onamission This is bleak and uncompromising stuff. Made in a tradition reminiscent of the best Cold War books and productions on nuclear war, an activist, a physicist, a politician and a geologist explain in rational and dispassionate terms the background to the energy crisis we face and, most alarmingly, highlight how totally unprepared we are to adjust to a world where oil is a scant resource, one we will all face in just a few years time. There are no vox pops to add light entertainment, no colourful graphics, no sense of theatre, no narrator to soften the blows of the stark reality in the experts' words. The effect is highly disturbing and makes a movie no-one with a sense of responsibility to the next generation should miss.

lastliberal This is the hard truth. Not some political statement, but real scientists and oil historians explaining the history of oil and where we are heading. It does not go down easy.If you think it will last forever, then you would be in the company of Texans, Russians and Venezuelans that thought their fields would last forever and now sit on barren land. There is only so much underground and we know where all of it is.If you think "Blood for Oil" is just an anti-war slogan, you will be surprised that the major conflicts going on right now - Darfur and Iraq - are about oil, not religion or ethnic issues. You must also be prepared for the fact that we will have continuous war in the future to keep SUVs on the road.If you think that all the alternatives to oil that have been proposed will solve the problem, then you really need to find out just what we can expect. It will surprise you, I'm sure.Look at the Amish and how they live. That is our future. If you think otherwise, you really need to put this film in your queue.

ReliableSource Those whom the documentary "A Crude Awakening" fails to awaken now, to the fast approaching consequences of peaked oil depletion, at a time of unprecedented, and ever growing demand, just may not be awakeable, or won't likely wake up before it's too late.Unlike that other much hyped Hollywood liberal misappropriation of the catastrophic global warming issue, to serve the personal needs of one disingenuous politician, "A Crude Awakening" is a Swiss production, that employs a broad range of viewpoints, from 27 scientists and energy experts, who's collective opinions all provide greater credibility to the message.There's enough information concisely crammed into this one and half hour film for it to be the basis of a full semester's self-directed course of study... perhaps several semesters. In the special features, included on the DVD version, there is an extra chapter on the problems of petrostates, and four extended interviews with the following experts:Colin Campbell: Oil geologist; consultant to numerous oil companies; and founder of ASPO www.peakoil.netMatt Simmons: Energy investment analyst; author of "Twilight in the Desert"Fadhil Chalabi: Former Acting Secretary-General of OPEC; and former Iraqi Oil MinisterDavid L. Goodstein: Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at the California Institute of TechnologyWhile many viewing this documentary might perceive its realistic appraisal of the demise of cheap and abundant energy as pessimistic, I consider it to be objectively quite optimistic, considering that it did not linger long on the very inconvenient truth that there are over six billion people wanting to have a petroleum based high standard of living, that can't possibly be sustained for much longer, even if there were only two billion people wanting it. "Civilization" has only ever had one answer for that kind of problem. The thin thread that "A Crude Awakening" seems to hang its optimism on is the assumption that if enough people become fully aware of this totally unavoidable event sooner, rather than later, then human ingenuity, combined with a level of human cooperation the world has never before seen, might possibly attenuate the consequences for at least some of those who awaken.

Brian If you think Hubbert's Peak is some up and coming ski resort, you really need to see this film. Directors Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack have crafted an informative and visually stunning film on the ramifications of Peak Oil. The film delves into the history of the oil age and how once booming oil centers such as Baku, Azerbajian and Maracaibo, Venezuela have morphed into ghost towns once the oil was gone. The manner in which access to oil is driving U.S foreign policy, the ubiquitous nature of oil in modern society, and the lack of scalable efficient alternatives to petroleum are presented for the viewer's consideration. Oh, I forgot to mention the discussion of the concept of Peak Oil: that once aggregate world oil output reaches its maximum peak, subsequent recovery will plateau and then begin a permanent decline. Once this decline commences, all hell will break loose with the world economy. Depending on the experts, this decline could already be under way or it could be 20 years away, but it is generally accepted that it is on the horizon. Gelpke and McCormack seamlessly present interviews with knowledgeable thoughtful proponents of peak oil (e.g. Colin Campbell and Roscoe Bartlett) as well as the occasional demagogue (e.g. Matt Savinar). The effect is to inform (in a very entertaining way) rather than frighten. The visual style of the film is reminiscent of Michael Mann and the Phillip Glass soundtrack is on a par with the best work of Ennio Morricone. If you liked "An Inconvenient Truth", you will be enthralled by this equally important yet superior film.