Manufactured Landscapes

2006

1h 26m

Documentary

List

84%

Tomatometer

63 Reviews

80%

Audience Score

5,000+ Ratings

This documentary reveals the gritty underside of industrial landscapes. Photographer Edward Burtynsky explores the subtle beauty amid the waste generated by slag heaps, dumps and factories. Memorable scenes include a Chinese iron factory where employees are berated to produce faster, and shots of children playing atop piles of dangerous debris. The contrasts between wealth and poverty are most striking in Shanghai, with new high-rises towering above old slums.

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Critics Consensus

Manufactured Landscapes leaves the work of drawing conclusions mostly to the viewer, although the imagery makes director Jennifer Baichwal's arguments well enough on its own.

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Richard Brody

New Yorker

Proves even more revealing than the photographs it celebrates.

Jun 1, 2020

Full Review

Peter Howell

Toronto Star

An astonishing visual indictment of man's inhumanity to Mother Earth, as seen through the documentary prism of Jennifer Baichwal.

Rated: 4/4

May 23, 2018

Full Review

Hank Sartin

Time Out

Rated: 3/5

Nov 18, 2011

Full Review

Jordan M. Smith

IONCINEMA.com

An enchanted layering of grotesque visual perfection, environmental concern, and the questioning of an artist's moral duties, not only in a political sense, but of one's authorship in documentation turned art turned different art form.

Nov 17, 2020

Full Review

Amber Wilkinson

Eye for Film

There is nothing wrong with Baichwal's camerawork, with a fascinating opening eight-minute shot of it roaming across a Chinese factory floor, particularly stunning - but everything lacks depth.

Rated: 2/5

Feb 28, 2008

Full Review

Jeffrey Chen

Window to the Movies

Burtynsky's awe-inspiring work ultimately speaks for itself.

Rated: 8/10

Dec 28, 2007

Full Review

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Audience Member

A good collection of industrial landscapes.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A six minute establishing shot that travels seemingly endlessly up the aisle of a gigantic factory is absolutely as excessive as it sounds. While setting the plodding tone for Manufactured Landscapes (2006), director Jennifer Baichwal allows the viewer to undergo a brief version of the same experiential process through which the film as a whole will take them. At first, the viewer may just notice this factory's extensive ugliness and sterility. Then after a couple of minutes they might consider how bored they're getting and maybe that the director wasn't too self-aware to drag this on for so long. Then it hits you: the point is the absurdity of this situation - how unbelievable is this place?? And that amazement continues to unfold itself for the next stunning and nearly unfathomable hour and a half. The film explores the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky, who presents the other side of globalization and consumerist culture - the industrial and production side - through pointed, yet somehow frequently beautiful imagery that just stares you directly in the eyes, asking you what you think of it. Burtynsky's images are impersonal and highlight the mechanical nature and magnitude of his subjects and their effects on our changing world. The filmmaker however, brings focus to the human element by concentrating on a specific portion of each image - say, an individual at work. The camera lingers there and we invest in them, the day to day that we understand and to which we're generally able to relate. A slow panning out to the image as a whole exposes hundreds just like them lined up at the same work, whose bodies become just parts of a working machine. This removes the humanity and all that we see is mechanized industry. Baichwal includes commentary from Burtynsky and on-site footage that extract the fundamentally environmentalist views of the photographer, yet eventually highlights his decision to enhance a certain elegance in these scenes. He is allowing the viewer to unravel their own opinion of these nearly unfathomable, eerily beautiful images and their underlying message. Yet the documentarian is contextualizing the imagery and challenging us to consider our reactions to it. She shows us that Burtynsky's decision to keep the message of these images ambiguous is a result of his sensitivity to the very consumerist culture that created these conditions in the first place. He knows that they will be best received in a depoliticized manner that empowers the viewer to come to their own conclusions. This fact incriminates us further through the message that we cannot even be shocked out of our ignorant comfort without it being on our own terms. This film isn't any sort of exciting thrill-ride; it's a slow, deliberate visual journey through the industrial underbelly of our consumerist culture that few in the western world would likely ever experience otherwise. The amazement the viewer feels is inevitably coupled with a touch of boredom at the calculated slowness of the film, yet your own boredom is like a meta-commentary on the very reasons why we probably didn't know these circumstances exist. It's not exciting, it's uncomfortable and real and sterile. The reality of the situation for those that live it and the world that suffers for it is precisely the polar opposite of our exciting consumer experience they are suffering to create. This film is a compelling rephrasing of Burtynsky's provocative body of work that challenges us to think beyond our daily experience and decide for ourselves what globalization truly means for us and our world.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Interesting, but sometimes as boring as watching paint dry ;)

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Everyone Should See This. Shines An Unflinching Light, With A Simple Photo, Through A Lense, On Our Sapping Of This Planet. It Is Hard To Watch, As Being Part Of The 1st-World, Leaves Me Solely Responsible For Driving The Demand For Material Possessions..Not Sure Where It Will End, But The Landscapes Our Consumerist Culture Creates Is Pretty Darn Ugly. What A Sad Sight...Hrmmm.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I did not find the manufactured landscapes beautiful. I found them disturbing. I think the idea and cinematography are great however I found I just didn't really enjoy the documentary as it was disturbing. I realize that is what it is supposed to be however.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

"Thought provoking and unsettling documentary, which profiles Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky as he travels to China to explore the profound environmental impact of that country's industrial revolution." I think I would classify this as "horror" actually, it's very unsettling and makes me wonder why I bother with my little bit of recycling with the state of things in China. Not much of a "profile" on the artist, he's just there taking pictures and doing the odd voice over. Came across a bit long winded and dry in places, and oddly filmed in black and white in sections which I found distracting. The ship breakers scene in Bangladesh stands out as does the brick by brick (by hand) leveling of entire cities, in order to make way for shipping lanes and the Three Gorges Dam. That was pretty horrifying due to the scale involved. I have seen other (better) documentaries on these subjects and as I said this really doesn't profile the artist at all. 06.13

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

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Jennifer Baichwal

Director

Nick de Pencier

Producer

Daniel Iron

Producer

Jennifer Baichwal

Producer

Peter Mettler

Cinematographer

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Synopsis

This documentary reveals the gritty underside of industrial landscapes. Photographer Edward Burtynsky explores the subtle beauty amid the waste generated by slag heaps, dumps and factories. Memorable scenes include a Chinese iron factory where employees are berated to produce faster, and shots of children playing atop piles of dangerous debris. The contrasts between wealth and poverty are most striking in Shanghai, with new high-rises towering above old slums.

Director: Jennifer Baichwal
Production Co: Foundry Films, National Film Board of Canada
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 20, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $240.2K
Runtime: 1h 26m
Sound Mix: Dolby

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