Must-sees: Taking Chance & Burning Coal

I saw two movies this weekend while convalescing from some sort of nasty virus, and I thought I'd share a few thoughts.

The best and by far the most powerful movie I've seen in a long time is Taking Chance, a movie by HBO Films. The film plots the journey of the body of Lance Corporal Chance Phelps - from the battlefield all the way home to his final resting place in Dubois, Wyoming, following his death in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

I found the movie to be an incredible inspiration, and educational, too. I had no idea that there was any such thing as uniformed military escorts, and that soldiers' bodies were never without an escort, from their death on the battlefield to the grave.

This film should be required viewing for every American; I know that won't happen, but it's that powerful. These days, now that deaths aren't piling up in Iraq and Afghanistan as they were a few years ago, and with the economy in the tank, both of the conflicts that our country is now fighting, all in our names, doesn't get the media coverage it deserves. What's more, Americans aren't exposed to the powerful images that this film offers - our soldiers being carried home - the real cost of war.

In the film, Kevin Bacon portrays Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl, a Desert Storm veteran, who came across Chance's name on a casualty list; they both came from the same hometown, and Strobl volunteered to escort him home. While Strobl accompanies Chance's body across the country from Dover Air Force Base to Wyoming, he is visibly touched and moved by the outpouring of support he receives from the many people he runs across during the journey. I found it impossible to not be moved by this story - the film is impeccably directed and produced, sans the Hollywood razzle-dazzle, which this story doesn't need.

Bacon's performance is masterful, which I've come to expect from such a fine actor - one of the best of his generation. He cuts a pretty impressive, believable figure in a Marine uniform, too, just as he did in A Few Good Men nearly 20 years ago.

You must see this movie, regardless if you have any interest in the military. Every American should see it to better understand the impact that the death of ONE soldier can have on a community, much less the impact that 4,247* can have - the current American death toll in Iraq - or 657*, the number of American dead from the War in Afghanistan.

* - as of this afternoon

The second movie, Burning the Future: Coal in America, rips the scab off of coal production in West Virginia, and, needless to say, it uncovers a lot of pus.

I find it startling and amazing that the coal companies in America continue to have the power they do - both over our supply of electricity and our political system and politicians. We can and we must end our reliance on coal if we are to clean up the air we breathe. It doesn't take a scientist to deduce that burning coal has had horrible consequences for the planet, but I never knew the extent of the environmental ramifications that strip mining has on the communities surrounding these mines.

Burning the Future takes a pretty startling look at what those consequences are, including polluted ground water, increased flooding, polluted rivers and streams and tens of thousands of dead fish and wildlife.

I don't know if it's outrageous or hilarious when these coal companies trot out their PR flaks to try and defend the coal industry during this film - it almost sounds like stand-up comedy. It reminded me of the GM executives who lamely tried to explain away the company's inexplicable decision to kill the GM EV-1 electric car during the movie Who Killed the Electric Car. Hey, someone has to lie for the cameras, right? When I hear people simply lie for a company or an industry, it makes me both relieved and delighted that I'm no longer teaching public relations.

So far, and it's obviously very young in his presidency, but President Obama is no exception to Big Coal's death grip on both our politics and our energy supply. I heard Obama on numerous occasions during the '08 campaign extol the virtues of "clean coal technologies," which is a misnomer if there ever was one. There currently isn't any such viable thing as a way to burn coal "cleanly" that's cost effective, and even if there was, there doesn't seem to be a willingness on the part of coal companies to extract it from the ground in an environmentally friendly way.

The only viable answer, and it's not exactly viable yet, is to come up with other means of electricity production.

I understand why Obama said what he said about coal during the campaign- after all, he needed votes in Ohio and Pennsylvania to win the presidency. Being anti-coal would have cost him the presidency, period. I prefer to view the glass as half full - that Obama said what he said knowing that once he won the presidency, he could affect some change in our energy policy. Sof far, his intentions regarding energy make me very hopeful that his presidency will be the beginning of the end of coal; I realize it's going to be a long time until we are kicked of this filthy habit, but we've got to start sometime, and that time is now.

Burning the Future: Coal in America is now airing on the Sundance Channel - it's a very enlightening look at one of America's best-kept dirty secrets - our powerful coal industry. Take a look and educate yourself about coal, and then write your elected representatives and senators - our health depends on it.

For a much more in-depth look at the power of Big Coal, I strongly recommend the book Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future, by Jeff Goodell. I read this book last year, and I'll never forget it.