mark p

Just a few minutes into the first of this three-part series, I had to shut it off for a while. At that point, the viewer had watched as Gates arrived at the start of his day (without showering, apparently) at some office or other - it wasn't identified at that point but was probably the location of his foundation - and then the viewer listened to his schedule for the day being read off by a woman named Lauren Jiloty of "Gates Ventures" who then answered a question "Is he on time?" put from the filmmaker Davis Guggenheim with "He is on time, to the minute, every single meeting, without fail," and she goes on to explain that Bill "cannot buy more" of time. That it's a "limited resource." And that, in fact, "He's got the same 24 hours in a day that the rest of us have." No, really? Bill Gates can't buy more time? But he's so rich! Honestly, it is painful to watch as other people fawn all over someone who is nothing more than just another human being, treating him as though he's some kind of god or superhuman. This film is simply another example of people assuming that because someone was able to start a company and become vastly, immorally rich, they must be geniuses on a scale in proportion to their wealth. If Gates is so smart, he would use his position to speak to the world about how the world has got to change, about how corruption and disgusting wealth inequality has finally got to change - and that change should come from the top down. But of course, he hasn't done that because he wants his class, the 1%, to remain firmly where they are. So the change will have to come, as it always does, from the bottom up, from the masses. So no, I don't like a TV series that perpetuates this myth and continues to hold pathetic figures like Gates up like heroes, just because yes, after becoming insanely filthy rich, he's giving some of it - what he can comfortably afford - away. Gosh, what a hero. What a great man and a great brain. No thank you.

This was one of the most important but also utterly fantastic and beautiful films I've ever seen. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I hope the powerful people of the world, who are currently ruining so much of it, will watch it and wake up.

Last Man Fishing is a good film about the threat corporate large-scale fishing is endangering both the stock of fish in the seas, and the lives and livelihoods of small fishermen in the US - and although not mentioned in this American film, around the world as well. But the film is flawed, in my view. It is really about the apparent right of small fishermen to be able to continue to do what they love, and secondarily about the fish, the subject of overfishing and the tremendous impact on the planet and also on global warming this has. In fact, the film doesn't touch on global warming at all, and also doesn't even attempt to consider the larger problem of overfishing on a global scale by profit-hungry corporations out there with massive ships scooping everything up with huge nets, with no thought for the planet. This is the film's biggest weakness, in my view. It is too narrow-minded and does not dare approach the important subject: even if corporate large-scale fishing were to stop entirely, and only smaller-scale fishing were allowed, would the supply be able to meet the demand of the current (and ever-growing) global population of hungry humans and at the same time preserve the ecosystem?