Films & Documentaries With an Environmental Theme As people become increasingly concerned about our ecology, we're seeing more movies centred around green issues or with environmental themes. Filmmakers are using a broken Earth as the ready-made “villain” for the 21st century. During the Cold War, movie heroes constantly fought against evil Russians; these days, film stars struggle against environmental collapse. Here are a few of the top - recent and classic - fictional environmental films for children and adults & non-fiction documentaries: Silent Running (1972) – Directed by the wizard behind many of the special effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey and with a theme song by Joan Baez, it stars the always interesting Bruce Dern as an astronaut in charge of man's last nature preserve, which is in a greenhouse circling the Earth. What will he do when he is ordered to destroy it—along with the last of the planet's plant life? Chinatown (1973) – Widely regarded as one of the best movies ever made. The crime-noir thriller stars Jack Nicholson as a detective caught in a web of corruption surrounding control of the water supply for Los Angeles. Soylent Green (1973) – Charlton Heston in a dystopian future plagued by overpopulation, pollution and catastrophic climate change. Most of the population lives on processed food tablets produced by a sinister mega-corporation. Dersu Uzala (1975) – Akira Kurosawa directs this portrait of a man living in harmony with nature, struggling against the forces of modernity and “progress.” China Syndrome (1979) – Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon investigate cover-ups at a nuclear power plant. Based on the true dangers of a nuclear meltdown, the title refers to the (fictional) idea that a nuclear meltdown would bore a hole straight through the Earth from the US to China. Mad Max: The Road Warrior (1981) – The low-budget action franchise that brought Mel Gibson into the spotlight. Set in a post-apocalyptic Australia where gangs of bandits fight over disappearing fuel, it’s an extreme illustration of the dangers of peak oil. Never Cry Wolf (1983) – In the Arctic wilderness, a government biologist sent to study the destruction of caribou herds ends up learning to respect the wolves he was told were the problem. Gorillas in the Mist (1988) – Sigourney Weaver plays naturalist Dian Fossey befriending African mountain gorillas in Rwanda. Based on a tragic true story. Dances With Wolves (1991) – The classic starring Kevin Costner as a Civil War lieutenant assimilated into the Native American Sioux tribe. One of the best fictional defences of sustainability against modernity. FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) – Animated kids movie about a bulldozer operator (voiced by Christian Slater) who is in the process of flattening the forest until he is shrunken to wee size by a forest fairy who wants him to see things from the view of forest creatures losing their homes. Robin Williams as a bat provides comic relief. Free Willy (1994) – The kids’ classic about a boy making friends with a giant killer whale. There’s something ironic, however, about a movie criticizing the exploitation of captive animals starring a captive, trained animal. Pocahontas (1995) – Basically Dances With Wolves for kids. Good for introducing green thinking to children; bad for accurate history lessons about how the English settlers really treated the Native Americans. Fly Away Home (1997) – Based on a successful real-life experiment in teaching new migration patterns to geese using ultralight aircraft. In the movie, a young Anna Paquin plays a girl who adopts and rescues a flock of geese. Princess Mononoke (1997) – A fantasy film about forest spirits and habitat destruction by genius Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. Death and decapitation might make this one too intense for younger children. To Walk With Lions (1999) – Based on renowned real-life conservationists George Adamson and Tony Fitzjohn. The movie deals with the rewards and dangers of protecting endangered animals in Africa. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) – Another animated kids’ movie, this time with talking horses struggling to protect Native Americans from 19th-century settlers. Matt Damon voices the main character. Whale Rider (2004) – This movie won the People’s Choice Award at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival. Based on the novel by Witi Ihimaera about keeping traditional Pacific Island culture alive. The Day After Tomorrow (2004) – Roland Emmerich’s eco-disaster blockbuster, starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. Catastrophic climate change destroys much of modern civilization. Happy Feet (2006) – Animated talking penguins try to save their habitat from destruction by over-fishing. A great movie for kids of all ages. Children of Men (2006) – A bleak dystopian thriller, starring Michael Caine and Julianna Moore, in which the world’s women are no longer able to reproduce. A scary