Eco Movies-The Timeline

A film on the dustbowl of central USA.

Henry Fonda
20th Century Fox. All rights reserved

A poignant story of rural issues and the message 'Go Local'.

Walter Pidgeon
20th Century Fox. All rights reserved.

A classic film about an environmental dystopia in the now-not-so-far-off year 2022 - complete with rampant overpopulation and massive food shortages. Soylent Green stars Charlton Heston as a detective investigating the murder of a food company exec. In the end, Heston's character uncovers profoundly disturbing secrets about the industrial food system.

Charlton Heston
MGM. All rights reserved.

A Roman Polanski detective flick, Chinatown won an Academy Award in 1975 for best original screenplay, and was nominated for 10 other Oscars. In addition to the expected murder, adultery, and deceit, its plot revolves around dams, drought, agriculture, land grabs, and L.A.'s precarious water supply.

Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway
Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved.

Released just two weeks before the infamous Three Mile Island meltdown in Pennsylvania, The China Syndrome tells the fictional story of a reporter who stumbles on a cover-up of safety hazards at a nuclear power plant.

The film stars Jane Fonda (journalist) and Jack Lemmon (whistleblower), in roles that earned them Oscar nominations.
IPC Films

Based on a true story, Silkwood delves into the circumstances surrounding the suspicious death of Karen Silkwood, a metal worker at a plutonium processing plant who was on her way to meet with a New York Times investigative reporter about negligence at the plant when she died in a one-car accident.

Meryl Streep and Cher reaped Oscar nominations for their acting, and Kurt Russell got critical acclaim too.

In this based-on-actual-events film, Dian Fossey studied and passionately defended Rwanda's mountain gorillas for more than 20 years before she was mysteriously murdered.

Sigourney Weaver won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for her performance.
©1988 Universal Pictures

Safe is the slowest, quietest horror film you'll ever see. It follows the story of a woman who develops chemical sensitivities (MCS) that drive her away from her cushioned suburban life.


Julianne Moore

A fast-paced action flick, Fire Down Below features big-time polluters frightening rural townsfolk into shutting up. That is, until an undercover federal agent comes in to expose the truth and kick some -- um, sense into the dirty bad guys.

Steven Seagal and Kris Kristofferson
©1997 Warner Bros. All rights reserved.

Call it Erin Brockovich, East Coast style: A gripping true-life legal drama about polluted water, corporate malfeasance, and one Boston lawyer's personal and professional gambles to take down the bad guys, A Civil Action won over audiences and critics alike, and was nominated for two Academy Awards.

John Travolta
©Touchstone Pictures. All rights reserved.

A based-on-a-true-story epic of wronged Californians rallying against a shady corporate polluter. A stereotype-bucking, working-class mom, transforms her professional inexperience into an asset, helping to coordinate one of the largest class-action lawsuits in U.S. history.

Julia Roberts
Universal Pictures

Audiences around the world clung to the edges of their seats throughout this big-budget summer disaster flick, about a climate-changed, storm-ravaged landscape. The film was a rollicking good ride that acted as a catalyst for climate discussions in the mainstream media two years before An Inconvenient Truth.

Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal
20th Century Fox

A hit with the kids, this Oscar-winning animated film capitalized on the penguin-mania inspired by the staggeringly successful March of the Penguins. Its heavy-handed message (human activity is messing with the food chain) was made digestible with the help of a whole lotta foot-tappin' fun.

Warner Brothers Pictures

Who would have thought a documentary about a politician with a computer presentation would make such an impact, let alone win a couple of Academy Awards? But Gore's star turn changed climate conversations forever.

Al Gore

Who Killed the Electric Car? is part murder mystery, part documentary, tracing the rise and premature fall of the electric car in the United States. The must-see for alternative-transport enthusiasts.

Narrated by Martin Sheen and features interviews with Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, ex-CIA chief James Woolsey, and others.

Photo: Chris Paine / Sony Pictures Classics

Bringing the good-planets-are-hard-to-find issue to the masses. If Mother Earth has a cardiac arrest from our treatment, who will administer the CPR?
Score by Peter Gabriel
Pixar Animation

Tackling the eco-villains like only James Bond can. Planet Greene are not green but going for privatisation of water! How much Greenwash is out there yet to be stripped of its foliage?
Daniel Craig
Eon Productions

This disjointed political thriller darts between loosely connected stories with a common theme: the disturbing effects of global oil addiction.

George Clooney and Matt Damon; Clooney won an Oscar for his performance.

Photo: Glen Wilson / Warner Brothers Pictures

An animated film that touches lightly on the issue of sprawl and its effects on wildlife, Over the Hedge pokes fun at humans and suburbia via animals.

Voice-overs by Bruce Willis and others
©2006 Dreamworks Animation LLC. All rights reserved.

This frighteningly prescient documentary took a real-life look at the impending end of cheap oil. The End of Suburbia explores how dry oil wells will impact the U.S. economy and the much-cherished, resource-intensive American Dream. It's enough to make you want to move to Middle Earth.

This acclaimed documentary (Bullfrog Films) begins with filmmaker Judith Helfand trying to convince her parents to get rid of the blue vinyl siding on their house, sending Helfand and fellow documentarian Daniel B. Gold on a journey to the U.S. vinyl capital in Louisiana, then to Italy and beyond to talk with experts, doctors, and activists about the ubiquitous and harmful plastic.

A Steven Spielberg epic adaptation of Stanley Kubrick's vision of a future limiting population growth.

Haley Osmon
©2001 Warner Brothers All rights reserved.

Before penguin peregrinations became all the rage, this documentary captured the grandeur of nature by following the migrations of more than a dozen bird species, spanning four years, 40 countries, and all seven continents. French filmmaker Jacques Perrin, working with a 450-person crew, used planes, gliders, helicopters, and hot-air balloons to capture the impressive journeys, which make waddling across ice look like child's play. (Galatee Films)