Hollywood spends millions of dollars to captivate audiences around the world with romance, comedy, drama and horror films. To a lesser extent, but not insignificant in terms of presence, is the representation of the energy sector and its operators in Hollywood filmography, TV series and documentaries. Among these we highlight a series of films that over the years have transformed first-time actors into real stars, such as James Dean in Giant and Larry Hagman in the escape television series Dallas. But let's not forget the pioneering depiction of the power of electricity in the 1910 horror film Frankenstein.
Pioneering spirit
The oil and gas sector continues to demonstrate its pioneering spirit as it seeks to explore new resources in increasingly remote and hostile areas, developing innovative technologies that can accelerate access and improve productivity at ever lower costs. The early days of the oil industry were represented in the film produced in 2007 by Miramax entitled, "Il Petroliere" inspired by the novel of the same name by Upton Sinclair. The plot depicts the story of a former silver prospector turned oilman, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, and his ruthless lust for riches during the oil boom of late XNUMXth and early XNUMXth century Southern California.
The 1940 film “Edison, the Man,” starring Spencer Tracey as Thomas Edison highlights the challenges and vicissitudes of energy innovators in a remarkable way, portraying Edison's profile and the struggles he faced in his role as an important pioneer of energy generation technology, new grid systems including the electric light bulb. The film also foreshadows the various problems innovators today face in fundraising, learning from experimentation, highlighting how difficult it is to convert a theoretical idea into a commercially viable concept.
Adventure
For the theme related to adventure, many could recommend films such as "The Last Storm" (2016) and "The World Is Not Enough" (1999) from the James Bond series. The first is the typical historical-catastrophic dramatic thriller, directed by Craig Gillespie and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. In the cast, among the leading Hollywood actors, we find Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Holliday Grainger, John Ortiz, and Eric Bana; the film depicts the 1952 rescue of the tanker SS Pendleton by the United States Coast Guard after the ship broke in two in a storm off the coast of New England.
In the 1999 film, “The World is Not Enough,” British secret agent James Bond 007 (Pierce Bronsnan) returns to save the world after an oil tycoon is murdered. The villain Renard, with a bullet planted in his head by another hostile MI6 agent, is secretly plotting to destroy an oil terminal in Kazakhstan. Renard planted a bomb in the "pig", a device used for internal inspection of oil pipelines. Bond can't stop the device from exploding but manages to keep it from reaching the main oil terminal, thus saving countless lives. However, the real threat lies elsewhere. Bond with his seductive ability and as a spy tries to foil the plan of Renard, which intends to destroy the oil supplies of crucial need for Europe. For filmmaking purposes, both the pig device and the pipeline appear much larger than they actually are.
Fantasy-horror
One of the first stories that illustrated the power of energy was Mary Shelley's book "Frankenstein", published in 1818. This world best-seller was the first horror film, "Frankenstein", directed by J Searle Dawley in 1910. The original story tells how Baron Von Frankenstein, a fictional innovator, brings to life a creature composed of sections taken from various humans, using electricity. Baron Von Frankenstein uses the energy released by a bolt of lightning, which can actually heat the air to over 50.000 degrees Fahrenheit in just a few millionths of a second! Since then there have been many films and television idealizations of this pioneering novel, including the 2015 film “Victor Frankenstein” starring actor James McAvoy in the lead role. Although it is a science fiction story, the plot is reflected in the current scientific reality with its organ transplants and electric defibrillators used in the medical field to bring people back to life.
“Armageddon” is a 1998 American sci-fi disaster thriller film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The film is about a team of offshore drillers (led by Bruce Willis) and their efforts to save humanity from an asteroid the size of Texas, which is about to crash into earth — a true story on the Yucatan peninsula 66 million years ago and which is believed to have ended the age of the dinosaurs. In this film the heroes take a crash course in space travel in order to drill and then destroy the asteroid. Even if the plot is impractical, space exploration missions are now regularly undertaken, where probes such as the "Curiosity" on Mars drill close holes in the planet's crust.
TV shows
Hollywood's television arm has long dramatized the world of oil by exploiting the audience's inherent interest. Many still remember Warner Brother's television series “Dallas,” which began in 1978 and ran for 14 series. Set in Dallas' high-rise offices and South Fork ranch, each week JR, Bobby and Sue Ellen brought the glamor and all the suspense of that world's secrets, schemes and betrayals to the small screen. The series made Larry Martin Hagman, who played the character of JR Ewing, an international star. In stark contrast, the ABC TV series “Blood and Oil,” which instead brought the realism, depicting the hard life of workers in the shale fields of North Dakota. Without the glamor and intrigue of Dallas, the series failed to win the hearts and minds of viewers, especially after the oil price crash in 2014. The series was canceled in October of 2015.
documentaries
The big movie "studios" bring aspects related to the energy business that evoke sensations such as excitement, danger and spectacular images in people's lives to stimulate entertainment. In contrast to this approach, independent filmmakers have produced educational documentaries aimed more at information and education. An important educational documentary is "Disruptors" made by "Economist Films" which analyzes how the fossil fuel sector, whose value stands at five trillion dollars, including energy companies such as E.on and Statoil, giants of the oil sector, are adapting to the new disruptive technological and market challenges that have emerged with the advent of renewable energies such as wind and solar power. The documentary also recalls the impact of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change signed by 195 nations that have pledged to tackle harmful carbon dioxide emissions.
Also informative and educational is the mini-series "Planet Oil: The Treasure that Conquered the World" by the British BBC. Professor Iain Stewart, Director of Plymouth University's new Sustainable Earth Institute (SEI) explores how in less than a generation, the world has become dependent on oil. The same, highlights how the unquenchable thirst for oil is changing the very planet on which we all depend, as well as revealing the centrality of the role of oil in all aspects of human life.
In the world of gas and oil, where environmental and geopolitical concerns are growing, the temptation to dramatize their characteristics for the general public can be compelling, and probably, very profitable. Whether the big screen is accurate in its representations is perhaps debatable however it is undeniable that this theme will continue to prove irresistibly engaging over time.
From the Eniday site.
