MOVIE REVIEW - "The Last Mountain"

Energy Future in Limbo in The Last Mountain

Deep in the heart of West Virginia sits Coal River Valley. Once upon a time the Appalachian Mountain range loomed over the top of this community, looking down on it like Greek Gods overlooking their domain. But now, with the advent of Mountain Top Removal and the easing of restrictions against it during the George W. Bush presidential administration, most of this range has been decimated, one last mountain all that remains of this once pristine wilderness.



The documentary The Last Mountain examines the battle going on inside Coal River Valley, asking questions about the continued viability of coal mining, the political influence massive corporations like Massey Energy have both on local and national levels, the health risks associated with Mountain Top Removal, alternate sources of energy production and the economic effects upon communities of coal production is slowed or stymied. While its point of view and opinions on the subject are not in question, director Bill Haney and his fellow filmmakers still allow industry spokesmen like West Virginia Coal Association president Bill Raney to make their case for continued production. Not so much even-handed as open-minded, this forceful and impacting documentary is as much an indictment of how energy is produced in the Unite States as Inside Job was in how it eviscerated Wall Street.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., author of 2004’s Crimes Against Nature, is our eyes and ears for this journey, He travels into the heart of West Virginia and to other hot spots of alternate Green Energy production and does his best to examine them in most ways possible. He meets with Coal River Valley residents impacted the most by the devastation caused by Mountain Top Removal, listening to their stories and assisting as they try to get politicians, corporate leaders and others to here their insistent cries for change.

Still, it isn’t like this movie is a “Frontline” or “60 Minutes” style piece of journalism doing its best to stay out of the way and allow viewers to make up their minds for themselves as to the plusses and minuses of what is being presented. Haney and company are definitely making a proactive piece showcasing the ills of coal mining and production, doing their best to show how wind power and other forms of Green Energy production can create jobs and help economies.

My earlier mention of Inside Job was not out of left field because, like that film, even though this one is also an opinionated piece trying to hammer its points home it’s not like the facts it presents are all that in question. You believe the information imparted, just about every single bit of it, the science and the realities for these communities combining together in a way that is heartfelt, moving and, most importantly, infuriating. Watching the Appalachians disappear and listening to Bill Raney say that it’s okay boggled my mind in a way that had me silently fuming, and I can’t see how anyone watching this film won’t come away wondering how in the world we allow stuff like this to continue to go on.

The sad part about all of this is that many have already made up their minds on this issue and will refuse to allow it to be changed, no matter what information is thrown their way. You can tell people about the millions their community could be making from wind turbines and yet they’ll frustratingly still believe the paltry thousands they receive from the likes of Massey Energy are more important and produce more jobs. You can tell people how the coal industry has shed 40,000 positions and yet increased their profits by over a 100-percent and yet they’ll still believe the opposite is true. Facts no longer seem to matter anymore, fiction becoming truth in a way that’s remarkable and disturbing.

Films like The Last Mountain serve a greater purpose then as they try to turn away a tide that has only seemed to build into a titanic wall over this past decade or so. It shows how David can still face down Goliath and come away, if not victorious, at least having made significant changes to the field of play. This is a movie people like me need to extol the virtues of and those in the target areas need to see for themselves. Change doesn’t happen overnight, but at least Haney has helped add to a conversation that will hopefully continue to build until the point that the powers that be have to stop feigning cluelessness and begin to engage in the debate themselves.