Promised Land, the new movie from director Gus Van Sant, takes a long hard look at people's decisions to sell land use rights away to energy companies for gas drilling. Small landowners and large farm owners each face a crisis when the gas man comes to town. The Pennsylvania landowners are not the only people to go through a crisis of conscience in the movie. The energy company employees also struggle with sorting out the truth and the lies behind their work. As one employee says, "it's just a job". Increasingly as the real news comes out day after day about chemical contamination after hydraulic fracturing – fracking – one person's job morphs into another person's tragedy.
I grew up in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in New York, a rural area that is now at a the center of a raging debate over fracking land rights for the Marcellus Shale gas. Fracking was put on hold here in New York, due to concerns over health impact of chemicals used and chemical waste produced. The story in the movie, Promised Land, as written by star actors Matt Damon and John Krasinski, captures parts of country life from my childhood with true colors. Closeness to the earth, respectful of honesty in conversation, I remember this well. The dialog throughout is natural and believable.The movie is beautifully filmed to share the peace of nature.
I grew up in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in New York, a rural area that is now at a the center of a raging debate over fracking land rights for the Marcellus Shale gas. Fracking was put on hold here in New York, due to concerns over health impact of chemicals used and chemical waste produced. The story in the movie, Promised Land, as written by star actors Matt Damon and John Krasinski, captures parts of country life from my childhood with true colors. Closeness to the earth, respectful of honesty in conversation, I remember this well. The dialog throughout is natural and believable.The movie is beautifully filmed to share the peace of nature.