Into Eternity [DVD]

this documentary is a real masterpiece.
the subject of ethical nuclear waste disposal has rarely been touched upon and that fact alone deserves a few stars !

the photography is beautiful , the narration moves at a easy pace letting the viewer remain dumbstruck by what is being witnessed.
sights of amazing engineering on a vast scale in beautiful winter finnish winter countryside.

the primary reason for awe is that this installation is designed to last 100,000 years. they know the finnish bedrock is stable and the engineering is sound but what they do not know is if this dangerous place will be left alone.

we know from history that man has never taken heed of warnings made by prior civilisations to keep out of tombs , temples etc.

we know that the waste is valuable , we know people can be too curious for their own good.

we do not know if humans or another race would be a danger , we do not know if we should hide it completely or put up warning markers as a warning...........this is truely unexplored territory !

what would you do ? build warnings markers about the danger or try make people forget about it ? after all, provided it remains sealed up it will be safe.

the images are truely space-age ( i am amazed a film producer has not tried to make a sci-fi film there )

i could not sleep for hours after watching this.........to call ''into eternity'' thought provoking would be a gross understatement.

OK, I might be a little biased to review a document about a project happening almost in my backyard, but trying to remain objective "Into Eternity" truly was an awe-inspiring document into something most people won't give a minute to think about. Yet the subject matter will be with us for the next 100.000 years. Nuclear power plants being all over the globe, and thus waste generated everywhere, the issue at hand should be of very high interest to all people.

What I liked most about the document was Michael Madsen's way of making it all seem so haunting. Yes, the issue is serious but the document is actually very cool in its Stanley Kubrick kind of way. The clinical images above and under the ground, and the atmosphere of the entire document really are captivating. Digging a huge tunnel under the gorund never seemed so fascinating before.

'Into Eternity' is thought provoking and should be screened to every teenager or to anyone intrested in how nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel affect mankind's future. The document takes the viewer to a journey to the bedrock in Finland. The feature refers to the repository as Onkalo, which is located on the West Coast of Finland close to Eurajoki and Olkiluoto.

Into Eternity is one of the best documentaries I've seen in years. It's the type of documentary that you watch that will haunt you long after you've watched it. What makes it so great is that it doesn't rely on fancy editing or over the top camerawork to impress you. Instead, it's actually quite restrained, relying instead on some simple interviews with engineers, scientists and philosophers. Because what makes this film so fascinating is not its flashiness but its ideas.

Danish director Michael Madsen was given an opportunity to film a place called Onkalo in Finland. Onkalo means 'hidden place' and it's one of the most extraordinary man-made places on Earth. It's a facility hewn out of solid rock, hundreds of feet underground - a place that was concieved in the 1970s, but one that won't be finished until around the year 2100. What makes this place special is that it's designed to last for 100,000 years at least, a timescale that's almost inconcievable when you consider Human civilisation has existed for only 6,000 years. Mankind's oldest standing structure, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, has stood for only a tenth of that time. Unlike the Pyramids, Onkalo is not a temple or sacred burial ground, or a place that anyone would want to visit in the future. Because Onkalo will be a storage facility for several hundred tonnes of radioactive waste.

Madsen is fascinated by the idea of Onkalo. That such a structure could stand for such a long time, and the ethics behind it. It seems odd to create such waste when you consider that a nuclear plant will give power to a region for about 50 years, but it's waste will remain damaging to the environment for millennia. But then again what effective alternatives are there to our energy problems?
It should be noted though that this isn't really central to the documentary. Madsen might touch upon enviromentalism and nuclear waste here and there, but he seems more fascinated by time and the vastness of it. Will Onkalo remain buried forever; Forgotten after the next Ice Age ravages Europe? Or will it be dug up by our curious descendants who might think it's a ancient sacred site or buried treasure.
If that is the case, how do we warn them to stay out? Should we put up 'markers or signs, and if we do would they be understood? Will people in the future even share our same senses? Will they be highly adavnced, or will they have regressed technologically?
A number of experts discuss what they might put up to warn future generations. Perhaps there ought to be a huge stone obelisk written in every major language, perhaps they should sow a legend that will be passed down orally from one generation to the next. They even suggest a huge mural or some image that will create a sense of dread that will long outlive any language. Perhaps the best option is to 'forget to forget' and allow the site to be forgotten forever, and simply hope no future humans will dig it up.

In between that talking head sections we are presented with images of Onkalo itself, from its ominous dark caverns to the bleak but beautiful forest that surrounds the site. The film is quite brilliant in its clinical approach, with Madsen often addressing the audience by the single light of a match, addressing us alive today, as well as those people yet to be born.

I think some might find the pace quite dull (a lot of scenes are filmed in slow motion - to represent the vastness of time) but I doubt most people will find the subject matter boring. It really is a powerful and thought-provoking film.