just watch it!

Don't Believe the Hype

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I don't know how I missed this film when it came out but I watched it tonight and was blown away. This is an unbelievably beautiful film that shows some of the most amazing places on out planet. It doesn't bog you down with a lot of narration and lets you just experience the beauty. I loved how different peoples were able to speak of how they interpret the earth and all who reside on it. As someone who has every convenience it's refreshing that people are so happy with nothing but love and respect for nature and one another. This is something that our planet desperately needs right now and the more people who understand what life is truly about, the better chance we have at survival. Not just for us but for every other species who calls earth home as well. We are one.

This is another lousy God selling commercial movie, it 'sells' us "All life is sacred, and everything is the spirit of one." Apparently there are some natives, somewhere in the wild world, they have lived by these ideals since time immemorial, but now they face extinction. They want their voices heard and it's time for us to listen! Sadly we don't hear their voices; their voices are dubbed in English, and to give the native flavor, they have been dubbed in native-sounding 'bad' English! The movie speaks about how all life is one spirit, and how it is proper to see the earth as a mother, yet it presents these ideas so conceptually, with makeup but without feeling; we are almost forced to agree with it, because it sounds so logical and there are so many beautiful hypnotizing scenes. The movie has no philosophy. It doesn't touch the ground, it doesn't say anything. There's nothing that 'evolves' or 'developes' in it. Some people may find it relaxing to watch the beautiful landscapes, but after you relax, the constant commercial sounding assertion that all life is divine, sensing the hidden manipulation that we should all become new-agers and live like tribal men gets boring fast. Everything is covered in a wave of nostalgia. It makes you feel stupid. The spiritual depth of the concepts are taken very lightly. I would wish this God, whatever it is, would stay inside the movie and rule there whatever it wants. I want my movie to stay in the movie. Don't stretch out of your boundaries and teach me reality!

Films that show people who are able to live simpler lives in unusual situations always fascinate me. This was a film that captivated me through every frame. It is filmed with such beauty that the images are quite striking.I especially enjoyed how it demonstrates a difference between these rural situations with big city life. Cities are shown with high-speed imagery; cars fly by with incredible ferocity. This is then followed by transitions of killer whales surfacing, schools of fish swirling around, and monkeys jumping from tree to tree.Native people are seen in canoes, or are hiking carrying long spears for the hunt. This film did not leave me with a sudden urge to live their kind of lives; however, I enjoyed what I saw.It does not portray people as necessarily evil or bad for the earth as much as it demonstrates our need to care for what we have. This is the only Earth we know of. Let's take care of it.

This short film has a fabulous soundtrack and amazing shots of natural wonders, nature, and people. The film is shot in countries all over the world from Borneo to Alaska, with interviews with native peoples, and a narration by Redford (although he talks less than the others). The shots of natural wonders, and natives doing their thing (hunting, cooking, dancing) are interspersed with fast-action scenes of cars zooming on throughways and people scurrying, which provide a stark contrast between living in harmony with nature and being in a rat-race. All of this is enhanced by the scope of the IMAX screen and surround-sound system. However, the emphasis on primitive living is a little too much to be taken seriously by those of us with indoor plumbing!