Review
A forceful, often infuriating story about Big Oil and little people. –Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Three years in the making, this cinéma-vérité feature from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial legal cases on the planet. An inside look at the infamous $27 billion “Amazon Chernobyl” case, Crude is a real-life high s Read more…
February 28th, 2010 on 11:57 am
“Crude” The American Chernobyl Case Amos Lassen There is not a more controversial legal case existing today than the $27 million “Amazon Chernobyl” case. In “Crude” we see the real life drama set against the backdrop of the environmentalist movement tied with global politics and celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, corporate power and indigenous culture. The film shows us all of this from a situational viewpoint. Joe Berlinger’s “Crude” shows a situation that got out of control and a battle was fought between lawyers. One side is the Ecuadorians who in 1993 filed a lawsuit against Texaco (which is now Chevron) for the practices which wreaked havoc when oil spilled over during drilling and the drinking and bathing water was contaminated. What they asked for was a sense of responsibility for something gone wrong. Opposite them was Texaco who claim two contradictory things–the environment scientist who says there is no contamination and that the people were getting sick from something besides the water and the local Texaco lawyers who admit that there us a confrontation but not by Texaco but by Petro-Ecuador. Berlinger presents the entire business with clarity and is fair to both sides and we, the audience, see what the case is about. It is a fight between a David and a Goliath and much came to be. The entire issue is like a legal thriller as well as an environmental mess and crisis in culture. We get no conclusion–Berlinger provokes us to think about the issues. He does have a moral imperative that Chevron accept the responsibility for what happened but that is a message that is there and we are not faced with a beating over the head about it. It is simply a movie of truth and tragedy.
February 28th, 2010 on 6:22 pm
This movie is so well done! The film lets the people involved speak for themselves. I just love watching the Chevron attorneys with their, “That’s our story, we are sticking to it. You have no proof.” defense. I live on a 38,000 acre ranch in South Texas where Texaco has operated since 1935 and Chevron Texaco continues to operate here. They are the only operators on their lease. We have the same pits that Ecuador has. There are sick people across Railroad Commission District #4. The municipal water supplies are full of volatile organics and other chemicals common in oilfield produced water. Texaco and ExxonMobil and a few other majors did the exact same practices in South Texas as they did in Ecuador. We deal with the stone faced arrogant oil company lawyers on a daily basis. They just lie endlessly. I hope that other people around the world see this movie and see how the companies behave. They didn’t clean anything up in South Texas. People are sick here, too. I’m so glad that this movie was made and made well. People will realize that Chevron has a bigger mess than Ecuador. They need to clean up their mess and be truthful to their stockholders. Great work!