Home - Nosso Planeta, Nossa Casa

I was gripped from start to end, at first by its breathtaking aerial footage, then progressively also by its even more breathtaking dramatic plot, which we all are living. No wonder Yann Arthus-Bertrand spent 15 years preparing for the production of Home.

The narration is top-notch, arranged in perfect logic sense and fueled with precise and profound wording, reminds me of audio versions of Scientific American. I had thought it was a pity that David Attenborough wasn't a part of this amazing project, but Glenn Close, five-time Oscar nominee, indeed gave a mesmerizing voice performance, and along with a powerful score, deeply drew me into Home's elaborate illustrations and logical reasonings.

Some might think this documentary is so emotive that it's more of a propaganda despite how fact-based it is, but isn't a subject like this meant to be emotive? No this is not the kind of documentary that presents you with non-judged information for you to consider and debate- of course it is not, it's telling you the most overwhelming and alarming truth through worldwide facts and images in a careful logic flow, and yes with a great lot of passion built in! Vastly connected with the daily life of everyone and the fate of the human race, the movie left me steeped in thoughts. Like said many times in the movie, everything is linked, I find tons of images flashing in my head rapidly after watching Home, and more importantly, now I look at them linked together in a meaningful way.

Let me put it this way, if the entire human race were to be extinct on this planet, Home would be the recording that we should bury deep underground for extra-terrestrials to find out what happened and learn the lesson of our species- it is that good.

Well, I am not a native speaker, so please bear with me! I have seen this movie twice now and I really wanted to like it. I love the Planet Earth-Series and other nature/environment-related movies, but this one is a little...special. First of all, the visuals (e.g. photography) are stunning and very beautiful. Sadly, this is the only real good thing about this movie. What I consider bad about this movie? Well, there are several things:

The whole movie has a kind of instructive touch (as in preaching from above to dumb people) and it seems as if the filmmakers thought of their audience as stupid and therefore repeat everything over and over again - maybe they have to, but it still leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. | The narration: Firstly, the (female) narrator is not bad, but in no way can she compare to David Attenborough of the Planet Earth-Series. The narration makes this movie seem a little alarmist, but not in a way that shocks you and makes you want to change things, but in a way that makes you think 'Yes, yes, I know! You said that already!'. Then, there is the vocabulary used. This is one of the things that disturbed me from the start (especially me as a German). Talking about herding cattle as keeping livestock "in concentration camp-like conditions" is not only outrageously insensitive, but also outright stupid. While saying things like this may be effective in creating attention, there are definitely better ways to do so. And why is half of what the narrator is saying numbers and statistics without any reference or comparison? Nobody will remember any of the numbers anyways, so please, at least give us the numbers with a context! | I personally don't like what I call the "spiritualistic approach" of this movie. By this I mean, that it is repeated over and over how everything in this world is connected and how humans are kind of a tumor on this earth that ruins it. While this may be true to some degree it still leaves a weird taste and makes this movie seem like creationist propaganda (which I am sure it is not, I'm just saying that this is not a very smart thing to do). | The movie basically only complains about the destruction of the earth by humans but offers no real solutions. The solutions it offers are ones that are already being used (e.g. using solar power) or are weirdly esoteric ones (e.g. everybody live in peace, the rest will work itself out). - This movie is very over-simplistic and one-sided. While none of the things being said are really wrong, most of them aren't really correct either. By using (debatable) arguments like this, the movie gets a bit of a manipulative touch. | While sponsoring this movie might be a good idea for the companies involved, this leaves one question: Why was every company allowed to put their name on this movie? Most of the companies produce in so-called third-world countries under worst circumstances for the workers and sell the products as luxury articles in industrialized countries and therefore actively take part in some of the activities that this movie wants to tell you about - so why the heck did the filmmakers take their money? | All in all, as a movie, this film isn't very entertaining. There is not really anything more than the visuals to keep you watching it, the narration is basically mostly throwing statistics at you and there is simply nothing new to it. | Another big problem with this movie is, that it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. It isn't a documentary, but it isn't a normal picture either. It starts with stating that certain things are bad about the way humans treat the earth, but keeps adding stuff until you just don't care anymore. For example, the narrator says, that eating meat is bad for the environment. Then it adds, that coal mining is bad, goes on to say something else is bad and so on. Starting from 'Oh, yes, that's interesting, I didn't know that!' you will go to 'Okay, so everything is bad?' This IMHO also weakens the message of the movie a lot, the filmmakers should have just focused on fewer issues to tackle instead of being against environmental destruction, industrialism, globalization and the military. Don't get me wrong, it is very right to be against all of those things, but being against all of them at once is just hard to communicate in only one movie.

