Did 'The China Syndrome' have any effect on stopping new nuclear power plants?  If the right current events happen to reinforce the movie's message then like Three Mile Island the effect could be very powerful.

A well done movie can alert more people to our oil problems than a book like Twilight In the Desert that reaches only a small number of people.

George! lose the beard!

I think a great movie can affect people at a more emotional level than books. We are a visual culture, raised on movies and TV. I think we need every available medium to get out the word on Peak Oil. Some people like books, others like movies. Personally the whole issue of peak oil was already placed into my head long ago playing a game called SimEarth (from the makers of SimCity).

The real question is, when will people actually start to re-evaluate their energy consumption choices? I'm definitely starting to believe that absolute shortages are the only way that people will take notice.

The new Refining Bill is just another example of how much people don't get it.

Neil Postman has a great book called Amusing Ourselves to Death. He argues that TV (and movies) ultimately aim at "applause, not reflection." (When was the last time you saw something on TV that was so deep you turned off the TV to think about it, especially as opposed to putting down a book to think or take notes.)

The website is an interesting twist and I hope it can be an outlet for many who see the movie and want to follow up. Let's hope it gets stacked with some good resources for people to read more about the problems, solutions, and tool to communicate with our elected "leaders."

Certainly a profile movie isn't bad, and its better than a movie bashing climate change or trumpeting a wonderful future brought to us by technology. It's just the jump from the movie to "maybe getting here by public transit rather than my SUV would be better and I should work to encourage more public transit" isn't especially direct. At least as many people will think about flying to Hollywood to see Clooney's star on the Walk of Fame.

(FYI - my background isn't oil but sociology, including media)

do people who have seen the film
 "the day after tommorow"
think that rita and katrina are the result of their consumerism?

If people are intrested in social engineering then they need to start researching stuff like NLP and dare I mention "the continuum concept"

Personally, I think this is a great concept.  While activism movies generally don't do well (Day After Tomorrow?), they also almost always blather on about a topic people already know about (global warming, in this case.)

What's good about an oil movie is about bringing awareness to Peak Oil, a concept very few people know about.  Let's just hope that they present it in a reliable manner.  If it's not preachy in it's nature, people will start recognizing the meme, at least, especially if the likes of George Clooney is spieling on it.  Hopefully, they'll actually use the phrase, "Peak Oil."  Another benefit, and more important is the media attention brought to it.  The media will more than likely, when interviewing these actors, have a small spin-off segment along the likes of "What is Peak Oil?"  THAT would be good.

My one worry though is, reading that blurb about their relation to participate.net's mission, it doesn't sound to me like they're actually talking about Peak Oil.  They're probably just regurgitating the same crap about dependebility as it relate to politics, etc.  It doesn't sound like they actually recognize the possible demise of it as an energy source as much as they worry about the ramifications of it's use.

Who knows.  

This is my first post .  I enjoy reading the oildrum largely because of a higher level of civility .  This post Is, in the short run, off topic .  
Pigeonholeing: I'm 62 years of age and retired .  I have a master of arts degree in sociology with a minor in psychology .  I view myself as a paleo-conservative .  
I love metaphor and would like to suggest two.
western industrial capitalism , in the context of our times, can be studied as a Ponzi scheme .  Inexpensive , available fossil fuels and rising population are required to keep the game going .  The game is over .  How disquieting !  
The second metaphor may give Many reader's a headache.
a significant number of those who post here have a background in the hard sciences and know far more than I do about this topic .  The topic is linear programming .  Some readers may have never looked into this .  
In its simplest form , one minimizes Or maximizes a function .  This effort is subjected to constraints .The constraints can be viewed as defining a playing field .  The playing field must have mathematical volume in order that the problem Is feasible .  Take your excedrin now.
as we plummet into what has been called "the long emergency " feasible solutions do not exist on a political level .  Myriad special interest groups are clawing for power and influence .  I think that most people would rather die than scale back their ideologies .  Geological certainty will eliminate worn out inappropriate ideologies by eliminating the morons who cling to them. that'll restore volume to the playing field . At that time, perhaps, the optimization process can begin .  
Thank you for your patience .        

Just a thought...

I wonder how much it would cost The Oil Drum to do some product placement type advertising in a movie like this.

You could have Clooney's character say something like, "I found this information at theoildrum.com" or something like that. Imagine how many people would check out that site after the movie or especially when it hits DVD.

Probably out the monetary scope of this site, but would be a cool concept.

RE: opinion shaping, manufactured consent, etc.

It was an eye-opener when a group of our local high school juniors and seniors locked their family televisions out of the major cable news outlets. Mom and Dad suddenly were listening to radio for their local news and scanning the internet for regional, national and international.

Perhaps of MORE IMPORT is that most (78%) senior (over 16) family members spent at least 30 minutes each day following particular topics on their own, AWAY FROM the big media outlets!! 30% of these families spent over ONE HOUR DAILY digging up background and researching opinions and websites concerning various headlines.

I think it is important for everyone to realize how much influence the "BIG EYE" in the family room exerts on an unsuspecting public.  

By simply switching off the MSM news, things change...