I had never heard of this movie. It was recommended to me by the software-gremlims at Netflix. Once it arrived, it sat on the table for weeks before I finally popped it in. The movie sounded boring and preachy. But I was wrong.

"A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash" by Basil Gelpke, Reto Caduff, Ray McCormack

This movie was gripping in a "is that how it works?" kind of way. If you expect to live another 10 or more years, you should see this movie.

I always believed that Iraq's oil was a major reason we invaded. Not the only reason, but one of the main reasons. However, I will admit I dont really know how. All I knew is that oil is important, it makes a lot of people rich, and Iraq has a lot of it that was kind of up for grabs.

I have never been able to grasp the enormity of oil. After watching this movie, I think I can say that the world I grew up in exists only because of the existence of cheap oil.

The corollary of this epiphany is that the world I know would go away if we used up the oil. And since God isn't making more oil....

I am not sure what I was expecting in this movie but that issue is what the movie is about. The movie talks about the history of oil, how oil created the modern world, and how oil will soon be gone. Fascinating stuff with lots of old photos from the last 100 years of oil and interviews with a lot of people who know about oil.

I have been quite worried about global warming, particularly about the creation of global warming gases generated by burning fossil fuels. I have argued that we need to change our behavior and quickly move to using dramatically less oil. But a change like that is like losing weight; its something you know you should do, and something you talk about doing, while eating your second helping of desert.

What I was not aware of before now was that we may not need to be strong and force ourselves to diet. The oil supply may just run out all by itself. Forget the nicotine patch or the methadone - we will all be quitting cold-turkey. Oh shit...

The reason for that is that oil is finite and the people in charge of oil have been lying about reserves for decades.

If the oil runs out, we wont need to worry so much about Kyoto treaties. That is the good news. The bad news is global recession, no more air travel, and the planet may suddenly only generate enough food for 1 person in 6.

This is a great movie about an aspect of oil you have probably never thought about. Our leaders certainly never talk about it. And oil is integral so so many aspects of our lives, the movie covers one topic after another, on and on and on.

Having said that, if I had to complain about the flick, my complaint would be that it focuses too much on oil used for transportation. It barely talks about oil's use in making almost every item in your household. The carpet, the paint, the refrigerator, the computers, the food packaging...

So dont be surprised. Watch this movie and start the conversation.