Splicetoday

Moving Pictures
Mar 02, 2009, 11:39AM

Re-reviewing Waterworld

Does the epic Kevin Costner flop deserve to be regarded as an ahead-of-its-time eco-parable?

 

It would seem so:

But has Waterworld's moment finally arrived? The movie opens with an image of the globe as we know it slowly being swallowed by blue while a narrator explains that in the future, "the polar ice caps have melted, covering the world with water." Something similar, if less dramatic, is happening right now on Earth. Global warming is causing seas to rise (though the polar ice caps have little to do with it). In its 2007 report, theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected a sea-level rise of between seven and 23 inches by 2100. While that might not seem like much, it could be enough to make a low-lying island untenable: Recently, the Maldives' new president announced his intention to buy land to relocate his entire nation if necessary. What if Waterworld were an eco-parable whose message was merely ahead of its time?

Discussion

Register or Login to leave a comment