Blockbusters and Busted Ecosystems

Blockbusters and Busted Ecosystems Tahira takes a look at Hollywood blockbusters that have damaged the planet. When you watch a film, how often do you consider its production? Part of the joy of cinema is the momentary suspension of disbelief. To forget about the circus behind the lens and enjoy the clipped, cropped and edited result. Yet does our willing suspension of disbelief leave us blind to the path of environmental destruction left in its wake? This summer I found myself on a party boat circling the Thai island of Kho Pi Pi. The final destination of the trip was Maya Bay, the infamous setting of Leonardo DiCaprio’s 2000 film The Beach, which we could only look at from afar – the beach is now closed to tourists indefinitely.

I can distinctly remember the tour guide’s

fury as she spat: ‘We hate Leonardo DiCaprio in Thailand. He’s banned from this country’. Her

Western tour guests chuckled nervously as she continued – ‘He’s f****d up the whole beach’.

Back in 2000, the filmmakers decided to strip away native vegetation, replace it with

a non-indigenous species of coconut tree and flatten the entire beach. After they left, the beach began to erode and environmentalists launched a lawsuit

against Fox and the Thai agriculture ministry for the damage to the beach. To make matters worse, the popularity of the film inspired thousands of tourists to flock there daily, further damaging the beach. The BBC reports, around 80% of the coral around Maya Bay has now been destroyed. The survival of Maya Bay’s precious ecosystem is still uncertain today; all that life flattened and polluted for just one hour and fifty-nine minutes of screen time. Let us not take this planet for granted’ is the plea DiCaprio ended his Oscars acceptance speech with. Nearly two decades later, he is now one of Hollywood’s most prominent climate change activists. His campaigning over the years has been ignored by some in the film industry. Controversy surrounds the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road over claims that the film crew endangered rare Namibian species of reptiles and cacti. In 2011, the filming of The Expendables 2 damaged a natural monument home to over forty endangered species; and in 2017, the filmmakers behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales were accused of dumping toxic liquid into a creek in Queensland. The worrying trend appears to be that big, money-fuelled Hollywood blockbusters are not held accountable for environmental crimes, simply because money talks. While efforts have been made by some studios (20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures) to follow eco-friendly practises, there is still a long way to go before the film industry as a whole can be considered truly sustainable. Climate change is real, it is happening right now – it’s high time Hollywood joined the fight for our planet. Back in 2000, the filmmakers decided to strip away native vegetation, replace it with a nonindigenous species of coconut tree and flatten the entire beach The worrying trend appears to be that big, money-fuelled Hollywood blockbusters are not held accountable for environmental crimes, simply because money talks Illustration & Page Design by Natasha Phang-Lee “

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Tahira Rowe