Collapse

Collapse

82 Minutes

It’s difficult not to view Chris Smith’s Collapse in the context of Steven Soderbergh’s masterful The Informant! from earlier this year. Both films focus on brilliant but troubled whistle blowers who can’t seem to get over the fact that the rest of the world isn’t listening to them. While cop turned investigative reporter Michael Ruppert would undoubtedly argue that his case in Collapse is wholly selfless, he nonetheless displays much of the same cocky swagger that so completely brought down The Informant!’s Mark Whitacre (and to make things even odder, Ruppert’s younger self even looks similar to Whitacre). If Whitacre was a too clever, sadly warped joke of a man who lost it all because of his greed then Ruppert is twice as clever and not so much of a joke as an incredibly bleak soothsayer who lost it all to tunnel vision and pride.

Like Whitacre, Ruppert is obsessed with revealing a grand conspiracy that really isn’t all that shocking to anyone who has even a basic understanding of American business practices. The obsession is that of the “peak oil” concept, which is devoted to predicting we will reach the point where oil production becomes terminal. Ruppert uses this concept to advance the fairly obvious notion that businesses were aware of the fact that oil was a limited resource at best and did nothing to prolong its use or seek out replacements in a timely fashion. This is then used to explain such things as the second Iraq War and why Saudia Arabia has become so focused on off-shore drilling when it is far more expensive than utilizing the fields the country supposedly has in bulk while ignoring completely the presence of countries that are sitting on huge portions of oil and barely using any of it, such as Canada.

Ruppert is charismatic and convincing but towards the middle of the film, he begins to make it clear that his mission may be more about furthering his own cause than any kind of selfless crusading. The breaking point comes as Ruppert is describing his supposed prediction of the current recession and turns straight towards the camera, dramatically closes his eyes, and sighs “We had it so right” before the film cuts to one of his lectures. Some may remember the lecture tour Ruppert did in support of this theory as well as the numerous articles he simultaneously released which essentially argued that the world was heading towards a fierce economic depression that would put the one at the beginning of the 20th century to shame and could literally cause the “extinction of the human race.” Smith even inserts a clip of Ruppert stating that this depression will be “like nothing you’ve ever seen before.” It should be immediately obvious to some viewers that Ruppert’s claims of having it “so right” aren’t exactly accurate.

While it’s true that the current economic climate is by no means cheerful, it has yet to reach the levels of similar recessions as little as two decades ago let alone coming anywhere the doomsday scenario Ruppert “foresaw.” Further, the recession seems to be dwindling rather than ascending and while in time this may be proven to be a mere hiccup in the apocalypse, the evidence really isn’t on Ruppert’s side. Yet Ruppert isn’t entirely wrong for claiming he saw the future; hidden amongst his pessimistic predictions were common sense solutions for the middle class that included pleas to pay off debt as quickly as possible and avoid the mortgage game altogether.

Many will be swayed by Ruppert’s natural magnetism and to be clear, there isn’t exactly a problem with that. If Collapse becomes an artier, more intense An Inconvenient Truth for people who need that kind of shock to understand that change needs to happen, then so be it. But it’s difficult not to ultimately view Ruppert as overly negative, particularly when he’s telling people to stockpile certain supplies for his end times (here’s a hint: he really wants you to avoid genetically modified food and cell phones). Ruppert is certainly right about some things, first and foremost our dependence on oil for everything and the problems that are going to arise when we run out of it and still don’t have a feasible alternative (and yes, Ruppert does get into why ethanol, electricity, and hydrogen are not those alternatives), but his perpetual sky is falling antics may doom him to being a more paranoid Thomas Malthus for our era.

And if Ruppert seems paranoid, well, there’s cause for that as well. The film gives several examples of associates of Ruppert’s who met untimely deaths, and Ruppert’s offices were burglarized during that doomsday lecture tour. It’s quite simple to see why he has wound up the way he has, with many of his fears realized, albeit on a smaller scale, and many of those who think like him silenced in one way or another. Collapse isn’t looking to force you into believing Ruppert nor is it looking to wink at you and let you know it’s well aware of his eccentricities. This goes a long way towards making Smith’s film such a success. Smith has stated that he personally doesn’t believe everything that Ruppert says, but found that he was an incredibly fascinating figure and that was what he wanted to display in his film.

Like the more benevolent little brother to Errol Morris’s Fog of War, Collapse is a portrait of a man deeply committed to his beliefs to the point where it seems to be impairing his vision, even as he winkingly calls out his potential Messiah Complex. In some parts this means he conveniently overlooks examples that prove counter-intuitive to his argument (such as Iceland’s thoroughly advanced and organic thermal power reliance or the widespread use of solar power in portions of the tropics and elsewhere) and in others he glosses over portions of his predictions that haven’t been exactly true, such as near the end when he contradicts his statement that the economic collapse of the world would happen quickly and be immensely widespread from the beginning by saying he and his colleagues hadn’t thought it’d be as fast to spread as it has been.

But none of this changes the sheer power of this film. Collapse is imbued with a potent and intimate aesthetic similar to its aforementioned peer The Fog of War, the interview itself barely fussed over and gorgeously lit, utilizing digital film in a way that speaks to its strengths rather than trying to make it emulate the format it never will be- the lighting is sinister and stark, the tones less bright and more subdued than what film provides, a suitably grim visual style for the dark subject matter. Smith has proven with American Movie and now Collapse that if there’s a documentarian working today who can take over Morris’s reins, it’s him. The director has a keen eye for subjects and knows well enough to let them tell their stories on their own terms without inserting his own beliefs on top. It helps that Smith has a marvelous aesthetic sense as well, easily disproving that documentaries have to be filmed like Michael Moore’s brand of amateurish personal yellow journalism to be exciting. These traits enable Collapse to be perhaps the best hope the Morris school of documentary has right now for winning back control of the market and it somehow also manages to make for a perfect double bill with The Informant!’s darkly comic take on capitalism. Where The Informant! was a classic story of hubris gone awry, Collapse is potentially a more cheerful proposition if you’re so inclined- if you remain paranoid and pessimistic for long enough, eventually something like your depressing version of the future will come along, proving you were right all along even if being right cost you everything.

Collapse will be available VOD on FilmBuff on 11/15.

by Morgan Davis