Surviving Progress (2011)
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 36
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 9
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 5
No consensus yet.
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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 2,667
Movie Info
Humanity's ascent is often measured by the speed of progress. But what if progress is actually spiraling us downwards, towards collapse? Ronald Wright, whose best-seller, A Short History Of Progress inspired Surviving Progress, shows how past civilizations were destroyed by "progress traps" - alluring technologies and belief systems that serve immediate needs, but ransom the future. As pressure on the world's resources accelerates and financial elites bankrupt nations, can our globally-entwined
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All Critics (36) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (9) | DVD (1)
These are critically important issues, but it needs a sharper point to get through thick skulls, and even evolved humans who are tired of the treadmill of progress might ask: What else is new?
Top CriticA slick jeremiad, "Surviving Progress" is expertly made (it's far from tedious) but intellectually muddled.
[A] remarkably cogent, albeit remarkably alarming, film.
They shy away from proposing solutions, and the filmmakers capture humanizing clashes that illustrate the challenges of finding a balance that serves all parties.
Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks, adapting a book by Ronald Wright, argue so persuasively that the human race is spinning out of control.
It's self-evident and tells the truth.
Persuasively argued in places, the film never really gets beyond the surface. That, however, may also be the point.
But this is not a film interested in partisan finger-wagging, nor is it looking to place blame directly on one specific group or another (despite some pretty heavy glances toward [some] politicians). No. "Surviving Progress" is more philosophical.
Instead of providing anything in the way of new ideas or even in-depth treatment of old ideas, Surviving Progress is content to be the world's longest book trailer.
One of those annoying runaway films in which every on-camera point is an excuse to cut to gratuitous, expensive images.
Debates will be inevitable after viewing this with a friend. But after about halfway through, the movie repeats itself. I was getting bored when scientist after scientist was saying the same thing over and over again
Unlike many current documentaries, it offers a fresh take on familiar issues.
Obviously we need more robots.
Food for thought presented in a smart, admirably unsentimentalized and largely unmanipulative manner.
An intellectually stimulating and provocative film that raises more questions than it answers. In our age of increasingly rapid technological advances, this examination of the notion of progress is timely. It is, indeed, a vital necessity.
If humans go extinct, the epitaph on our gravestone should simply read 'Why?'
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Movie: ID: 771253593 Title: Surviving Progress Release Date: 2012-04-06 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 6 Status: 1
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Nevertheless it's a very good documentary, although the issues being spoken about are no longer revealing. What the World needs NOW are pragmatic solutions that can be applied to respond to the planet's and Human Race demands, not just well structured phrases of what should be done but not [how] it should be done.