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I had reason to spend several hours with and paying close attention to the views of the filmmaker, just before the film premiered in Spain; and I found both him and his thinking, truly, fascinating! I found it equally fascinating that a man who had, once, moved audiences with The Killing Fields and The Mission, should believe that this overly plain, almost amateur feel-to-it film - which I had seen, the week before - could ever be expected to transmit to post-Avatar 3D audiences, far less caught up than Roland Joffé in the importance and purpose of redemption in modern-day society.

I, for one, agree that learning to forgive is essential and that without it, we can never find our humanity. Also, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with 'amateur': the word implies love and vocation, and I'm good with that. 'Overly plain', however, did all-too-frequently smack of 'low-budget, tinny dialogs' and 'shallow performances' - with, to some extent, the exception of Derek Jacobi.

I simply think that people turn to movie theaters for an experience they could never get from multimedia and home cinema; and movie theaters agree to deliver such an experience. And, though some of the action scenes were not entirely uninteresting (and we're, honestly, not asking for Terminators and Jurassics), to make - for general release - an entertaining and viable movie about the value of 'redemption' would appear to be as commercially unlikely as would making a movie about generosity or about humility. Such 'virtues' will either seep through the plot and hit viewers - and, hopefully, stay with them long - after they have left the theater or they won't! Yet, to play such virtues so close to the plot is - I feel - sadly counterproductive, from both a storytelling and a film-viewing point of view.

Mr. Joffé is sure to have enjoyed the experience, engulfed - as he will have been, throughout the film-making process - by this ubiquitous purpose, impregnating so many of his thoughts and actions. It's a shame he didn't give a little more importance to his side of this mutual selfishness pact we call 'film-going': that way, many thousands more might have enjoyed the experience, too.

If you've never wondered what's very likely to happen when the world's oil supplies run out - unless we're lucky enough to have (this very minute!) large numbers of very smart girls and boys in all the right places, developing alternative energy solutions and putting adequate distribution channels in place - then this show will soon put that right... and make you feel very sick, in the process!

I watched this on my birthday. Already, I was in one of those brooding moods, where you wonder what it's all been for and what's still left to do, and whether anyone can possibly kid you into thinking the future will be worth the effort - now, at 46, that you know just how much they've all been pulling the wool down over your eyes (from politicians and teachers, right down to your parents and many of your peers) and how you helped let it happen!

"Aftermath: World Without Oil" is, definitely, not a feel-good experience! Nevertheless, I would ask that this be made mandatory viewing at schools, throughout the industrialized world. Every kid should be made to watch this, 3 or 4 times, along with Monty Python's Life of Brian. Put all kids on a staple diet of truth and humor and, in just a few generations, we could have a future that is actually worth living!

Cheers!

I missed none of today's more usual material movie conventions (35 mm feel, sophist musical score, hyped digital effects, etc.) and instead thoroughly enjoyed the raw distress that the story behind this homemade DV movie conveys. A story well told, developing on the kind of piece you find buried away in a newspaper and that, then, has you thinking all day: wondering what it must have felt like, how it could possibly happen, how you might have felt and/or dealt with it... and just how many millions you would SUE THE NEGLIGENT BASTARDS WHO GOT YOU INTO THAT MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE for!! Really brave hard work by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau (took 30 months to make) and VERY BRAVE and highly effective acting by Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis. You try treading water all day, surrounded by dozens of REAL sharks! Simply simple... simply excellent!