A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (2006)
Lava Productions

Description

This intensively-researched film drills deep into the uncomfortable realities of a world that is both addicted to fossil fuels and blissfully unaware of the looming "peak oil" crisis. Drawing on an international cast of maverick energy experts and thinkers, directors Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack debunk the conventional wisdom that oil production will continue to climb, and instead stare bleakly at a planet facing economic meltdown and conflict over its most valuable resource.

Collected reviews and ratings

10 Salon.com | Andrew O'Hehir

Whether or not you buy the doomsday scenario of "Oil Crash," it's one of the most important films of the year.
Read full review (Cinema)

9.0 DVD Verdict | Russell Engebretson

The argument put forward in A Crude Awakening, no matter how unsettling, is a much-needed retort to the standard big business line that oil reserves will easily last another century or longer.
Read full review (DVD)

9.0 Amazon user reviews

Stark and sobering but refreshingly intelligent.
Read full review (DVD)

8.0 PopMatters.com | Kelley Schei

A Crude Awakening could be a companion piece to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, linked by its polemic message, the breadth of the information it presents, and the quality of its production values, though its lack of attachment to a single political figure may make it more effective.
Read full review (DVD)

8.0 DVD Times | Noel Megahey

There’s nothing particularly striking or original about the documentary methods used in A Crude Awakening, but the emphasis is purely on the message and, with an impressive range of eminent expert interviewees, it gets its point across clearly and unambiguously.
Read full review (DVD)

7.0 Variety | Joe Leydon

Cautionary docu about the world's rapidly depleting oil reserves manages to avoid stridency and simplicity while delivering an alarmist message bolstered by myriad interviews with government, industry and academic experts.
Read full review (Cinema)

7.0 DVD Talk | Phil Bacharach

A Crude Awakening doesn't make it easy on viewers, but perhaps the time for niceties is over. This hard-hitting documentary is a wake-up call. The end might just be closer than you think.
Read full review (DVD)

6.0 BBC | Jamie Russell

Cutting back and forth between its apocalyptic futurology and grimly ironic archive footage, A Crude Awakening wants to shock you. It's an unbalanced, one-sided argument that would have benefited from a more unbiased spin.
Read full review (TV)