A large natural gas company plans to lease land in the small town of McKinley to excavate natural gas. Steve (Matt Dimon) and his colleague Su are responsible for going door to door to do the persuasion work. The two of them brought the contract. As long as the local residents are tempted, they can receive millions of dollars in economic compensation after signing their names, on the condition that the natural gas company is allowed to drill and produce gas on their own land. The number of residents of McKinley should be much lower than that of a Chinese urban residents' committee. However, there are still different reactions in the face of low-handed wealth. After receiving the envelope from Steve, the officials in the town have basically been dealt with. If there is still dissatisfaction, it is only because of too little money. In a small town that is obviously in economic depression, the life of ordinary residents is far from leisure and wealth. They have to struggle every day to maintain the middle-class status --- mortgage and car loans, children's college tuition, electricity, gasoline, and cable television. , It takes effort to pay every bill. For them, the economic compensation of natural gas companies is far more than just sending carbon in snow, and they can no longer worry about bills for life.
It is easier for Steve and Sue to persuade these two kinds of people. Their work only starts to have troubles when they meet the third kind of people. Local residents gathered in the gymnasium of the high school to exercise their democratic rights, and they plan to vote to finally decide whether to cooperate with the natural gas company. Most people's attention is on economic development. Frank, the old man with gray hair and heavy eyebrows, is an exception, or he is called the nail household in Chinese. He holds a doctorate title from Cornell University, and after retiring, he uses his spare heat to become a teacher in a local high school. Frank brought the topic to mining technology. The related term is fracking, which is called hydraulic fracturing in full, that is, hydraulic fracturing for gas extraction. From Upstate New York to the southwest through Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, shale rich in natural gas is distributed deep in the earth's crust. Natural gas has been hidden in shale for a long time, at least since the time when dinosaurs ran the world, but hydraulic rock-breaking and gas extraction technology has only been perfected in recent years. The well was drilled to a depth of about 3,000 meters, and then high-pressure water was injected into the shale to squeeze out a number of channels, so the natural gas was released. Frank suggested that all the residents here go online to Google to see what fracking this kind of technology really means. From the results of my own Google, in addition to possible accidents such as air pollution caused by gas leakage, in the process of hydraulic rock breaking and gas extraction, in order to ensure the crushing effect, dozens of chemical substances need to be added to the high-pressure water. The possibility of contamination is relatively high. Natural gas companies have the ability to show the public that trace amounts of chemical substances are harmless to the human body, but when two cups of water are placed in front of you --- one cup has no chemicals, and one cup contains dozens of trace chemicals remaining after gas extraction. If they produce "harmless" scientific evidence, you will probably choose the former. What is there to hesitate?
In response to Frank's public challenge, Steve admitted that natural gas is not perfect, but he firmly believes that natural gas has a much smaller negative impact on the environment than coal and oil. Like the natural gas he promotes, Steve himself is not perfect. When he persuaded the locals to sign the contract, he underestimated the natural gas reserves underground in the town. The data he provided is worth 30 million U.S. dollars, but the data of academic research institutions is 150 million. In addition, Steve has been selling natural gas with the sincerity of doing good things for the locals. He is from Iowa in the Midwest. When a factory in his hometown was closed, the economy of the entire area fell into decline. He therefore decided that agriculture alone could no longer sustain the livelihood of a small town. There is a detail in the film. Before Steve came into contact with the locals, he bought a flannel shirt at the grocery store in the town. This clothing is one of the signs of blue-collar people in small American towns. Wearing a freshly bought dark blue flannel shirt, wearing old leather shoes left by his grandfather, and driving a broken rust-colored pickup truck, Steve hopes to make the locals feel that he is part of the town.
By supporting rock-breaking and gas extraction, the local economy can be fundamentally improved, but the environment will be polluted, and the old town life style may be gone forever. Refusal to break the rock to produce gas, the local economy can only continue to be in a downturn, but the environmental quality will be maintained, and the local characteristics of the town can continue. After the film unfolded this conflict, it immediately fell into a dilemma that it could not provide an answer. While presenting the respective positions of the two parties in the dispute, the film’s own point of view is actually relatively clear. The storytellers are opposed to breaking the rock and extracting gas, but they are unable to cope with a series of challenges. Where is the prospect of the town? Even if the small town of McKinley voted to refuse to collect gas, if the surrounding towns allow it, from an environmental protection point of view, even with a Dr. Cornell, how can McKinley be alone? The increase in environmental damage during natural gas extraction is compared with the reduction in environmental damage after replacing oil and coal in the use of natural gas. The two evils are the lesser one. What choice should everyone make?
Another detail in the film proclaims the truth of life wrapped in the conflict of breaking rock and gas. Steve entered a farmhouse, and the owner took off the label on his newly bought flannel shirt. This warm and intimate gesture surprised Steve. Steve continued to be surprised by the expectation that the owner showed when he asked Steve. The town resident who appeared in front of the camera was obviously a hardworking farmer, and the family's financial situation was struggling. Steve gave him the desired answer, "You may become a millionaire." The farmer did not speak, but the corners of his mouth moved, his eyes full of expectation. This kind of vision is scorching and sincere, and it can basically illuminate the prospects of rock-cutting and gas extraction in the United States.
Although the film did not provide any answers to the big conflict, the screenwriters and directors arranged for Steve to go through a process of awakening. His belief in solving problems for the locals was gradually shaken, and those environmentalists' indifference to money made Steve realize that there may be more important things in the world than the dollar. If there happens to be a pretty girl among environmentalists, the awakening process will only be faster and firmer. High school teacher Alice is the kind of young woman who is included in every film about American small towns, but I have never met in my actual travel experience. She originally worked in a big city to inherit and protect her father. Only when she returned to her hometown, she is the kind of girl who can forget about a month's troubles once a smile. She smiles in every scene in the movie, and her charm is naturally irresistible. Alice’s smile is sometimes natural and cute, sometimes mysterious, and sometimes inexplicable. In any case, her encounter with Steve at the bar eventually led Steve to make a choice against the interests of the gas company.
After living in the United States for more than ten years, my attention began to focus more on the similarities rather than differences between China and the United States. The Promised Land, which reproduces the conflicts between environmental protection and development in contemporary American society, can basically be transplanted to today. Of China. In a remote and poor town in the Nujiang area of Yunnan, the Hydropower Construction Corporation sent people to mobilize residents to demolition. If the level of corruption among Chinese officials is close to that of the United States, then the demolition fee can completely relieve local residents. In order to better integrate with the locals, he deliberately bought a suit that Chinese farmers like that is inexpensive and never needs to be ironed. But environmentalists have started to disrupt the situation, and there are both international and domestic NGOs. They believe that even if the Nu River project brings various development benefits, the local environment will be destroyed, the power station may induce earthquakes and various geological disasters, and the poor but quiet lifestyle of the town will become history. The representative of the Hydropower Corporation began to awaken. After he met a rural teacher who looked like Zhou Xun or Hao Lei in a local karaoke hall, he turned firmly against the construction of a hydropower station. Finally, the power station is still to be built, and it is a series of cascade power stations, but he has no regrets, as long as he can stay in the local area and continue to sing karaoke with village teachers.
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