How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Eight environmental activists take it upon themselves to make a difference in Daniel Goldhaber’s eco-action-thriller.
In 2021 the non-fiction book How to Blow Up a Pipeline by the Swedish author Andreas Malm was published. It was a work which argued for acts of sabotage as both desirable and necessary on the part of those involved in climate activism. That is, of course, an attitude not shared by all, but it is certainly embraced in Daniel Goldhaber’s film which borrows the book’s title for a fictional drama set in America. The decision to promote Malm’s view while adopting what is in every sense a different format has yielded a film which provides a blend of what is cinematically familiar with other elements that are in certain respects unorthodox.
Three people share the writing credit here: Ariela Barer (who also plays one of the leading roles), Jordan Sjol and Goldhaber himself. What they have done is to devise a story that borrows from one of cinema’s staple genres, the heist thriller. The format most popular in such works is one which first introduces the characters who will be involved, then describes the robbery that they are planning and finally shows us the plan in operation usually revealing how or to what extent it went wrong. That is exactly the formula adopted here rejigged only to make it applicable to action by eco-activists intent on blowing up an oil pipeline in West Texas. In this instance eight people are working together and we are given brief glimpses of them ahead of the film’s credit title appearing. What follows quickly finds tension by stressing the risk present when designing suitable equipment (two barrels containing explosives are needed here). Thereafter the formula is followed closely although there is novelty when we see the narrative continuing between the closing credits.
Clearly the underlying aim here was to make use of the popular appeal inherent in tales of this kind and, indeed, that is added to by incorporating one element rarely found in heist movies. In this case the enterprise is one undertaken by four men and four women most of whom are in their twenties and one senses that Goldhaber’s film is directly seeking viewers of that age who will empathise with the characters on the screen and who may well as a result want to emulate them. It should be said here that their stance is one based on causing structural damage without the loss of human life. A further break from cinematic convention is the decision to interrupt the narrative at intervals for short flashback sequences which tell us more about the eight individuals. This adds to our personal identification with each of them as we discover something of their contrasted motivations and of how circumstances brought them together. Late on one might feel that to continue these flashbacks cuts across the increasing tension of the main narrative, but the last flashback of all proves crucial to the film’s resolution.
However, the chief novelty here lies in the very notion of treating the theme of climate activism in a format such as this. One can to some extent make a comparison with an undervalued film, Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves (2013). In that film which starred Jesse Eisenberg we had a story about a protesting activist setting up an explosion atop a hydroelectric dam. But, given Reichardt’s minimalistic style, that film was more of an arthouse work and in any case it adopted a much more questioning stance regarding the validity of such acts. Significantly, Goldhaber's film, played by a cast who appreciate fully that this is an ensemble work, sets its sights on attaining a commercial appeal that will communicate its viewpoint to an audience who approach it as an exciting drama offering a good night out. On that level it definitely succeeds.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Ariela Barer, Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage, Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner, Jake Weary, Irene Bedard, Olive Jane Lorraine, Giancarlo Beltran, Mariel Martinez, Jasper Keen.
Dir Daniel Goldhaber, Pro Isa Mazzei, Daniel Goldhaber, Ariela Barer, Adam Wyatt Tate, David Grove, Churchill Viste and others, Screenplay Ariela Barer, Jordan Sjol and Daniel Goldhaber, from the book by Andreas Malm, Ph Tehillah De Castro Pro Des Adri Siriwatt, Ed Daniel Garber, Music Gavin Brivik, Costumes Eunice Jera Lee.
Chrono/Lyrical Media/Charades/Spacemaker Productions-Vertigo Releasing.
104 mins. USA. 2022. US Rel: 7 April 2023. UK Rel: 21 April 2023. Cert. 15.
