change is a serious issue but I feel a film like this is counter productive.
It summed up how much of concern for the environment becomes high and mighty and judgemental of other people's lives.
There seemed to be a general distain for the fact that we all have the basics, such as food, clothing, heat and water and a desire to make ordinary people feel guilty about that rather than campaigning for those in poor countries to be brought out of poverty.
I was angered by the claim made the energy is "ridiculously cheap" when so many, even in so called "rich" countries are struggling to pay their heating bills.
a testament to the incomprehensible stupidity of the human race.
so very very sad
This should be broadcast in the middle of X-Factor.. everyone should see it... the world needs to keep on turning, business needs to take place, air travel is vital.. but we can produce sustainable energy.. I hope the people shown opposing the windfarm in Bedford will be able to look their Grandchildren in the eye.. it will be difficult for them to explain their short-sighted views.
LIKE THE WORK YOU ALL PUT IN, NICE ONE!
HAD AN IDEA ABOUT THE FACT THAT THESE PEOPLE CAN N0T GET THE FACT THAT THERE IS A PROBLEM HERE, L E T - P O V E R T Y
P R O D U C E - T H E - C L E A N - E N E R G Y - W E - A L L - N E E D !
THERE BY SORTING OUT A LOT OF OTHER PROBLEMS THAT WE ARE ALL ABLE TO SEE HAPPENING BUT NOT DOING MUCH ABOUT. IT WOULD BE SOMETHING TO SAY TO FUTURE GENERATIONS WE WIPED POVERTY OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH IN THE FACE OF GLOBAL WARMING. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE.
Congratulations to Franny Armstrong, Mark Lynas, Richard Betts, Daniel Voteil and all the team on a fantastic programme. The 10:10 initiative is something everyone can do. Your programme is popularising 10:10 like nothing before. Leading by example delivers results, while climate deniers have the opposite effect. Perhaps if you could put up a page on your site for celebs who pledge to take on 10:10, then their example will inspire even more people and have a snowball effect.
Your ability to netcast live footage from Copenhagen, and weave in clips, all on a shoestring, is remarkable. The team is highly professional, the tone is just right, the content a bit simple but no mistaking its sincerity, and the clarity and the invective enthusiasm all make for inspirational viewing. Congratulations again, and best of luck with the rest of the week.
I loved the film! Giving it 5 stars to boast the "stupid" rating & because I think it's awesome (along with the Making Of!), but I'll go for a mildly critical review.
+++ I'll start with my main point. I understand the need to filter the comments by deniers, but PLEASE DON'T ERASE THEM! Move them to another page if needed, or create a forum. Reasons as follows.
+A+ tolerance is strength. If the world should avoid catastrophe, the deniers' lives & efforts are as important as all others'. One of the ways they are manipulated is the suggestion that their lives are not valued by the activists, because we don't like how they live and because we shut them up. By publishing their comments, we take the latter argument away. Also, disapproving of what they say but respecting their right to say it would show that we're not afraid of them, and respect the fact that free speech makes this movie possible in the first place.
+B+ intolerance breeds aggression. Related. Unfortunately we can't wish the deniers away, just as they can't wish climate change away. Also I'd wager that, more than the average person, they tend to be more excitable and more likely to support & perhaps commit violence. As the world changes, many things in society will fall out of balance. There'll almost definitely be right-wing groups taking matters into their own hands because their worlds will be crumbling, and, preemptively, the last I'd want to do is deny them an avenue to expend their energies non-violently.
+C+ know thine nemesis. As an anthropologist I would love to see what the deniers say &, time permitting, analyze it. I know that the media fraud committed on them has been documented but you can never have enough data to support this; knowing who the deniers are and how they form their beliefs is a very interesting thing to explore in itself, and can ultimately help in marginalizing the big media fogmongers.
+++ Movie itself: masterfully done in terms of blending the stories & throwing in "future" commentary as a glue & for the shock value. This of course makes it a docu-scifi hybrid rather than just a documentary. I really don't think anyone was portrayed as a villain, as some say; Piers & the mountain guide are obviously heroes but others are presented in a nuanced fashion. As a result, in spite of the urgency of the message, you showed us that nothing is simple except for the fact that we're screwed if we don't act. Congrats.
+++ Mild disappointment: I thought some of the animations, esp. at the end of the movie (future London, sending the message into space), looked contrived. I can see that your animators kept quitting! Too late now, but as I'm sure you know, the Yes Men have an excellent animator.