Also, please keep in mind that this movie is NOT a documentary in the usual sense of the word. There is nothing that is being documented, there is nothing new and there is nothing innovative in any way about this movie. While this is not necessarily bad, it changes the focus of the film from being a very boring documentary (which, as I have already said, it is not) to what it really is, a beautiful, but still only mildly entertaining movie.

So, in short: If you haven't seen the Planet Earth-Series, go see it now! If you have already seen it and watched all the other recent documentaries about environmental issues and want to see this one, go on and see it, but don't expect it to be more than average. Keep in mind what I have written above about this movie not being a documentary and you should be happy with it. About my rating: Considering 10 is the best and 1 is the worst possible rating on IMDb, I gave this movie 6 stars. 5 stars is average, I added two stars for the awesome visuals, none for the narration (above average voice-work, but without any real substance) and subtracted one point for things that really made me angry (for stuff like the concentration camp-reference and similar things).

First of all I am relieved that a movie on this subject has been produced with such a high budget. It's about time someone really tried to sum up what the human condition is, and the relationship between our condition and the condition of our planet.

The visuals for 'Home' are for the most part near perfect- pinpointing the beauties and miracles of this world, whilst also the disgraces and disasters with a total sensitivity and respect for all sides of the issue. The subjects covered are well chosen and diverse, and you really get perspective on how widespread and potentially devastating our manipulation of the natural world has become.

Unfortunately though, what slightly let this movie down for me was its 'matter of fact' approach, and a lack of attention to some important details. In some ways this film avoids a one-sided approach, with interesting stats showing how our attempts at alternative fuels have their own negative effects, but for the first section particularly it felt like some very dated notes on the history of the earth. We know some amazing things about the history of our planet but it's important to recognise that there is far more that we don't. I for one stand firmly on the side of science that can admit to not knowing. The most blatant error, as picked up by IMDb in the 'goofs' section, is the narration that the first towns appeared 600 years ago- how could you get that wrong!!? Apparently they meant to say 6000 years ago, but even this isn't fact as there is evidence of towns up to over 8000 years ago. On top of this it is continually stated that human beings have been around for 200'000 years, a theory that has been far from proved and therefore should be treated as such. I think that in a film that is trying to be scientifically credible, in this case vague/speculative language would possibly be more accurate. At least they managed to avoid a '2001: A Space Odyssey' style chimpanzee scene! Scientific stuff aside though, the most inexcusable error is that in the fairly small amount of on screen text there are numerous spelling mistakes. In most cases that doesn't bother me, but in a high budget film production it does, and it certainly doesn't help the reputation of the Eco-warriors (hippies come to mind!)

After watching this movie though, I'll admit that I had mostly forgotten the flaws because it really forces you to think about the issues. This is a good thing, and for the most part it is done with beauty, sensitivity and grace, which is why I've given it such a high rating. Watch this movie- the cinematography and well crafted narrative will open your eyes to the fragile state of our planet and cause you to appreciate your place in it more. Just don't be a sucker for the slightly anti-human philosophy.

Home delivers some of the most stunning photography of our planet I've ever seen. Really needs to be watched in HD to be be fully appreciated. Sweeping, glorious, rich shots of our planet, like we've never seen it before.

Even more powerful than that - the content of this documentary. The underlying message of Home really drilled home - no pun intended - how we're devouring this planet to hairs breadth of the point-of-no-return, after all "we've chosen survival over prospering". It is really quite scary watching the desperate facts this film delivers one-by-one.

At the same time, Home finishes in a upbeat manner. Home will definitely change the way I live my life - it's that powerful.

Go watch it.

Yann-Arthur Bertrand is known in France for being the best Earth photograph involved in ecology ever.

This movie is just beau-ti-ful.

You never saw the world that way.

You never knew there were so much diversity all around the Earth, so much things to see, so much beautiful creations.

And you never knew there were so much left.

A must-watch.

Wonderful scenes, really beautiful pictures of Earth.

Tip : there is a long-version.