On this day in 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio burned for the third or fourth time. It was the smallest of the river fires, but it was enough to start up a movement that is still going today.
So far, the Environmental Movement has managed to start a government agency and turn the tides of elections. It’s even managed to make a few bucks in the world of movies.
PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997)
Written and Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli are known for their environmental messages wrapped in amazing visuals and moving stories. (See also Castle In The Sky and Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind.) Princess Mononoke, though, takes these stories to the next level where nature starts actually fighting back.
It’s almost a Tarzan story with a girl names San, who was raised by wolves in the forest. She tries to help Ashitaka, a young man who was cursed when he fought a large boar. He travels into the forest, finding Iron Town.
The people of Iron Town are waging a war with the forest to procure its resources. Unfortunately, they’ve also unleashed a seemingly evil spirit by killing the boar god that protected the forest. Iron Town isn’t all bad, though, because it’s where the outcasts of Japan go to live normal lives. So what’s a guy to do? Go off with the wolf girl, of course!
Princess Mononoke is a complex film that challenges a lot of peoples’ notions about anime. It’s also the first Ghibli film that’s not really for kids, although it’s not so violent that kids couldn’t watch it. Definitely one of the peaks of a studio with no real valleys.
STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME (1986)
Written by Leonard Nimoy, Harve Bennett, Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Nicholas Meyer
Based on series created by Gene Roddenberry
Directed by Leonard Nimoy
Yep. That’s right. I’m putting the one with the whales on here. It doesn’t have the gravitas of The Wrath Of Khan or the great mystery of The Undiscovered Country, but it’s a great way to end the trilogy that starts with Khan.
The film starts with the crew getting home from their adventures with the Genesis Project only to find out that an alien probe is destroying everything in its path. When they figure out that the probe is speaking Whale, it’s off to the mid-80s!
Yeah, it’s a silly “fish out of water” sci-fi flick…but it’s characters that we know and love having another adventure like they had in the old days. It’s not epic (although, it is a “fate of the world” story). It’s nothing but a really fun movie. It also happens to have a message about destroying nature. After all, the thing that we kill today could have saved our lives tomorrow. “To hunt a species to extinction is not logical.”
By the way, I’m not down with these 80s trailers that show you THE WHOLE MOVIE in two minutes.
WALL-E (2008)
Written by Andrew Stanton, Pete Doctor, Jim Reardon
Directed by Andrew Stanton
Two weeks in a row, I know. But when this movie doesn’t fit, I’ll stop including it. WALL-E‘s world has been destroyed by trash.
In fact, that’s all it is these days. He and his robot friends are there to clean it all up so that the humans can come back. Unfortunately, he’s the last of the trash-bots. When he’s visited by EVE, a sleek robot that drops out of the sky, he falls instantly in love. (“How,” you ask? “He’s a robot!” Sshhh!) Now he has to win her “heart” AND figure out how to get the humans to realize that they need to actually move about instead of being completely sedentary. The future according to WALL-E is unfortunately not too far off.
Sure, we’re not floating around in Future Rascals just yet, but we do seem to be doing as much as possible to just sit in a chair all day, having things come to us instead of leaving the house to go get things.
CHINATOWN (1974)
Written by Robert Towne/Roman Polanski
Directed by Roman Polanski
When you think of this, one of the most perfect films ever made, you don’t immediately think “environmentalists!” You usually think nose cutting, or one of Jack Nicholson’s best performances ever, or Faye Dunaway looking perfectly “of the period.”
But really, this film is all about water and how the control of it basically can make or break a city. Jake Gittes (Nicholson) is just asked to find out if Evelyn Mulwray’s (Dunaway) husband is cheating on her. That leads to him getting caught up in a scandal involving murder, incest and, of course, water. If you haven’t seen this movie, go rent it right now.
It is absolutely a touchstone of film and, while not an “environmental film” per se, it does bring up the politics that fire the decisions made about these issues.
CHILDREN OF MEN (2006)
Written by Alfonso Cuaron, Timothy J Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby
Based on book by PD James
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron
This vision of a future where women are a rocky place where mens’ seed can find no purchase is more frightening than just about any horror film made in the last ten years.
Theo (Clive Owen) is tasked with finding and protecting a young woman who has, through some freak of nature, become pregnant. Could she be the last hope for a dying species? Or is she actually just a one-off? The world that Cuaron creates by loosely adapting James’ novel is certainly a warning of what might come if we keep pulling all of the resources out of the Earth.
No, we may not become barren (although, who knows?), but the economic and societal chaos that ensues from that ecological tragedy could come from any number of environmental issues in our own world. Imagine if we don’t have an alternative fuel source and we suddenly run out of oil.
Where do you think we’ll be?
