The Age of Stupid #3: Beautiful, but Blatantly Base (finally, the essay)

ACADEMIC FILM REVIEW OF
THE AGE OF STUPID

"BEAUTIFUL, BUT BLATANTLY BASE"

BY YUBIN SUL

It's splendid. It's stunning. 

It's shouting.  

The melody is there, and it's wonderful, but it's being sung in shrieks. That's what The Age of Stupid feels like. It's stupid.

The Age of Stupid looks into the problem of climate change from the perspective of a post-apocalyptic archivist in 2055, asking the question, "why didn't we save ourselves when we had the chance?"

I would like to ask why the filmmakers didn't save this movie when they had the chance. 

POINT ONE
IT'S OVERLY MOVING

             The whole thing is utterly shocking and very motivating. It uses the modes of persuasion very well. 

             Pathos is one of the most dominant themes of the movie. Many appealing effects are used: including strong scenes like kids knowing what they shouldn’t. However, what I found interesting was the frequent switching of videos. It works with the chaos of 2055, and helps the developing of negative thoughts about the causes of climate change.

But it's so moving it gets uncomfortable. It starts to feel as if the filmmakers are injecting their thoughts into you by means of sympathy and horror. I felt repelled from the video as I realized how  manipulatively persuading it was. The creepiness goes so far as to start stimulating the idea that global warming is a hoax. 

a sort of a documentary about global warming being nothing but a hoax 

why the global warming agenda is wrong 

But global warming is real enough. Evidence is everywhere. 

(click on images)

what NASA has to say about evidence of climate change

facts about global warming 

             

The creators of The Age of Stupid knew that all too well. I think they knew it so bad they had to get the absurd seriousness through to people, and ended up producing a very vivid video.

             But it’s designed to kidnap opinions. Some spectators recoil because it's so blatant. If the delivery had been just a degree slighter of anguish, it would’ve been much easier to accept.

POINT TWO
THE WORLD IS CONNECTED

But one thing's true for sure. The world is one and we individuals in it are all connected. The film shows the links across oceans and the irony that occurs in this world of joint responsibility.

Al Duvernay works in the oil industry. But oil plagues the world with catastrophes. One is Hurricane Katrina, which reaped him of all his possessions. Then there’s the unexpected result: the Iraq war, which destroyed the lives of Jamila and Adnan, Iraqi siblings.

Piers Guy is cutting down the carbon footprints and energy consumption levels with his family. He states air travel the single most energy wasting activity an individual can do. Meanwhile in India, Jehangir Wadia is promoting air travel in an affordable price so everyone can fly.

The consumerist Americans are using up more and more oil. Shell excavates some of that oil from Layefa Malemi's hometown in Nigeria, driving her into a state of poverty and danger. She wants nothing more than to live like an American.

Fernand Pareau, the aged guide of Mont Blanc, has been witnessing the demise of great glaciers: the accumulative consequence of the pollution and fever the entire human population is generating.

In this perspective, every single person is exceedingly important in halting climate change. We must all act. If we don't, something happens to the life of an individual somewhere on Planet Earth: that person could easily be you and me.

a video that sheds some more light into how we are all connected

POINT THREE
WHAT ARE WE TO DO

             The sad thing about the movie is that it doesn't offer detailed solutions, except perhaps the life of Piers Guy. At the end, the audience is left awkwardly gaping thinking, 'Woah. So... um...?' The film gives only the start. People have to find out more for themselves on how to deal with the crisis at hand.

             I find this intriguing. It's like there is a segment of the film left blank for the audience to fill in. We have to complete the story with a narrative of our own: the film is really a patchwork of seven different fabrics, not six. But people don’t really do that.

             The video could have gone further, and it should have. The oomph was focused only on delivering the shock, which disappears behind screens soon after the ending credits roll up.

this cute animation shows some of the things we could do

             The video turned out rather stupid, but the message it was meant to convey is not. In this giant web of a world that is about to dissolve, the time to act is now. We are not stupid.