Crude follows a pattern similar to that of other oil well films highlighting the need to maintain the separation between nature and culture, while suggesting that oil production, if implemented effectively, can maintain a pristine wilderness. The film documents the battle between Ecuadorian indigenous tribes and Chevron over the oil company’s rampant toxic waste dumping and consequent destruction of both their rainforest home and their sources of water.
With help from Trudie Styler, Sting’s wife, filmmaker Joe Berlinger provides a balanced portrait of both the dangerous outcomes of toxic waste dumping and of the lawsuit between the tribes and Chevron continuing from 1993.
According to Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers, however, “the most telling arguments come from watching tribes living in a toxic wasteland with children ravaged by skin diseases and cancer.” According to Travers, “The shattering sight of sludge creating a poison rainbow on a river argues eloquently about why oil and water don’t mix.”
But in the film, the focus is not on the inherently incompatibility of oil and water but on Chevron’s negligent practices, just as Dead Ahead and Black Wave highlight the need for a safer approach to oil shipping but not the elimination of our reliance on oil or the oil industry. And recent Ecuadorian court decisions claiming Chevron owes $5 billions for damages were stopped by appeals in the U.S. courts.
With help from Trudie Styler, Sting’s wife, filmmaker Joe Berlinger provides a balanced portrait of both the dangerous outcomes of toxic waste dumping and of the lawsuit between the tribes and Chevron continuing from 1993.
According to Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers, however, “the most telling arguments come from watching tribes living in a toxic wasteland with children ravaged by skin diseases and cancer.” According to Travers, “The shattering sight of sludge creating a poison rainbow on a river argues eloquently about why oil and water don’t mix.”
But in the film, the focus is not on the inherently incompatibility of oil and water but on Chevron’s negligent practices, just as Dead Ahead and Black Wave highlight the need for a safer approach to oil shipping but not the elimination of our reliance on oil or the oil industry. And recent Ecuadorian court decisions claiming Chevron owes $5 billions for damages were stopped by appeals in the U.S. courts.
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