Dirt! The Movie

Dirt is a movie now, just so you know. Like the string of docs that have been coming out the last few years this film follows suit with a blanket concept and tries to cover it as best they can in a small amount of time.

There are times this works, but things have to be sacrificed. Such as with "The Corporation" Its long, really long, so you possibly lose the audience along the way since there are no explosions or tits. This one they kept fairly short at an hour and a half, and they actually covered most of their bases. What the film is trying to say is that dirt is a living thing, and should be respected, as we lose top soil we lose the ability to feed ourselves (we cant grow crops in rock) and as we cover it up in cities we mess up the natural order of things.

Think of dirt as a sort of filter for the world, it cleans waste, it turns garbage into itself. It is what allows life to happen, and we are the only known planet to have it. So as we do things that destroy it we in turn destroy ourselves, and its at this point that it gets very familiar. Ive watched plenty of docs in the last few years with this message, if we destroy life in the oceans we do the same to ourselves, if we pollute the world we do it to ourselves, so one and so forth.

Now does the fact that Ive heard it before make it any less true? No, and I actually agree with them. The way they produce these are very smart and manipulative, they aren't liberal minded, or left wing but simply pro-human and pro-life (not the abortion kind of pro-life) So since the message is a good one, and done well people should watch this and try and make changes to their lives. Film is a powerful medium, but sometimes I feel like it fails, people see them and want to change but just don't. There's the saying that land is valuable, since they aren't making anymore of it, and that holds true. Where there are draughts, and where the land turns to desert we lose something. Yes we can bring water in, but it wont change that fact that at one time the land took care of itself, we did something to hurt it and it basically died. The great thing is that we can actually bring it back to life.

This film wouldn't be for everyone, its preachy at times, but has a good message and a hard one to disagree with. If you are someone who already does what they can for the environment then there is little else to learn, if not maybe watch this and think about changing. 7/10 stars.

Directors: Bill Benenson, Gene Roscow, Eleonore Dailly