MONUMENTAL: DAVID BROWER'S FIGHT FOR WILD AMERICA
Directed & Produced by: Kelly Duane.
Director of Photography: Sophie Constantinou.
Edited by: Nathaniel Dorsky, Anne Flatte & Tony Saxe.
Released by: First Run.
Country of Origin: USA. 77 min. Not Rated.

During Monumental, a documentary highlighting the life of the late David Brower and his continuous fight for the environment, it is mentioned that in spite of his important legacy, many young people today have never heard of him. It is therefore implied the film will change all that, which it does - sort of.

Brower, who saved the Yosemite National Park from dam construction, was very radical in his pro-environment ideas, and cleverly realized that by working as a lobbyist, he could convince politicians and the public that the Western wilderness was worth saving from developers. He transformed the Sierra Club from a group of nature enthusiasts into a national organization with political influence. Some of the film's most breathtaking footage he himself filmed, of places he helped preserve (the Grand Canyon) and tried to save but failed - the now-underwater Glen Canyon.

Yet Brower continues to be an immaterial figure. We know him a little through the statements of his friends, colleagues, and family, who remember him mostly in a good light, but his voice is only directly heard as his speeches are replayed. There is only one person who talks remotely negatively of him - a proponent for a dam Brower successfully fought. In the end, Brower had deep problems with both boards of the Sierra Club and the Earth Island Institute, which he founded after being fired by the former and which later fired him, too. Yet these facts are mentioned almost in passing, as if they weren't important as an aspect of the man or the complexity of the environmental movement.

Yet all in all, Monumental is engaging and emphasizes the difficulties - and importance - of environmental protection, especially relevant today when it seems to be losing steam. Yet Brower, the man, remains shadowy, not quite three-dimensional. The new generation will know more of what he did, and why it was important, but not necessarily the man. Roxana M. Ramirez
July 22, 2005