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Collapse
DVD Release Date: June 15, 2010
Run Time: 80 minutes
Format: NTSC
Size: 4.5 GB
Chris Smith (Director)
Product Description
Can this man predict when your world will crumble?
The Explosive New Documentary From The Director Of THE YES MEN and AMERICAN MOVIE
It's the shattering documentary that has been called superb (Entertainment Weekly), hypnotic and haunting (Time Magazine) and so masterfully made it s impossible to look away (AllMovie.com). COLLAPSE is the story of Michael Ruppert, former Los Angeles police officer turned rogue reporter whose eerie prediction of the current financial crisis shocked millions. Now Ruppert is warning of a new meltdown, one rooted in oil, economics, and covert U.S. policies that are leading us all towards unprecedented global disaster. Is he a prophet who can clearly see America s terrifying future, or a conspiracy theorist fueled by fear and paranoia? And if Ruppert is right, can this slide into catastrophe be stopped? Experience this sometimes harrowing, often poignant and always riveting look into the mind of the ultimate outsider from filmmaker Chris Smith, the award-winning director of American Movie and The Yes Men.
Amazon.com description
You might not want to watch Collapse if you're in a good mood. On the other hand, viewing this documentary in a bad mood might not be such a good idea either--at least not if there are any sharp objects lying around. Such is the extremity of the dire message delivered by Michael Ruppert, who predicts nothing less than the imminent and total breakdown of industrialized civilization. Ruppert has some credentials--a UCLA graduate, he served in the Los Angeles Police Department, and is now an investigative journalist with many articles and several books to his credit--and a large amount of information at hand. And although it's worth noting that everything he offers in the way of facts in the course of this film goes virtually unchallenged, his argument is compelling, and more than a little frightening. As Ruppert sees it, the collapse can be attributed primarily to just one thing: oil, and our almost complete dependence on it. The world has passed the point of peak production, he says, and the supply is now in steady decline (and this was well before the 2010 spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico). There is no currently viable energy alternative--ethanol, nuclear power, Canadian "tar sand," and everything else is dismissed outright, leaving only wind and solar power as vague possibilities. The planet's unsustainable population growth began with the discovery of oil (and it will go down accordingly when the oil is gone), Ruppert argues; what's more, the world's economy is essentially a "pyramid scheme" based on the notion of infinite growth, which can't happen because it too depends on oil and its many derivatives (such as plastic). In the end, he says, what we're witnessing is Darwinism in action, and while there are a few ways to prepare for what he passionately describes as "the cataclysmic end of a paradigm" (he suggests learning to grow your own food, for starters), the momentum is irreversible. One might be tempted to dismiss this guy as some wacko with a website, but Collapse--essentially a long interview conducted by director Chris Smith, supported by photos, film footage, animation, and other visuals to illustrate Ruppert's arguments--offers some very serious food for thought. --Sam Graham
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Amazon.com reader review:
If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things. -Descartes, May 14, 2010
By Steven T. Singer "Steven Singer"
This review is from: Collapse (DVD)
To understand the depth of emotion in Michael Ruppert's fascinating argument is to understand his personal evolution. Ruppert was born in Washington, D.C., the son of an Air Force officer and an later aerospace executive. Ruppert's mother was a cryptographer for Army Intelligence at Fort Myer, VA, during the Second World War. In addition, his father's cousins were employed by, and retired from, the Central Intelligence Agency.
Ruppert was a hopeful idealist and raised as a Republican. He excelled in his studies at UCLA (receiving honors in political science), interned for Chief Edward Davis of the Los Angeles Police Department, and eventually became a highly decorated LAPD officer.
Ruppert had all the makings of helpful cog in the wheel of the status quo.
Only later, as a narcotics officer, did Ruppert's journey lead him on a path of discovery which clearly illuminated the chasm between truth and the government approved appearance of truth: In 1977 Ruppert claims to have discovered a major drug trafficking operation run by the CIA. Ruppert filed a statement with the CIA and famously made a publicly televised challenge the Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch. Deutch responded by agreeing to investigate and address the issue earnestly. This promise, in Ruppert's mind, was not honored as nothing was done to identify and punish those who ran the operation. Moreover, nothing was done to cease the drug trafficking operations.
From this experience the audience can understand the evolution from Ruppert's youthful idealist belief in justice toward his lifelong passion for exposing the hidden "truths" that are conveniently hidden from public consumption. (Complicit in this deception, Ruppert argues, is a lazy and uninterested mainstream media.)
Those who have neither read Ruppert's books, viewed his blog, or seen him speak will be riveted as he breaks down the imminent perils of peak oil, the fraud of fiat currency, the quiet revolutions taking place with no media coverage, the corporate and government corruption run a muck, the need for sustainability, and, thankfully, the importance of happiness, joy, and smiles in one's life.
Poignant moments of the film:
During a fascinating scene in the film, one which should not be overlooked, Ruppert himself betrays some his own words. Moments after coldly declaring that his only intent is to protect himself from what he later describes as an avoidable "holocaust", he becomes emotionally overwhelmed and asks for a cut in taping while he attempts (in vain) to recover his emotions and hold back tears. Those tears, of course, appear and one can immediately see that the man who seems to be so removed from the the deadly consequences that face the entire human race is, indeed, not completely calloused to the thought of inevitable human suffering.
Later in the film, when challenged by an off-camera voice to explain why he continues to speak up to this day, Ruppert proudly boasts that as a man of principle he could not walk away and silently ignore government crimes. The implication is that the beneficiaries of Ruppert's activism are his fellow citizens.
Another moment in the film sees Ruppert pausing for a moment when weighing a thought that seems to evolve and fully germinate in front of the camera. Discussing President Obama, Ruppert makes the assertion that the President has neither the level of executive control nor power-broker support to make the type of changes that could halt crises of peak oil, fiat currency, et al. In other words, those who are blindly waiting for President Obama to fix the worlds ills are going to be extremely underwhelmed with the results.
Conspiracy and Paranoia:
My late father once told me during my most fervent period of Patriotic Idealism (middle through late teens) that many of the people who are classified today by the media as "crazy" or "paranoid" will someday be proven right (at which time the media will offer no update or correction to their previous claims). Sadly, at the time he spoke those words I did not understand my father's wisdom. Since that day I've noticed the lies, deception, and corruption perpetrated by our government (and all governments) as well as from the entrenched wealthy elite. Yes, Ruppert is one of those voices to whom my father was referring.
Everyone you love should see this film. (Everyone whom you do not love should also see it ... but lets be real.) This is a powerful voice of a debate that needs to take place, in public, beyond the limitations of the "conservative/liberal/right/left/red state/blue state" paradigm. We would all do ourselves justice by listening to his words and preparing ... if only for the sake of our children.
NOTE: I originally purchased this video from a company that shall go unnamed but features an iconic representation of a widely cultivated perennial deciduous tree-grown fruit that perhaps did or did not help Newton better understand the principle of gravity. However, I have pre-ordered the DVD from Amazon.
NOTE II: According to the closing credits in the film, Ruppert's book has not sold well and he is facing eviction from his home in Culver City. If you are interested in his ideas you may want to consider buying a *NEW* copy of his book. Surely he'll appreciate the royalties.Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World
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