Skip to main content

tobysoar
13th February 2020

Recommended: Climate change films

In this new weekly feature, the writers and editors of the film section come together to recommend films that fit a certain theme. This week, our theme is climate change
Categories:
TLDR
Recommended: Climate change films
Photo: cine-asie @flickr

In this new weekly feature, the writers and editors of the film section come together to recommend films that fit a certain theme. This week, our theme is climate change.

 

Princess Mononoke — James McCafferty

All of Hayao Miyazaki’s films tell stories in beautiful and masterful ways, but Princess Mononoke is one of his most thematically complex. The central conflict between Irontown and the forest gods has an obvious metaphorical interpretation, but Miyazaki goes much further, giving depth to characters on both sides. Irontown’s leader Lady Eboshi distinguishes her conquest of the natural world as a mission to protect the most vulnerable, reflecting a real issue about how to deal with climate change without hurting those at the bottom of society.

 

Silent Running — Josh Sandy

In terms of influence, Douglas Trumbull’s Silent Running is the undisputed champion of the entire eco-fiction genre. The film tells the story of Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern), a botanist tasked with maintaining the last of Earth’s plants housed inside giant greenhouse-like geodesic domes aboard a space freighter orbiting Saturn. After being ordered to destroy his life’s work, the film follows him and his three robot companions, Huey, Dewey and Louis, as they attempt to preserve at least some semblance of nature for future generations. Despite being almost fifty years old, the film’s messages about the importance of environmental conservation and stewardship are just as relevant today and the influence of the film’s now-iconic robots can be seen in eco-fiction films ranging from WALL-E to Interstellar.

 

Snowpiercer — Tobias Soar

When totally-not-evil-genius Wilford invents a self-sufficient locomotive that can run until the end of time in a loop of the globe that takes 365 days to complete, he was ridiculed. However, global warming reaches catastrophic levels, and scientists to invent a cold bomb that totally won’t thrust the world into a new ice age. The last remaining humans on the planet all live aboard the Snowpiercer, segregated into a horizontal class system, with the poor at the rear and the rich at the front. With brilliant performances by every cast member and mind-glowingly creative action set pieces, Academy Award winner Bong Joon-Ho’s English language debut is highly recommended.

 

Other recommendations

WALL-E

Interstellar

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Avatar

The Day After Tomorrow

Erin Brockovich

The Lorax

Soylent Green

Okja

 


More Coverage

Wicked Little Letters review: Profanity and mystery in 1920s England

Come for the endless profanity but stay for Olivia Colman in this new comedy set in 1920s England

Preview: Manchester Film Festival returns to the Great Northern | MFF 2024

Manchester Film Festival returns once again to the Odeon Great Northern, this time they’re celebrating 10 years of introducing cutting-edge cinema to the city’s audience

Uncut film takes: The biggest Oscar snubs of the last 10 years

Which films deserved a win or even just a nomination? We’re here to correct history

My first night at the Oscars: The 2024 Academy Awards as seen from my laptop

The Oscars aired for the first time on ITV this year but is it really worth staying up to watch them?