Critic Reviews
-
Trevor Johnston, Time Out
While the hushed tones of Fox's would-be naïf commentary slightly grate after a while, his film's images, contrasting natural beauty with industrial horror show, are bracingly effective indeed.
-
Christopher Kelly, Dallas Morning News
An exhaustive and eye-opening look at natural-gas drilling and its potential dangers.
-
Rob Nelson, Village Voice
With its jolting images of flammable tap water and chemically burned pets, New York theater-director-turned-documentarian Josh Fox's Sundance-feted shocker makes an irrefutable case against U.S. corporate "fracking."
-
Katie Hewitt, Globe and Mail
It's not pretty, but it works for some. Gasland won a special jury prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
-
Dan Jardine, Cinemania
A must-see documentary
-
Zara Miller, Little White Lies
Gasland will no doubt spark the political debate it intends.
-
Patrick Peters, Empire Magazine
Josh Fox puts a fresh spin on a well-drilled - if continually relevant - story.
-
Philip French, Guardian [UK]
Cheney, the great outdoorsman, nearly killed a friend while hunting. That was nothing, however, compared with what he's been doing to thousands of his fellow countrymen.
-
Allan Hunter, Daily Express
An absorbing, level-headed documentary exposing the way in which nothing is allowed to stand in the path of corporate greed.
-
Sam Davies, Sight and Sound
Improbably riveting.
-
Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
By turns shocking and deeply upsetting, Gasland is a powerful, well made eco-documentary that carries a vitally important message.
-
David Edwards, Daily Mirror [UK]
With the hunt for natural gas likely to be heading to Britain, it's a topical film, although the point could have been made in less time.
-
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
It's a powerful film.
-
David Parkinson, Radio Times
While this isn't always an easy film to watch, it does make important and seemingly incontrovertible connections between Washington and big business that should alarm us all.
-
Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
Gasland may be the first ever American film in which Nixon is the hero. It is the 101st in which Dick Cheney is the villain.
-
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
Frankly it's overwhelming. But Fox finds a lucid narrative here with sharp editing, thorough research and a merciful sense of humour.
-
, Total Film
The lesson is a familiar one but Fox conveys it vividly, contrasting natural beauty with the despoliation wrought by industrial plunder.
-
Ben McEachen, Empire Magazine Australasia
Virtually guarenteed to make your blood boil, debut documentariab Fox's remarkably likeable investigation pours forth a persuasive call-to-arms.
-
Paj Sandhu, Moviedex
GasLand [backs] up its agenda with a calm and comprehensive case of evidence that impassions, not bullies, the audience into action.
-
Matthew Pejkovic, Matt's Movie Reviews
GasLand engrosses as an informative and shocking look at the natural gas boom and the destruction it wrought upon the American heartland.
Read all 21 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
-
We are all seriously fucked. That is all I have to say about this film that will should have bested all others at the 2011 Oscars for Best Documentary. Horrifyingly amazing.
-
Scary and shocking, Gasland opened my eyes to the practise of Hydrolic Fracturing or "Fracking" and it's effects on the groundwater and on the people who are affected. The statistics and the footage of interviews and conferences, are just so upsetting to see. How can… More
Scary and shocking, Gasland opened my eyes to the practise of Hydrolic Fracturing or "Fracking" and it's effects on the groundwater and on the people who are affected. The statistics and the footage of interviews and conferences, are just so upsetting to see. How can people be treated this way?? Gasland is a documentary you do not want to miss.
-
if the ideas presented in fox's film are true, this is more of a horror film than a documentary. The only people strongly challenging the film's assertions are the gas companies themselves, and from what ive read even they are not thoroughly dealing with all of the issues… More
if the ideas presented in fox's film are true, this is more of a horror film than a documentary. The only people strongly challenging the film's assertions are the gas companies themselves, and from what ive read even they are not thoroughly dealing with all of the issues raised in the film, such as why people's water supplies became contaminated in conjunction with the arrival of drilling, and why they are supplying new water to families who have threatened law suits. this film scared the crap out of me. this is an issue i will continue to pay close attention to.
-
A documentary about natural gas drilling here in american and it's effects on the environment. Some scenes show people setting their tap water on fire. While effective in gettings it's point across,the movie is way too informative and wordy. If you want a lesson,then this… More
A documentary about natural gas drilling here in american and it's effects on the environment. Some scenes show people setting their tap water on fire. While effective in gettings it's point across,the movie is way too informative and wordy. If you want a lesson,then this is for you. If you wan entertainment,then try to set ur tap water on fire;-p
-
Stop reading this review. Go to your faucet and see if you can light your water on fire. Seriously - people in the U.S. can light their fucking water on fire! Come back and read the rest if your house hasn't blown up.
