Three of us went to see Promised Land (PL) last night and I hate to say this, but the movie was not only shoddy standard Hollywood fare, it failed completely in being even moderately realistic as well as failing to clarify the issues involved with both fracking industrialization of rural areas and the genuine short and long term impacts involved. I don't know what rock the film's scriptwriters and producers have been hiding under, but the average person in the street knows more about fracking and it's implications than they did. The manner in which the leasing agents were approaching property owners was false, the town's individual and collective reaction was pure fiction and the premise (that there was a mole "double agent" in the employ of a huge gas corporation passing himself off as an environmentalist) is patently ludicrous.
I know landowners in the middle of the rural fracking boom in the northern tier of the state who have been in the midst of the real site of this ongoing crisis since it began 4 years ago and also know people who work in the shale gas industry so I am pretty familiar with how the process works.
First off, unlike the way it is portrayed in PL, the leasing agents are more often independents who collect signed leases and then bundle them and sell them to the highest bidder for a percentage profit.
Second, the idea promoted by PL that the community "votes" on whether to "allow" the mining in their area is completely false -- we ALL know that state commerce rules largely supercede any local regulations, even if the court's stay of the worst features of Act 13 stands.
Third, the portrayal of rural small town life as an idyllic environment inhabited by idealistic traditionalists is largely false. The reason that there has been such a boom in drilling is that a large percentage of individual land owners are enthusiastic, sometimes blindly so, about signing up to get the money from the drillers. And most, even if they have not leased, have friends or family who work either for the drilling industries or for businesses that profit from their presence, like industrial suppliers, truck drivers, laborers and owners and employees of motels, restaurants and service stations. Even if it is a Devil's Bargain, the fracking industry has brought at least a temporary level of prosperity to many struggling small towns. Much of the population of these regions tend to have a suspicion of environmentalism (which they associate with "big city liberals") and of academics and science, so educating them about the real threat to their lifestyles and health by shale gas drilling is a tough row to hoe. The notion that locals would challenge and beat up a gas leasing agent in a bar is beyond dumb.
Fourth, there was virtually NO real depiction or explanation of the process of fracking in the film. The schoolroom "demonstration" scene and the "dead cows in Louisiana" trope were ludicrous. There are REAL environmental issues with frack drilling and REAL accidents affecting human and animal health that could have been worked into the script. There was NO mention of air pollution, the effects of heavy traffic on rural roads, the noise and emissions of compressor stations, the land destruction of pipelines, the massive draw-offs of water and the disposal problems of "produced" waste water. Anyone not already familiar with the frack process and the issues involved would learn nothing from this film. The subplot about the doofus living in the trailer who enthusiastically signs a lease is beyond dumb. For one thing, a fracking well pad takes a MINIMUM of 4 acres and most are closer to 10. No leasing agent would solicit a contract for the guy's 1.3 acre plot. And people who are leasing their property tend to be pretty well informed about the going rates and royalties. Pretty typical Hollywood condescension towards rural folk as dim yokels.
Fifth, though I am no big fan of the oil and gas industry, I do know that they are more greedy than sneaky and the plot device of the "secret agent" is silly and distorts the real issues. Yes, the industry does sponsor duplicitous phony "environmental" propaganda, but the standard two-dimensional Hollywood portrayal of the "evil corporation" and the "ethical insider with a heart who has an epiphany" are cheap shots and juvenile scripting. I could have drafted a more effective script than this one in about 15 minutes.
Honestly, the fracking industry has little to fear from this dopey film (we got to the 7:15 screening early enough to be subjected to the entire 45 minutes of ads and "coming attractions" and didn't see any of the "industry information" we were told to expect). And I see little in this piece of Hollywood run-of-the-mill cheese that would inform or energize anyone about the genuine issues involved in the fracking dilemma. If anything, the falseness of the premises and the portrayals could be a setback for the movement. There are such major gaffes and gaps in this film that I feel strongly that it would be a mistake for the anti- fracking movement to pin any publicity or hopes on it in strengthening the cause.
The movie is a complete disappointment and a failure, both as a dramatic production and as a potentially influential public wake-up call. Hollywood crap. Matt Damon should be ashamed of this pablum.
I know landowners in the middle of the rural fracking boom in the northern tier of the state who have been in the midst of the real site of this ongoing crisis since it began 4 years ago and also know people who work in the shale gas industry so I am pretty familiar with how the process works.
First off, unlike the way it is portrayed in PL, the leasing agents are more often independents who collect signed leases and then bundle them and sell them to the highest bidder for a percentage profit.
Second, the idea promoted by PL that the community "votes" on whether to "allow" the mining in their area is completely false -- we ALL know that state commerce rules largely supercede any local regulations, even if the court's stay of the worst features of Act 13 stands.
Third, the portrayal of rural small town life as an idyllic environment inhabited by idealistic traditionalists is largely false. The reason that there has been such a boom in drilling is that a large percentage of individual land owners are enthusiastic, sometimes blindly so, about signing up to get the money from the drillers. And most, even if they have not leased, have friends or family who work either for the drilling industries or for businesses that profit from their presence, like industrial suppliers, truck drivers, laborers and owners and employees of motels, restaurants and service stations. Even if it is a Devil's Bargain, the fracking industry has brought at least a temporary level of prosperity to many struggling small towns. Much of the population of these regions tend to have a suspicion of environmentalism (which they associate with "big city liberals") and of academics and science, so educating them about the real threat to their lifestyles and health by shale gas drilling is a tough row to hoe. The notion that locals would challenge and beat up a gas leasing agent in a bar is beyond dumb.
Fourth, there was virtually NO real depiction or explanation of the process of fracking in the film. The schoolroom "demonstration" scene and the "dead cows in Louisiana" trope were ludicrous. There are REAL environmental issues with frack drilling and REAL accidents affecting human and animal health that could have been worked into the script. There was NO mention of air pollution, the effects of heavy traffic on rural roads, the noise and emissions of compressor stations, the land destruction of pipelines, the massive draw-offs of water and the disposal problems of "produced" waste water. Anyone not already familiar with the frack process and the issues involved would learn nothing from this film. The subplot about the doofus living in the trailer who enthusiastically signs a lease is beyond dumb. For one thing, a fracking well pad takes a MINIMUM of 4 acres and most are closer to 10. No leasing agent would solicit a contract for the guy's 1.3 acre plot. And people who are leasing their property tend to be pretty well informed about the going rates and royalties. Pretty typical Hollywood condescension towards rural folk as dim yokels.
Fifth, though I am no big fan of the oil and gas industry, I do know that they are more greedy than sneaky and the plot device of the "secret agent" is silly and distorts the real issues. Yes, the industry does sponsor duplicitous phony "environmental" propaganda, but the standard two-dimensional Hollywood portrayal of the "evil corporation" and the "ethical insider with a heart who has an epiphany" are cheap shots and juvenile scripting. I could have drafted a more effective script than this one in about 15 minutes.
Honestly, the fracking industry has little to fear from this dopey film (we got to the 7:15 screening early enough to be subjected to the entire 45 minutes of ads and "coming attractions" and didn't see any of the "industry information" we were told to expect). And I see little in this piece of Hollywood run-of-the-mill cheese that would inform or energize anyone about the genuine issues involved in the fracking dilemma. If anything, the falseness of the premises and the portrayals could be a setback for the movement. There are such major gaffes and gaps in this film that I feel strongly that it would be a mistake for the anti- fracking movement to pin any publicity or hopes on it in strengthening the cause.
The movie is a complete disappointment and a failure, both as a dramatic production and as a potentially influential public wake-up call. Hollywood crap. Matt Damon should be ashamed of this pablum.