SPOILERS AHEAD
‘We really had it all didn’t we’
This is the most poignant line of Don’t Look Up to me, as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and their families are struck by the comet. This line has stuck with me since I watched the film. What really struck me about Don’t Look Up is what seems to have struck a lot of us in the environmental space – there are some striking similarities between Don’t Look Up and our current handling of the climate crisis. So today, I wanted to talk through those parallels.
Before I get to that, what did I think of Don’t Look Up as a film? I thought it was good, but certainly not the best film I’ve ever watched. As I’ll go on to explain, I think they really captured human responses to problems and particularly how we act in a crisis, but other than my own comparisons between the plot and real world events, I thought it was a little lacking. I resonated with the scientist characters, but I thought that some of the other characters went a bit too far into spoof at times. But, I’m no film critic, I think the film had some really poignant points, and I really enjoyed it. So here are the two biggest similarities I found.
As I said, I really resonated with the scientists in this film. In particular, it was their frustration that resonated with me the most. Just as the scientists in Don’t Look Up grapple with being questioned over the certainty of the comet hitting earth, climate scientists are constantly being questioned as to how climate change will impact us. As they discuss the issue with Meryl Streep, the President of the United States, she is relieved to hear that they are not 100% certain that the comet will make impact – they’re only 99%. Sound familiar? Scientific uncertainty usually refers to imprecision but is misunderstood to mean that the results are invalid. This was particularly clear in Don’t Look Up, and is easy to see with many issues currently facing the world – not just the climate crisis, but also Covid-19. In the film, the President only agrees to do anything about the comet once her popularity is diminishing, and then she pushes that scientists are almost 100% certain of the impact. So, uncertainty only seems to be a problem when it doesn’t fit with the agenda.
Another huge parallel for me (and possibly a reason that this film has had poor reviews), is the media response to the crisis. In Don’t Look Up, the two scientists go on a morning TV show to talk about the comet after the President dismisses them with very little intention of doing anything. Whilst they have a very serious and terrifying message and the presenters do ask some valid questions, but they quickly start joking and making light of the situation. This was obviously exaggerated in the film, but the sentiment is the same – climate change often gets made to seem less scary than it actually is, probably so that the audience continues to watch. Additionally, just as with the politicians, in Don’t Look Up other news stories dominate the news, such as celebrities getting married. This is pretty similar to what is going on now – that doesn’t mean that other stories aren’t important, but when you think about all the coverage that Covid-19 gets compared to the coverage that climate change gets, there’s no comparison.
Overall, I think that this film draws some important parallels to our world today. We critique the people who have the knowledge, but allow the media to sensationalise headlines and divert our attention to what they believe is important. We fail to treat a crisis like a crisis, especially if there is another crisis that is more immediate, more important or more personal. We fail to act until the very end, even when we know what to do. Peter Bradshaw from the Guardian called the film ‘laboured, self-conscious and unrelaxed’ – I would disagree. Although at times it is a little too much like a comedy sketch, this self-consciousness is exactly what gives the film the important parallels that captivated me as a viewer. It was laboured in that I could feel the frustration of the characters, because that is the frustration that I feel constantly. And finally, the film was not relaxed – it was frantic, anxious and disjointed, but again, I think that that is part of what made it so relevant for me.
There we go, there are my thoughts on Don’t Look Up – what do you think? Do you see any parallels between the events of the film and the climate crisis? Did you enjoy it as a film? Let me know!
Waste Makes Waste 