Americans generally like to hear good news. They like to believe that
a new president will right old wrongs, that clean energy will replace
dirty oil and that fresh thinking will set the economy straight.
American pundits tend to restrain their pessimism and hope for the best.
But is anyone prepared for the worst?
Meet Michael Ruppert, a different kind of American. A former Los
Angeles police officer turned independent reporter, he predicted the
current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter, From the
Wilderness, at a time when most Wall Street and Washington analysts were
still in denial. Director Chris Smith has shown an affinity for
outsiders in films like American Movie and The Yes Men. In Collapse, he
departs stylistically from his past documentaries by interviewing
Ruppert in a format that recalls the work of Errol Morris and Spalding
Gray.
Sitting in a room that looks like a bunker, Ruppert recounts his
career as a radical thinker and spells out the crises he sees ahead. He
draws upon the same news reports and data available to any Internet
user, but he applies a unique interpretation. He is especially
passionate about the issue of peak oil, the concern raised by scientists
since the seventies that the world will eventually run out of fossil
fuel. While other experts debate this issue in measured tones, Ruppert
doesn’t hold back at sounding an alarm, portraying an apocalyptic
future. Listening to his rapid flow of opinions, the viewer is likely to
question some of the rhetoric as paranoid or deluded, and to sway back
and forth on what to make of the extremism. Smith lets viewers form
their own judgments.
Collapse also serves as a portrait of a loner. Over the years,
Ruppert has stood up for what he believes in despite fierce opposition.
He candidly describes the sacrifices and motivators in his life. While
other observers analyze details of the economic crisis, Ruppert views it
as symptomatic of nothing less than the collapse of industrial
civilization itself.
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