The film delves into what led Michael Ruppert, a police officer turned independent reporter, to foresee the financial crisis, as well as his grim worldview, which envisions more economic disasters.
It's only when he starts to weep for the future of a population that won't heed his warnings that Ruppert shows his humanity. It's made him abandon his cause and quit writing.
There are clear parallels with former US vice-president Al Gore's arguments in An Inconvenient Truth, only Smith's film makes less use of showbiz-style graphics.
If he's even half right, the world our children and grandchildren will inherit doesn't bear thinking about.
Little White Lies
September 30, 2010
Smith treats Ruppert both as exhibit and patient, and he comes across as an angry yet compassionate man, secure in his convictions but lost in his emotions.
San Francisco Chronicle
December 04, 2009
Collapse will leave you shaken about the future of the planet, and saddened about the shattered life of the messenger.
Collapse" is a grueling peek at a doomsday prophet's rigorous mind but in a sly way also a compassionate look at the strain Ruppert endures from knowing he has only ever been right.
Chris Smith's documentary centres on a long and disquieting interview with Michael Ruppert, a radical American activist on a mission to expose the "peak oil" cover-up...
Ruppert unexpectedly breaks down, weeping openly for the lost future of humanity, and at that moment I was startled at how bad I felt for him -- and how nervous I was, suddenly, that this contemporary Cassandra might just be right.