There are some documentaries - <i>Food… More
Stop reading this review. Go to your faucet and see if you can light your water on fire. Seriously - people in the U.S. can light their fucking water on fire! Come back and read the rest if your house hasn't blown up.
There are some documentaries - <i>Food Inc.</i> comes to mind - that very simply scare the shit out of me, and <i>Gasland</i> is one of them. As a young obsessive-compulsive, I took refuge in the fact that even though the world was germ-ridden, I could always wash away those nasty little buggers. Now Josh Fox proved that the water table in my area (if you live in civilization, don't rest too easily because the same shit may be coming your way) may have been poisoned, and the culprit is the processes currently used to extract natural gas (there's a euphemism if I've ever heard one; who could argue with using <i>natural</i> gas? It's natural; what's the big deal?). Now I can't drink water or wash my hands without thinking about a shit-load of chemicals ending in "-ene" being absorbed in my skin.
One moment that particularly struck me: after Fox first lights a faucet on fire, you can see his face go from "That's was pretty cool" to "That's fucked up. This is not how life should be." It's a transition that is so natural that I don't think an actor could have pulled it off.
The film itself needed some work here and there. I would have liked to see some more ethos arguments. Give me an expert on "fracking," the process used to extract the gas, to lay out how all of this works. Hopefully s/he'd would pick better diagrams than Michelle Bachman. If they exist, what are the alternatives to the process? What is the extent of the current damage, and how can we correct it? Questions like these, and many more, are relevant, but Fox spends most of the film on pathos arguments. Our heartstrings are tugged by poisoned animals and people whose livelihoods have been destroyed. These stories are no doubt effective, but they're only part of a bigger argument.
Overall, despite the flaws in its argumentation, Fox succeeded in scaring the shit out of me. No movie since <i>Psycho</i> has made a shower this risky.
-
A powerful and shocking documentary about uncaring business practices of natural gas companies towards local residents of their mining sites. Apparently natural gas is trapped beneath the Earth's crust and when it is harvested a lot escapes often polluting the local air and… More
A powerful and shocking documentary about uncaring business practices of natural gas companies towards local residents of their mining sites. Apparently natural gas is trapped beneath the Earth's crust and when it is harvested a lot escapes often polluting the local air and water. This can cause severe health problems and birth defects to local residents. The freaking tap water in most of these towns is so polluted that it can be lit of fire! And yet the companies claim there is no connect between that and their mining operations. (Yah f%$#ing right!!!) The films best scene is towards the end when the filmmaker finally confronts a representative of the company. After getting brushed off with typical corporate answers he decides to pull out polluted tap water from locals that their company has deemed safe and asks him to have a drink. Annoyed by this bully journalism the representative begins to verbally attack the documentarian saying that all documentary makers don't care about their causes, they just care about telling the story and making big corporations look bad. "Eventually you all walk away" he says. Little does he know that this documentarian is a resident of a town currently proposing Natural Gas drilling and that this issue is as real to him as life and death. Fantastic documentary work here!
-
Yes, it is unfortunate that natural gas is being touted as a clean energy source as large parts of the water table become contaminated. However, if you see dollar signs and allow a gas company to pump chemicals into your land, should you become surprised when you well water becomes… More
Yes, it is unfortunate that natural gas is being touted as a clean energy source as large parts of the water table become contaminated. However, if you see dollar signs and allow a gas company to pump chemicals into your land, should you become surprised when you well water becomes undrinkable?
-
Let me start with what doesn't work with "Gasland". It is far too analytical for the average person. The depth that the director goes into to describe the process of drilling flew over my head. If you're making a film about a topic you want people to care about,… More
Let me start with what doesn't work with "Gasland". It is far too analytical for the average person. The depth that the director goes into to describe the process of drilling flew over my head. If you're making a film about a topic you want people to care about, make it understandable within the first few minutes. Secondly, the narrator/directors voice is very monotonous and hard to listen to. Lastly, I felt helpless at the end of this film. I wanted to be able to do something but it offered no solution. Just fear.
Now the good. Once you get into the road trip and visiting the houses of people dealing with flammable drinking water, you really start to feel for these people. They do not come off as people out to make money off the gas companies. They simply want to live. The length the director goes to make you feel for these people is nicely done, but the repetitious nature of the exploration gets old after the fifth or sixth faucet you watch light up. "Gasland" is an example of a subject that we should all be aware of, but in the wrong package.
-
Brilliant film that depicts environmental woes and every individual's worst nightmare.
Definitely a must see!
-
Another scary, eye opening doc. As a human race, we need to stop messing with the planet earth.
Read all 10 featured audience ratings
Currently unavailable on Flixster
Also available on
Other Retailers
Subscription Services