And now … for a bit of fun with energy: My top 10 energy movies (on oil, coal, hydroelectric, and nuclear).
A list of 50 movies follows on numerous energy topics, from Thomas Edison and Marie Curie biopics to fighting oil fires around the world and building wind turbines in rural Africa. Let me know your favourite energy film(s) and any I have left out. Some have links to free downloads.
Happy viewing! (Coming Soon: My top 10 energy songs.)
50 ENERGY MOVIES (some with FREE
LINKS)
Edison, The Man (Clarence Brown, 1940) with Spencer Tracy
How Green was my Valley (John Ford, 1941) with Walter Pidgeon and Maureen
O Hara
Children of Hiroshima (Kaneto Shindō, 1952) with Nobuko Otowa
Salt of the Earth (Herbert Biberman, 1954) with Rosaura Revueltas
Giant
(1956, George Stevens) with James Dean, Elizabeth
Taylor, and Rock Hudson
On the Beach
(Stanley Kramer, 1959) with Gregory Peck (from the 1957 novel by Nevil Shute)
Wild River (Elia Kazan, 1960) with Montgomery Clift and the
incomparable Jo van Fleet
Fail Safe (Sidney
Lumet, 1964) with Henry Fonda
Dr. Strangelove
or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
with Peter Sellers, Peter Sellers, and Peter Sellers
Hellfighters (Andrew McLaglen, 1968)
with John Wayne, Jim Hutton, and Katherine Ross
Five Easy Pieces
(Bob Rafelson, 1970) with Jack Nickleson
Oklahoma Crude
(1973, Stanley Kramer) with George C. Scott and Faye Dunaway
Three Days of the Condor (Sydney Pollack, 1975) with Robert Redford and Faye
Dunaway
The Price of Coal: Meet the People (Ken Loach, 1977) with an expectant Prince Charles
The China Syndrome
(James Bridges, 1979) with Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon
Mad Max (George
Miller, 1979) with Mel Gibson
Coal Miner's Daughter
(Michael Apted, 1980) with Sissy Spacek
Oppenheimer (Barry
Davis, 1980) with Sam Waterston (7-part BBC miniseries)
The Secret of Nikola Tesla (Krsto Papić, 1980) with Orson Welles
If You Love This Planet (Dr. Helen Caldicott, 1982) Academy Award Best
Documentary (Short Subject)
Silkwood (Mike
Nichols, 1983) with Meryl Streep and Cher
Which Side are You
On? (Ken Loach, 1985)
Ground Zero (Bruce
Myles, Michael Pattinson, 1987) with Colin Friels
Matewan (John Sayles, 1987) with Chris Cooper, Mary McDonell,
and James Earl Jones
Tucker: The Man
and his Dream (Francis Ford Coppola, 1988) with Jeff Bridges
Black Rain
(Shōhei Imamura, 1989)
The
Pelican Brief (Alan J. Pakula, 1993) with Julia Roberts
and Denzel Washington
Rudy (David Anspaugh, 1993) with Sean Astin and Charles S. Dutton
Brassed Off (Mark Herman,1996) with Pete Postlethwaite and
Ewan McGregor
October Sky (Joe
Johnston, 1999) with Jake Gyllenhaal
K-19: The Widowmaker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2002) with Harrison Ford and
Liam Neeson
Drowned Out
(Franny Alexander, 2002)
North Country
(Niki Caro, 2005) with Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand
There Will Be
Blood (Paul Anderson, 2007) with Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano
The Strangest Dream (Eric Bednarski, 2008) A gazillion times better than
Oppenheimer ("If you want peace, prepare for peace." -- Joseph Rotblat)
The Age of Stupid
(Franny Armstrong, 2009) with Pete Postlethwaite
Crude (Joe Berlinger, 2009)
Made in Dagenham
(Nigel Cole, 2010) with Sally Hawkins and Bob Hoskins
Promised Land (Gus
van Sant, 2012) "Rainbows and happy thoughts"
Marie Curie: The
Courage of Knowledge (Marie Noelle, 2016) with Karolina Gruszka
Nice Guys (Shane Black, 2016) with Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe
The
Current War (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, 2017) with Benedict
Cumberbatch and Nicholas Hoult
Backstabbing for
Beginners (Per Fly, 2018)
Red Joan (Trevor
Nunn, 2018) with Judy Dench
The Boy who
Harnessed the Wind (Chiwetel Ejiofor, 2019)
Chernobyl (Johan
Renck. 2019) with Jared Harris (5-part HBO miniseries)
The Devil Has a
Name (Edward James Olmos, 2019) with Kate Bosworth
The Trick (Pip
Broughton, 2021)
Radioactive (Marjane
Satrapi, 2021) with Rosamund Pike
Oppenheimer (Chris
Nolan, 2023) with Cillian Murphy
SOME FREE BOOK LINKS
De Re Metallica (1556), Georgius Agricola (free Project Gutenberg Ebook)
King Coal (1917) Upton Sinclair (free online copy)
Oil!
(1926) Upton Sinclair (free online copy)
SOME DOCUMENTARY / LECTURE /
TALK LINKS
Transistorized! (PBS, 1999) The invention of the transistor at Bell
Labs
Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity Jim Al-Khalili (BBC Horizon, 2011): Three-part
documentary on electricity, invention, and revolution
Yup, I built a nuclear fusion reactor Taylor Wilson, 3:32, TED2012
My radical plan for small nuclear fission reactors Taylor Wilson, 12:53, TED2013
Introduction to Nuclear Engineering and Ionizing
Radiation Michael
Short (MIT, 2016, Lecture 26, Chernobyl How it Happened)
Pipeline Politics Around The World John Foster (CIC Nipissing and CIC Edmonton, 2021,
54:16)
SOME PROGRAM LINKS
Drain the Oceans (National Geographic) Looking underneath the
mysteries of the earth
Fatberg hunters: Turning fat from the sewer into fuel, BBC Reel, January 1, 2019 (Making
something valuable from the fat you pour down the sink.)
Futuris (EuroNews) Programs about
scientific and technological European research projects
Gasland, NOW, PBS
(Interview with Josh Fox), March 26, 2010 (including flaming tap)
The Repair Shop (BBC) An antidote to throwaway culture
Vintage Voltage
(Discovery) Transforming classics into electrifying rides
Wheeler Dealers A great program if you know nothing about cars (like
me) and what to know more!
Wild Wonderful Off-Grid, (YouTube channel): A couple builds their own
off-grid home from scratch in the mountains of West Virginia
