Blue Gold – World Water Wars (2008)
Documentary – Written/Produced/Directed: Sam Bozzo
Narrator: Malcolm McDowell
Studio: Purple Turtle Films BGWW601 [Release date: April 7, 09]
Video: Picture-framed, color
Audio: DD 2.0
Extras: Deleted scenes, Interview with Sam Bozzo, Theatrical trailer
Length: 90 minutes
Rating: *****
This important documentary won as Best Environmental Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival and has been aired on PBS. It is based on the groundbreaking book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water, by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke. As one of the blurbs mentions, it sounds a similar public alarm to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, but on a subject that probably fewer of us are even aware of: the shocking threat to the water supply for the entire world. Actor Malcolm McDowell (remember Clockwork Orange?) is the film’s narrator.
Most viewers will be seeing and hearing for the first time the amazing story of the privatization of the water supply around the world by giant corporations. These companies, together with private investors and corrupt governments, are taking over the source of all life on the planet. The film’s prediction is that the wars of the future will be fought not over land or oil but over water. The awful consequences of this are well portrayed in the film, as well as the few success stories in which the people of some countries have risen up and opposed the control of their water supply, ousting the criminals from their country. Some of the facts in the film are mind-blowing – such as the amount of fresh water on the entire earth being only 3%. Or that Sydney and Melbourne will be the first major cities on earth to entirely run out of water – in about five years! The deleted scenes are well worth viewing.
The only criticism I have of the documentary is a technical one: The screen image is listed on the case as letterboxed. It is not. It is picture-framed – in other words, completely surrounded by black borders on a 16:9 display. A number of PBS programs are displayed this way, as well as some commercials on commercial stations. I don’t know the reason aside from carelessness, but it is doubly annoying to find it on a DVD. Some players and sets allow zooming in to fill a widescreen display, although this decreases the resolution. But none of my gear allows for this without greatly distorting the image.
– John Sunier
