A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (2006) (V)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Directors:

Basil Gelpke
Ray McCormack
(more)

Writers:

Basil Gelpke (writer)
Ray McCormack (writer)

Release Date:

March 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | War

Tagline:

The Oil Crash

Plot:

A theatrical documentary on the planet's dwindling oil resources.

Plot Keywords:

Oil | Baku | Scientist | Peak Oil | Energy Crisis

Awards:

5 wins

Cast

Wade Adams	...	Himself - Researcher in nanotechnology
Abdul Samad Al-Awadi	...	Himself - Oil consultant (as Abdul Samad al-Awadi)
Fadhil J. Al-Chalabi	...	Himself - Former OPEC executive secretary-general (as Fadhil al-Chalabi)
Roscoe Bartlett	...	Himself - US Congressman
Robert Bottome	...	Himself - Economist, Caracas
Colin J. Campbell	...	Himself - Oil geologist
Marcello Colitti	...	Himself - Former chief executive of ENI S.p.A.
Alberto Quirós Corradi	...	Himself - President of Allied Consulting, Caracas
Mir-Babajev Mir-Jusiv Fazilogli	...	Himself - Oil historian
Daniele Ganser	...	Himself - Historian
Dr. David L. Goodstein Ph.D.	...	Himself - Professor of physics and applied physics
Terry Lynn Karl	...	Herself - Professor of political science
Franklin M. Orr Jr.	...	Himself - Professor
Sherry Phillips	...	Herself - mayor of McCamey, Texas
Matthew David Savinar	...	Himself - Attorney
Matthew Simmons	...	Himself - Energy adviser to US President George W. Bush
Alfred M. Spormann	...	Himself - Professor of environmental microbiology
Manouchehr Takin	...	Himself - Senior petroleum analyst
Louis Woodward	...	Himself - Oil entrepreneur
Gary Yanibelli	...	Himself - Hummer car salesman

Directed by
Basil Gelpke
Ray McCormack
Reto Caduff		(co-director)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Basil Gelpke		writer
Ray McCormack		writer

Produced by
Basil Gelpke	....	executive producer
Ray McCormack	....	producer

Original Music by
Philip Glass
Daniel Schnyder

Cinematography by
Frank Messmer
Daniel Pfisterer

Film Editing by
Georgia Wyss

Production Design by
Melinda Gelpke

Sound Department
Daniel Faesch	....	sound editor
Robert Porter	....	sound editor

Camera and Electrical Department
Richard Grell	....	director of photography: additional photography
Bradley Stonesifer	....	assistant camera

Editorial Department
Florian Nussbaumer	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Linda Litowsky	....	publicist

Production Companies

• Lava Productions

Distributors

• Columbus Film (2007) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Canvas (2007) (Belgium) (TV) (first national airing)
• Docurama (2006) (USA) (all media)
• Dogwoof Pictures (2007) (UK) (all media)
• Telepool (2007) (worldwide) (all media)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (2008) (Finland) (TV)

Other Companies

• Cinetic Media  sales

Also Known As:

A Crude Awakening (USA) (short title)
Ein böses Erwachen - Der Ölcrash (Germany) (TV title)
OilCrash (International: English title) (short title)

Runtime:

84 min | 85 min (approx)

Country:

Switzerland | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG | Australia:G | New Zealand:G

Filming Locations:

Baku, Azerbaijan

Company:

Lava Productions

Like Snorting Cocaine: It's Addictive

The most fascinating aspect to A CRUDE AWAKENING is that the film was made not by some left-wing conspiracy theorists with ties to Greenpeace or The World Wildlife Fund, but by two Swiss directors, one (Gelpke) with a background in anthropology, economics, war reporting, and science films, and the other (McCormack) who holds an honors degree in Environmental Policy and Management. These two men know how to make a documentary that looks at both sides of our oil needs and industry while not knocking our addictive behavior towards gasoline. It does lack a few aspects in the end, but holds your attention enough to make the whole watchable.

The focus, as the title suggests, is on our crude oil dependency. We all know oil won't last forever, right? Right? Please tell me you know this. If not, you really need to watch this film. It looks at the boom and bust methodology used in early crude oil finds and how we naively thought (up until the 1970s) that oil/gas would last forever.

The story slashes across socio-economic ground, taking in opinions from specialists in the field to Senators and economists. All of them, without exception, realize that oil isn't going to last much longer. The need to find alternative fuels that are (and here's the key) affordable is on.

The great thing is that these men and women talk about how vital oil and natural gas is to our financial existence, simply because it is so cheap. You just can't find energy this affordable. Fuel cell technology, hydrogen fuels, solar, and many other alternatives are discussed but are exceptionally expensive to produce and market to the general population. No doubt we have a lot of worries coming our way as carbon-based fuels become more and more scarce.

The only lacking aspect in this documentary was that there's very little time given over to these alternative energy methods, and no experts on said same. All of the information comes from experts in the gas industry or those who monitor it. To truly round-out the program I would've liked to have seen specialists in alternative car manufacturing and other items that are undoubtedly headed our way.

Still, this is an insightful documentary to get your hands on. And one to show your kids to get them on-the-ball about what they can do to help decrease our oil addiction.