Screen Six at Empire Leicester Square
Gasland opens with first time Director Josh Fox pondering why a company is offering $100,000 to drill for natural gas on the lands around their house in rural Pennsylvania. On closer inspection what first appears seemingly lucrative offer to the audience becomes the catalyst for Fox to embark on a road trip across the States exposing the inhumane nature of natural gas drilling (or hydraulic fracturing) and thus offering a chilling warning to us all in it's dangers.As Fox travels the nation exposing the extreme environmental hazards caused by the drilling companies, making no bones about who is to blame for it all. As vice president and CEO of Halliburton, Dick Cheney brought in legislation allowing energy companies to ignore key environmental acts pushed through by president Nixon in 1972. As Nigel Andrews neatly puts it, 'Gasland may be the first ever American film in which Nixon is the hero. It is the 101st in which Dick Cheney is the villain'. 1 Indeed whilst the influence of Michael Moore is apparent throughout Fox's debut, Gasland makes it's argument through clear, raw evidence and stark, powerful encounters which those most affected. In many ways, from the point we see tap water being set alight by a single flame the argument is made and concluded in the most visual of senses. However Fox's argument is not always delivered in such a powerful manner. His use of graphics detailing numerous different chemicals found within water reserves, whilst crucial in many respects, become tiresome on occasions and are perhaps not greatly helped by Fox's dreary, monotone voice. However it's images such as the UV thermal picture of a condensation tank that to the naked eye appear harmless but the UV shows toxic hydrocarbons billowing from the container at an alarming rate, that are the real prize assets to Fox's argument.
At times the first time Director shows a natural ability in constructing powerful cinematic images akin to the likes of Micheal Moore. Standing alone in front of a set of hydraulic drills and billowing condesate tanks, he slips on a gas mask and plays his beloved bango to an empty contaminated field. It's a iconic, striking image that evokes the sweeping symbolic images of Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, and along with the films beautiful closing shots outlines the potential for Fox to go on to bigger and better things. 2 However, in terms of challenging those responsible for the hydraulic fracturing you could argue Fox is disappointingly sheepish when confronting those at fault. Where his contemporaries would have gone in all guns blazing, Fox shows a naivety with his questioning at times - a point clearly linked to the apparent lack of outside influence and guidance upon his work. Whereas the work of Moore relies heavily on the use of archive footage and interviews with high profile figures, the feeling throughout is that Fox has done this all off his own back primarily out of care for those whose suffering the worst from the evils of Cheney and the energy companies. Thus, with a hand held camera and a little know how, Fox has produced a powerful and insightful documentary that due to it's human story of pain and suffering at the hands of the men at the top has a far reaching and universal appeal. If Fox's closing warning is anything to go by, I'll be looking twice at my tap water from now on.
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2 Sam Davies, Sight and Sound, February 2011, p.55
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