Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has made a global case, in the week leading up to the US election, that ignoring climate change will result in food becoming scarce and economic superpowers being brought to their knees.
The Oscar-winning actor's documentary Before The Flood debuted in its entirety overnight via National Geographic's YouTube channel, quickly racking up more than 2.8 million views and counting.
More Entertainment Videos
- Video duration
- 02:18
Trailer: Before the Flood
- Video duration
- 00:30
Trailer: Poldark (Season 2, Spisode 8)
- Video duration
- 00:58
Trailer: Blaque Showgirls
- Video duration
- 00:59
Fantastic Beasts: A Magical History
- Video duration
- 01:55
Trailer: T2: Trainspotting
- Video duration
- 02:24
Trailer: Wonder Woman
- Video duration
- 00:39
Trailer: First Dates
- Video duration
- 02:02
Trailer: Fuller House (season 2)
Trailer: Before the Flood
Leonardo DiCaprio presents a documentary examining how climate change affects our environment and what society can do prevent the demise of the planet.
Spurred by the 41-year-old's naming as a United Nations Messenger of Peace on Climate Change in 2014, the film charts his personal journey into environmental activism, starting with a lively reminiscence of the impact a childhood reproduction of Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden Of Earthly Delights had on his social conscience.
"My first visual memories are of this framed poster above my crib. I would stare at it every night before I went to bed," he says at the opening of the film.
"The last panel, which is the most nightmarish one especially from a young child's perspective, is this twisted, decayed, burned landscape, a paradise that has been degraded and destroyed."
From there, DiCaprio pursues interviews with a range of world leaders and innovators, including Barack Obama, Pope Francis, Ban Ki-Moon and Elon Musk, to discuss factors that threaten Earth's sustainability, while also taking aim at global warming skeptics; including Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, and Fox News' Sean Hannity, who once criticised DiCaprio's support for "made-up climate change and a crisis that doesn't exist".
"The ocean is not Republican and it's not Democratic, all it knows how to do is rise," Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine tells DiCaprio in the doco, followed by Cruz's denials and this from Trump at an election rally: "It's supposed to be 70 degrees today and it's freezing (pause for laughter). Speaking of global warming, where is ...? We need some global warming."
DiCaprio has made no secret of his Democratic leanings and even speaking at a White House screening of the documentary in October, the star appeared to have a dig at the Republican nominee.
"If you don't believe in climate change, you don't believe in facts, and science, and empirical truths," he said. "And, in my humble opinion, [you] should not be allowed to hold public office."
It should be noted that Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton has committed to a $US60 billion 10-year energy, environment and climate plan as part of her election platform.
But the Hollywood A-lister had to back out of hosting a Hillary Clinton fundraiser at his Los Angeles home in August, citing changes to the film's production schedule as the reason for the last-minute change in plans.
Some news organisations have suggested the turnaround may have been due to a Hollywood Reporter exposé, which reported days earlier that the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF) received donations linked to a multibillion-dollar embezzlement scandal in Malaysia, at a time when Hillary and Bill Clinton's charitable fund was under scrutiny.
The LDF, set up in 1998, supports a range of environmental projects, including Before The Flood.
DiCaprio representatives have since said that any questionable gifts or donations would have been returned in July (before the exposé) after the foundation reached out to investigators.
It appears that getting the documentary released before the election has been the star's top priority. And wishing to avoid being caught in the quagmire of the dirty electioneering currently underway could explain why DiCaprio's documentary barely looks at the candidates, rather he continues to deliver body blows to political arguments against changing industry and society to counter climate change.
He also spends a few minutes countering what might be the most obvious criticism laid at the project.
"My footprint is probably a lot bigger than most people's," he says, discussing his globetrotting reliance on fossil fuels. "There are times when I question, what is the right thing to do? There are over a billion people out there without electricity, and they want lights, they want heat, they want the lifestyle we've had for the last hundred years.
"If we're going to solve this problem, we all have a responsibility to set an example," he adds. "And more than that, to help the developing world transition before it's too late."
Since its limited theatrical run in the US last month, the film has received mixed reviews, with Fairfax Media TV critic Melinda Houston calling it "sobering and powerful".
Critics praised DiCaprio for turning what could've been a vanity project into a passionate case for environmental reform that may change a few minds, while others have chided him for ignoring grassroots activism and instead peddling a more privileged perspective: "That only the super elites can save us," as Slant's Keith Watson wrote.
#BeforetheFlood starts now on @NatGeoChannel. Tune in and join the movement.
— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) October 31, 2016
"I've been incredibly moved by so many climate change documentaries in the past, but I never felt that I saw one that articulated the science clearly to the public," DiCaprio told an audience last month before a screening in London.
"The journey for me was to try and make a modern-day film about climate change. I've been studying this issue for the past 15 years, I've been watching it very closely. What's incredibly terrifying is that things are happening way ahead of the scientific projections, 15 or 20 years ago."
The film, curiously directed by Fisher Stevens, the actor best known for playing Indian inventor Ben Jabituya in Short Circuit (a role famously lampooned by Aziz Ansari on Master Of None), is produced by RatPac Entertainment, James Packer's collaboration with producer Brett Ratner.
The documentary screened on Sunday on the National Geographic Channel and broadcast in 171 countries in 45 languages. It has also been made freely available on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, and Hulu.
You can watch the full film below:
2 comments
New User? Sign up