How To Blow Up A Pipeline
You ever notice how movies based on books are never really as good as the source material? As a good friend of mine recently said to me, it seems that writers aren’t really writing books but rather, they’re writing movie scripts. Most of the recent popular movies have been book adaptations. Last year’s “Where the Crawdads Sing” really resonated with audiences as I mentioned in my first review to garner a large amount of views. But how exactly do you adapt an argumentative essay into a film? The book “How To Blow Up A Pipeline” written by Andreas Malm lays out an argument against the fossil fuel industry that’s, how should I put this, an alternative view… As some one star Amazon reviewers noted, it doesn’t actually tell you how to do it. Well, the film does. And it makes for some awesome cinema. Join me dear viewer, as I dive deep into this film to see why it’s so good.
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The topic of climate change has been fraught with a lot of controversy as both sides feud over who’s right and who’s wrong. This film doesn’t go into any of that. It lays out the argument made in the book by providing real world examples of what the fossil fuel industry’s effects are on society. Oil and gas are dirty. Can’t really dispute that. But its effects on people have been largely negative. And it’s exactly that fact that the film explores at length.
The story follows a group of activists who come together in order to send a message that they’ve had enough and exact a little vengeance on the fossil fuel industry by blowing up a pipeline. It begins with showing that Theo, played by Sasha Lane, has been diagnosed with leukemia, having lived her whole life next to a refinery. Their friend Xochitl’s mother dies suddenly and they are brought together for her funeral. Dwayne, a rough looking Joshua Jackson, is a devoted father and rancher. He becomes disillusioned by a major corporation coming to seize the land that’s been in his family for generations.
Rowan and Logan are a couple that engages in vandalism and sabotage but are caught and must cooperate to bring down other activists. The way the FBI coerces Rowan is quite telling as they really didn’t have her as dead to rights as they thought. They attempt to infiltrate a group through Shawn, played by Marcus Scribner, who introduces them to the rest of the group. The cast is rounded out by Michael played by Forrest Goodluck who the group discover on social media in his attempts at building a series of explosives. Goodluck’s performance as Michael is the real standout of the film. His portrayal of an angry youth looking for an emotional outlet is spectacular. I’ll be keeping my eye on this brilliant young actor.
The film’s narrative follows the group as they carefully build and place the bombs on the pipeline so they can finally be heard. The story interweaves between past and present to show how each character was aggrieved by the fossil fuel industry. Theo’s leukemia, Dwayne’s land, and Michael’s mistreatment as a Native American are brilliantly showcased. This group of people are hurting and they view this as their only way to take back the control over their lives that they had lost.
The most striking aspect of the film is how well it captures the anger these kids feel. Some of it feels justified. Xochitl blames climate change for the heatwave that killed her mother and Theo’s leukemia. Michael seems to be angry at everything. And who can blame him. Native Americans have drawn the short straw for centuries. Add to this the fossil fuel industry completely taking over North Dakota where Michael’s tribe resides, you have a recipe for insurrection. They’re all angry. But truthfully, they don’t need a reason to be angry. Everyone is infuriated to some extent by what’s been done to the planet. So regardless of whether or not we understand the reasoning behind their fury, we can relate to it.
The cinematography for such a small indie film is absolutely spectacular. From the tense score to the expansive shots, director Daniel Goldhaber captures the true scope of the crisis. The shots during the funeral for Xochitl’s mother are breathtaking, showing their meager house next to a giant refinery. It’s this shot that actually made me realize that this wasn’t the first story to feature this type of climate activism.
Way back in 1997, an epic story debuted featuring a band of so-called eco-terrorists. Final Fantasy 7 on the original PlayStation begins with an act of sabotage by a band of activists. They all came together through various ways to fight the force that was destroying their planet, the Shinra Corporation. If you loved Final Fantasy 7 but disagree with the desperate moves of these people against an all devouring corporation, then you’ve missed the entire point of the game. Like Final Fantasy 7, How To Blow Up A Pipeline explores what happens when people with little to no control over their lives have had enough and rise up against their oppressors.
One of the many reasons movements fail is the lack of conviction and purpose. The deep underlying tenet in the human psyche is pain. Pain is the only thing that elicits a response for change. Stick your finger in the electrical socket, you learn a lesson, and you change your behavior. An example of a failed movement was the Occupy Wall Street movement which failed primarily because they didn’t have the balls to do what was necessary. If they wanted banks to change their behavior, they should have taken a note from a brilliant TV show and gone full Mr. Robot, a show that drives the lesson home that there are no half measures. Even simpler than Mr. Robot, they should have launched massive DDOS attacks on banks’ websites and shut them down until they changed their behavior. Had they started losing money, the truest form of pain for a bank, they would have changed their behavior. But the movement fizzled out when people realized they didn’t have the conviction necessary to exact change. What’s the key lesson here? Protests do NOT work unless pain is inflicted on the opposing side. And it is a lesson the characters in the film knew full well.
How To Blow Up A Pipeline is a rallying cry for activism. On a deeper level, it also serves as a warning to corporations to clean up their act before people become too infuriated and start fighting back using the tactics in this film. The book is an argument for why activism needs to shift to kinetic force. The movie serves as the cinematic representation of that argument. It does so in a beautifully cinematic way, carefully weaving the characters into a larger environment, a larger world. It also captures the tense atmosphere of what it actually means to be an activist who does something about their plight.
Overall, How To Blow Up A Pipeline is one of the most brilliant indie films I’ve seen. The cinematic quality and scope are very professional. The acting, especially out of Forrest Goodluck and Jake Weary, is spectacular in how raw it is. These two actors have a bright future and I’ll be keeping an eye out for them. The bifurcation between huge blockbusters and independent films in American cinema during the last 15 years means that a lot of films ultimately fly under the radar. This is a shame because films such as these are truly worth a watch. If your local independent movie theater is playing this movie, definitely get out to see it.
Now check out another spoiler free review on youtube!
https://youtu.be/ZxeAlRVQAzs