Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

1 Timothy 6:9-10

People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.


In this documentary which won an Independent Spirit Award, Director Laura Dunn examines how rampant development is clashing with our basic needs.  In this case, that need is clean drinking water and water in general, although she touches briefly on the subject of the declining farmland developers usually snatch up and subdivide.  Released in 2007 at the beginning of this latest economic downturn, many of the arguments about unchecked development and the false economy it creates are eerily prescient now in 2009.

“Just imagine one day it just kind of all happened all at once.  And all of a sudden we were riding the wave and everyone was doing great, and all of a sudden all of the banks started failing.  And savings and loans started closing.  And all of a sudden you started going to lunch and everyone was losing their homes, or their car was being repossessed.  And then the times got worse, and it got worse…”

Using Austin, Texas as a context, Dunn contrasts the development of the last 30-40 years against environmental sustainability.  Specifically, she looks at an area known as Barton Springs and shows how conservationists and local residents fought developers fairly successfully.  Dunn has collected footage through the years and uses that footage going all the way back to the 1970's to show the contrasts in what happened to the city over the decades.

A wide variety of people from all sides of the argument present their case.  In addition to local residents, Dunn talks to real estate developer Gary Bradley, Willie Nelson, Robert Redford, former Governor Ann Richards, former Austin Mayor Roy Butler, Rolling Stone reporter William Greider, and environmental lawyer Bill Bunch among others.

Barton Springs itself is a series of fresh water springs near the city of Austin, TX.  This has been a popular recreation area for locals for years, with water gathered into an area designated as a pool for the residents to swim in, all with fresh water.  The water feeding these springs comes from rainfall and as development has continued, rain water runoff has created an issue where chemicals are being found in the water where they weren’t before.  The pool has also had to be closed at times due to E coli bacteria being found in the water, something that didn’t happen before the 1980’s.

The land around Barton Springs was on the slate to be developed Into a huge subdivision when residents fought back.  With clips from a battle that went through the night with the City Council, Dunn shows how residents were successful in presenting their concerns and effectively had the project killed.  The building and development industry fought back when the City of Austin tried to pass regulations to protect the community and manage growth.  They got a law passed that when the developer purchased a permit those laws apply, rather than updated regulations.  If things change that show certain aspects of their development will damage the environment or otherwise harm the community, it doesn't matter - they can still build it.  It doesn't matter whether it concerns water quality for the whole community - the rights of the developers would triumph.  Fortunately, Ann Richards was the Governor at the time and vetoed it.  Unfortunately, as soon as Dubya was voted in as Governor, he signed it.

"When Congress de-regulated the financial system, it took off the brakes and said "governemnt is not going to impose and slowdown measures on lending and borrowing.  Go for it."

Listening to the pro-development side, it reminds me of Rush Limbaugh, his medical records, and the ACLU - they hate what their opponents have to say until someone wants to develop the property next to them and it will affect their water supply and their quality of life.  I have no sympathy for the people who were out there marching in favor of "property rights" who are now suffering the effects of what they voted for, particularly on their water supply.  That point is made in the commentary, that many of the people who are shown in the march actually suffered a few years later when the government began taking land for roads.  Suddenly, these people were opposing development rights.

The people Dunn interviews on the side of development are those who believe they stand to benefit the most, such as the developers themselves and real estate brokers.  These people talk about their right to do what they want with the land - but what about the rights of the people who have already built?  Don't they have the right to water and clean air?  And what happens when the developer and the development goes bust, as in the case of developer Gary Bradley, whose story is somewhat followed in the film?  Who is responsible for the issues his development has created, whether it’s houses that now can’t be sold, contaminated runoff, or suburban blight? Residents who have moved into these developments are shown complaining about water rationing and how the developers should have taken it into consideration.  I found myself wondering, isn’t that where we were at the start of this film?

I’ve witnessed a similar battle up here with Nestle/Poland Spring and the town of Fryeburg, Maine where Nestle used its deep pockets to have a law struck down regulating how much water they can take out of the local aquifer.  Greed and self-centeredness are motivating not just the people who stand to make money off of the product, but also those who consume said product, whether it’s housing or drinking water.  People don’t seem to care until it affects them, and Dunn made this clear.  She shows that it’s not just about what’s happening in Austin, but all over the world. Although she uses this one little area of the country as a symbol for what’s going wrong.  I understood perfectly what she was saying and saw how it related to the issues we have up here.

The Unforeseen is terrifically paced and balanced in that the people speak for themselves.  The cinematography is beautiful with so many shots of the beauty of this area of Texas, contrasted with flyovers of the development of both highways and subdivisions.  Underwater shots are used to show the pristine beauty of the springs.

The commentary track on it was very insightful as there’s more background to what was happening and who the people are, and I recommend listening to it after you’ve watched the film all the way through. 

There’s no easy answers as we’ve all been sold on the American dream, yet we don’t want to deal with the consequences of what we’ve wrought.  The Unforeseen does a good job illustrating contrasting needs, although it is definitely biased on the pro-conservation side.  It’s well paced and flows very well, bringing issues that are local into focus as to what’s happened in the world, perhaps even moreso now that we’ve seen this bust in the financial and housing markets that still seem to be spiraling downward.


DVD Extras:

• Commentary with Director Laura Dunn, Cinematographer Lee Daniel, Producer/Designer Jef Sewell, and Sound Designer Tom Hammond
• Trailer


Other "political" movie reviews:
 
An Inconvenient Truth ~ The Big One ~ Blue Gold: World Water Wars ~ Born on the Fourth of July ~ Bowling For Columbine ~ Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy ~ A Crude Awakening ~ Democracy University: Volume One ~ The End of Suburbia ~ Fahrenheit 9/11 ~ Farmingville ~ FLOW: For Love of Water ~ The Ground Truth ~ Giuliani Time ~ Hacking Democracy ~ Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train ~ The Hunting of the President ~ The Insider ~ Iraq For Sale ~ Jesus Camp ~ J.F.K. ~ JFK: The Case for Conspiracy ~ Lake of Fire ~ The Laramie Project ~ The Murder of JFK ~ No End In Sight ~ Outfoxed ~ Outrage ~ Religulous ~ Roger and Me ~ Senator Obama Goes to Africa ~ Teddy Roosevelt: An American Lion ~ Terrorstorm ~ This Divided State ~ Truman ~ Truman: The 33rd President ~ War Feels Like War ~ War Made Easy ~ What Would Jesus Buy? ~ With God On Our Side


© 2009 Patti Aliventi

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD