Holy shit.
The blurb for this movie describes it as nerve-shredding, and boy does it deliver. So tense. Not been on the edge of my seat like that since watching Land of Mine.
How To Blow Up A Pipeline is about, funnily enough, people blowing up a pipeline. A group of young people from disparate backgrounds come together to take direct action against the oil industry. The film follows the execution of their carefully prepared plan, while showing what led them to this moment in flashbacks.
My worry with the film was that it was going to do the predictable thing, show young people taking direct political action and portray their naivety, their short-sightedness, their ego and lust for a rush. That their valid concerns would be given ‘balance’ with the unthinkable possibility that one person on the other side have a single hair on their head harmed. That this would be an exploration of how people could be lead on such an extreme and misguided path.
That is not this film. How To Blow Up A Pipeline explores the multiple ways this industry is killing people here and now, even as it drives towards our collective annihilation through climate change. It shows indigenous kids trying to prevent the destruction of the last of their land, of folk losing people they love in the heat waves that are already taking hold, of the hopelessness of young people being robbed of their future. This film is not about to balance that by cutting to – what exactly? Some billionaire having his portfolio returns disrupted by fluctuating oil prices? What are you going to balance that with?
I love that the cast reflected the reality that the people doing most of the heavy lifting in the fight against climate change are the people most directly effected and least likely to be in positions of power. Young people of colour, especially women. All the young actors are just great, and make their character clear and distinct, even in a large ensemble cast.
Thoroughly recommend How To Blow Up A Pipeline. Tight, tense and as urgent as its message.