FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
MONUMENTAL: DAVID BROWER'S FIGHT FOR WILD AMERICA
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
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