Friday, June 15, 2007

Planet Earth


I am really starting to like film more and more lately and want to create a documentary one day. I recently watched the new mini series from the BBC called Planet Earth. At first I was prepared for the typical nature film/documentary experience, but what I saw was something so compelling I literally sat through all five discs over the next two days! The experience was so visually moving that I was reminded of a moment in the 1973 film Soylent Green staring Charlton Heston and the final film of Edward G. Robinson. The film depicts the year 2022 the world of 16 billion is in the midst of a Malthusian catastrophe because humanity has failed to pursue sustainable development and has not halted population growth. Hestons character Thorne is a police detective in New York City who's own population is now 40,000,000. The world is in total failure mode and global warming now in its final moments. There is a moment in the film where Edward G. Robinsons charecter Sol Roth has opted to end his life be cause he has discovered a secret that he can not live with. As part of the ceremony he is allowed his last moments in solitude, watching a presentation of classical music and images of Earth the way it was before the disaster.
The much younger Detective Thorne who has never seen the Earth as it used to be breakes into Sols ceremony. He is caught in a moment of awe.

Sol: Can you see it!
Thorne: Yes
Sol: Isn't it beautiful?
Thorne: Oh Yes
Sol: I told you!
Thorne: I know.... (his emotions overcome him)... How could I have ever imagined.....

I was having the very same experience watching Planet Earth, I was seeing things that I have never seen before or if I have I had never seen them in this way! I can underscore the experience. I was taking in the HDTV experience in its fullest. As I grow older I am constantly trying to take in things that even in my life time have become less available. My recent trip to San Francisco and the red wood forest...The high light of my trip it was awe inspiring and just something thats becoming harder and harder to see. I'm not sure we will caught up in a disaster in the year 2022 but I am not willing to wait. The world is full of beauty and I want to see more of it. You can go to this link Planet Earth and click on the clip from this film the first few minutes say it all! I just had to pass this on to as many people I can ....Enjoy!

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