I don’t publish movie reviews here anymore as I generally do that elsewhere. But tonight I watched a movie with a strong energy / environment connotation, so here is my review of Promised Land.
Featuring Matt Damon in the main role, Promised Land is about a fossil fuel company trying to buy drilling rights from farmers and land owners in a small Pennsylvania community.
While the movie’s story and the questions it raises are interesting if not crucial to many, I believe it could have been made better. IMDB gives it a 6.5, which is not that bad.
I guess I would rate it just the same. It doesn’t deserve a six, but not a seven either. The acting is quite convincing, the scenario is good enough… But you could have felt even more plunged into the atmosphere, the community, the people’s story and their questions.
This movie indeed raises many questions on what we should do to help rural communities to survive and even prosper.
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Promised Land had quite an impact on me as I come from a rural community. Two of my uncles have a farm that has been in my family for generations. It is in a small village that is slowly dying as there hasn’t been a shop in years and as people are slowly moving out.
My thoughts were : what would they do if some big company promised them money, huge amounts of money, to be able to frack (on) their fields ? Would they sign and carry the risk ? What would happen to them if something bad occured ?
Luckily, it won’t happen any time soon as France has banned hydraulic fracturing. The new government has stated that it won’t allow fracking. This makes that both conservatives and liberals are against it…
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Even better, I think there is a solution – and a clean one – that could help create millions of jobs, bring money to farmers and the places they live in while not destroying their places and revenues.
Wind farms allow just that. Rural communities can be revived thanks to wind power’s money. I have read about such occurences in the United States and in France alike.
To exemplify my point : in April I read about a small city from Southern France that was huge amounts of money – 2.3 million euros (more than $3 million) -thanks to a few wind turbines.
The Huffington Post has more on this exciting story. If it worked in Arfons, don’t you just think many other villages could do it around the world ? I believe it to be the case. That’s the solution to provide energy and jobs alike.
What do you think ?
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To make your opinion about the movie itself, I still recommend you to watch it, or at least the trailer below :