+++ Lastly a question: the only "bad future" bit I didn't get was "The North Sea is boiling" around 2040. What is this based on -- surely we wouldn't get 100 C heatwaves by then?
Anyway, great film.
The Age Of Stupid opened on 78 screens across the UK - a remarkable feat for a genre-defying independent feature made on a shoe string, funded by ordinary households and distributed with a launch budget of just £130,000. To put this in perspective, An Inconvenient Truth opened in 2006 on just 18 screens and a typical UK-wide release spends around £650,000 telling people to go and see their film.
So why all the fuss?
Four years ago McLibel director Fanny Amstrong and producer Lizzie Gillett set about making a documentary called (at the time) Crude, which charted the ugly side of the oil industry. Fast forward to 2009 and the project has finally emerged as a surprisingly human and touching call-to-arms about climate change called Age Of Stupid.
The film opens in 2055 with Pete Postlethwaite, archivist of a ruined earth, looking back at images of the present day, trying to answer the question of why humanity didn't save itself when it had the chance. Archival news material and animated sequences are used to provide background and context, but the focus is on documentary stories of real people facing the effects of our hunger for fossil fuels.
As a result, the film does not labour under the burden of attempting to sway the undecided through facts and figures - though it's possible that even Sarah Palin herself could not fail to be affected by the story of Fernand Pareau, an octogenarian French mountain guide, showing us the glacier he loves as it withers away before his eyes.
As we explore the ageing archivist's question, we encounter "not in my back yard" anti-wind farm protesters, committed climate change activists and an entrepreneur who dreams of ending poverty by starting India's third budget airline. Blame is ultimately laid at the feet of our culture of consumerism, and the implication is that profound social changes will be required to survive the present age - poignantly exemplified in a sequence involving Alvin DuVernay, a hurricane Katrina survivor who, having lost all of his possessions, philosophically reflects on what it took for him to realise what was actually important to him.
At the time of writing, around half of the IMDb votes have given the film a rating of 9 or 10 and around a quarter have given it rating of 1. This polarisation is not about artistic merit, but between those for whom the film has deeply resonated and those who find it confronting and uncomfortable.
I've read some complaints about the film being preachy, and it is certainly true that there is forceful criticism of – say – Shell's operations in the Niger delta and the Iraq war. There is no attempt to present any positive outcome of these interventions, but then I'm not expecting a rush of filmmakers wanting to fill this particular gap in the market.
In general the voices of dissent come from the mouths of those directly affected, and indeed it is the human face of these stories that is one of the film's engaging strengths. History's witness is not always the great orator we want it to be, but over 90 minutes the film manages to maintain a good pace and link the various threads together.
The Age Of Stupid has dispensed with convention in a multitude of ways, not the least of which is the way it has forced its way onto our screens, seemingly through sheer force of will alone. Ultimately the merit of the film is not about the quality of editing or its performances, but its transformational potential. I genuinely think that many viewers will leave the cinema and, like Alvin DuVernay, start to question the world which surrounds them, and it is this quality which makes The Age Of Stupid a truly remarkable film.
This one changed everything,
Although I understand and comprehend the role that Al Gore's movie played in the USA, Gore's work is perhaps best seen as a US phenomenon. It is true that he has been very important in the broader context - not the least due to his primary audience (USA, that is) being responsible for such staggering volumes of material/energy consumption on this planet - but his movie was never really that mental quantum leap on the other side of the pond - at least not here in Sweden. I guess it's related to education: a foul combination of conspiracists-out-of-work and lobbyists-very-much-at-work put the USA somewhat behind the rest of the world, as reflected in the non-signing of the Kyoto protocol. As a business owner, I run an online store here in Sweden through which I sell consumer products. The Age of Stupid hasn't stopped me, but it has put it all - and I mean ALL - in a totally new perspective. I did cry when E.T. flew home in his spaceship - I was 14 at the time - so The Age of Stupid is the second movie ever that has made me cry. We live in a world where economic growth, employment and profits somehow are seen as having a higher priority than planetary/human survival. Somehow, we (at least me) live under the pretext that the human spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation would somehow wither away if we were to reduce, or even stabilize, our planetary load. Furthermore, we have a hard time translating happiness, and its increase, into something that doesn't has to do with consumerism. The Age of Stupid is a documentary that not only made me vegetarian, but it has also fundamentally changed the way I do business. My e-store now contains a consumption warning, explicitly asking my would-be customers NOT to shop - or at least restrict their spending as much as possible. I encourage other business owners to do the same - which of course is a futile and even comical thing to do for those who hasn't seen this film. So make sure as many people as possible get the chance to watch it. Ask your local cinema to put it up, order a DVD and hold private screenings.