reminder that tampering with nature can have disastrous and inexplicable consequences. Into the Wild (2008)– A sobering portrait, based on the true story of a man who leaves his modern life behind to be closer to nature. Roger Ebert gave this one four stars and a big thumbs up. WALL-E (2008) – A brilliant animation from PIXAR and one of the best eco-movies ever, it’s set in a future where the Earth has become a giant landfill and humanity lives in orbiting space stations. The main character is a lonely robot tasked with cleaning up the Earth’s trash and who falls in love along the way. Avatar (2009) – James Cameron’s very pretty blockbuster. Interstellar human strip-miners struggle against blue tree- hugging aliens for control of a planet’s natural resources. The Road (2009) – Environmental apocalypse, starring Viggo Mortenson and Charlize Theron, and based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name. Be sure to load up on antidepressants before tackling this one. The Lorax (1972 remake in 2012) – The original Dr. Seuss animated children's film is only 25 minutes long, so it doesn't qualify as a feature. But the remake in 2012 does it more than justice and both are worth a watch and to be seen by adults and kids alike. It's a cautionary tale about an industrialist who ignores the warning of a wise creature known as the Lorax, clear cuts a forest to use the trees for some useless product and later regrets his decision. There are many great environmental documentaries besides Al Gore’s informative and Academy Award-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth. To see the best, check out the brief environmental, ecology and nature movie reviews presented below from A to Z. If you are in the mood for some ecology related "edutainment" in the form of a motion picture, you'll be hard-pressed to top them. Cross of the Moment (2015) - Bill McKibben, Guy McPherson, Gary Snyder and others discuss the monumental import of the climate crisis and call us all to revolution. Forget Shorter Showers (2015) - Thought provoking mini documentary positing that individual environmental actions, although worthwhile, cannot in and of themselves save the Earth. Instead we need group action that directly challenges the industrial system controlling the world and leading to planetary destruction. Revolution (2015) - From the director of Sharkwater comes this beautifully photographed documentary that builds a compelling case that our window of opportunity for averting planetary environmental catastrophe is closing quickly. Highly recommended. Unacceptable Levels (2013) - In the modern world we are exposed to a cocktail of exotic chemicals on a daily basis, affecting our health and especially that of the most vulnerable among us, our children. This film explores the scope of the problem and offers hopeful solutions. Elemental (2013) - Character studies of three flawed but fascinating environmentalists--one Asian, one Australian, one North American—trying to lead their mostly disinterested, sometimes hostile fellow humans in a last-ditch effort to save our critically ill planet. A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (2007) - This film expertly interweaves new and archival footage with experts warning that our addiction to oil—unless we shift to alternatives—will destabilize the world politically and decimate it economically as oil reserves continue their inevitable decline. Big Boys Gone Bananas!* (2012) - This film offers a gripping account of the multinational Dole Food Corporation's Orwellian attempt to suppress Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten's documentary depicting the company's use of a banned pesticide on its banana crop in Nicaragua. Blind Spot (2008) - The thesis of this powerful documentary is that by humanity's massive reliance on finite fossil fuels, we have painted ourselves into a corner. If we stop using them, our economy will collapse; if we continue, we will destroy our ecology. Hopefully this film is the slap in the face we need to figure a way out of this conundrum. Blue Gold: World Water Wars (2009) - Since water is essential to life, you may have thought that it is a shared resource. This is the story of how corporations have been battling to privatise our water supply—and succeeding. What's next, corporate control of air? Blue Planet: Seas of Life (2002) - Explores life in the oceans with amazing underwater photography (eight-part BBC series). Blue Vinyl (2005) - When a woman documentary filmmaker discovers her parents want to install blue vinyl siding on their house, she begins an investigation of the anti-ecological manufacturing process and ends up in Italy at the manslaughter trial of an Italian purveyor of toxic vinyl siding. Burning The Future: Coal in America (2008) - Appalachian residents battle a coal industry that is poisoning ground water and flattening mountains with the equivalent of a Hiroshima-sized atom bomb every 11-1/2 days—all to extract coal that will contribute 36% of America's global warming emissions.