The best 2009 film, and in my top ten films ever.
As a scientist (biochemist) almost every day I feel deep pain in my heart when the news shows frustrating human impact on the nature. Maybe 10 years pass since I joined Greenpeace site, but political instability in my country (Serbia) didn't let me to join the Greenpeace world protests, but I plan to participate in the future. The plot of this movie is more than realistic, all scientific evidences predicts very black future if global emission of greenhouse gases doesn't rapidly decrease until 2015. So, plotted 2055. tower whit the Archivist wouldn't be SF... The film have strong green message, and I am 100% sure that I'll watch again and recommend the film to my friends.
I am a student from China. I have watched the video,which is impressed and makes me to take care of what we do nowadays.I were shocked by what would happen in 2055.Of course ,we all do not want that happen.So We should face the Global Warming seriously.
As a student from China, as far as I know my country is now trying a new development way which is quite different from the developed countries used to be.We are trying to create a cyclic economy.China is doing her effort to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.We are focusing on new clean power instead of thermal power.But we need much help,such as wind power technology and nuclear power technology.I am happy our country is taking the climate change problem into consideration,such as the government of my hometown Tangshan,a big city near Beijing,is considering to build wind farm near sea.
We have the land suitable for wind form,I hope Uk can give us some help to build more wind farms because it is much easier to build in China than UK and is good for everyone on this planet.China is assuming her responsibility.I think we together can change the situation before it is too late.
Best wishes!
I have been arranging screenings for work for a over a month now and however the number of attendees could be higher, I can still say the film shocks the audience. I've seen the comments below saying there is no scientific evidence showed in the film. Do you really need it?? Can't you see what's going on out there? Yes, it's been going on for a long time and now it's effecting West, that's why people are more and more concerned. When your comfort zone doesn't exist anymore then you will start panicking too....just wait. Every time I arrange a screening, i watch it again and again and can tell you that no matter how skeptical a person is, there are things on the film that cannot be questioned.
I recently watched this Doco and thought that it was really well done. It is a must see for those of us that have cared long before An Inconvenient Truth but still feel like we can’t seem to find the time to contribute to solving these issues. I felt that without throwing it in your face the thing this doco did for me was remind me that it is the way we the people choose to think about this problem that will determine the outcome. We have to lead by example and unlearn the learned compromises that keep holding us back.My first response was to pack up and get out of the city, find an intentional community and be the best I can be for the environment but I quickly reminded myself that this is not actually a logistically practical strategy for us all to follow. We need to make good with where we are. Retro fit and take responsibility for what we have created thus for not just turn our backs on it. Just thinking out loud.
It was engrossing, engaging and a must see and participate film.
You don’t have to “believe” in global warming to appreciate this movie. Whether we’re headed for a world catastrophe or not, you should still cultivate a level of environmental responsibility.
As for the message of the movie, I was in complete agreement before I saw it, so I was impressed more from the stories that were told. The movie didn’t suddenly drive me to act on climate change and become an activist, but a lot of people interviewed said that is what happened to them. That happened to me several years ago. I started reading some articles about climate change, real science articles, and it really scared me. So I was already on board. This movie would be wonderful to see, though, for people who know about climate change in general but not really how bad it is and how little time we have left.
The Age of Stupid should serve as a wake-up call to both the general population and global elites, even though it's a shade over-hyped and offers nothing particular revelatory to those familiar with the subject.
The film lacks focus, rapidly flitting between subjects, clips and stories, making it tough to follow at times. It also relies too heavily on anecdotal evidence—some hard stats would provide some much needed heft. Most importantly, Armstrong’s doomsday scenario offers no concrete suggestions or solutions.
The method of storytelling is effective because it is both intimidating and encouraging. Intimidating in that the means of our destruction has already shown itself and there is some question as to whether we can stop it. Encouraging in that there are a lot of people that realize what is happening and are doing things to fix it.
There are some cool animations and the storytelling conceit helps to break up what could have been fairly boring documentary footage. Additionally, it helps to give the different footage a common thread.
After waiting rather impatiently to see The Age of Stupid I feel a bit deflated. It's probably because I'm part of the choir, very little on the film was news to me. I guess I was hoping that it would show the consequences of our lack of action. That's what people need to see, the consequences in all their gory glory. Sadly, I don't think the film was the kick in the pants that society needs and deserves. Having said that, guess what everyone is getting for Christmas?