As dully earnest, disorganized and self-righteous as an editorial in a student newspaper, the doc “Bidder 70” relates the story of one Tim DeChristopher, a Utah “climate justice” activist who fraudulently posed as a bidder for oil and gas leases on federal lands.
He won several parcels of land he couldn’t pay for, a new administration (headed by Barack Obama) came in, and the new Interior Secretary canceled the leases, giving the young environmentalist a moral victory and saving humanity from global warming.
Surprise! DeChristopher was prosecuted anyway, yet despite his obvious guilt he refused a plea bargain that would have meant 30 days in prison. Deluded, he envisioned a Hollywood courtroom scene in which global warming or the Bureau of Land Management would be on trial, but a sensible judge rejected all attempts along these lines.
The film, whose story could have (and should have) been told in about 10 minutes, is padded with testimonials from like-minded enviros (including Robert Redford), a trip to West Virginia strip-mining territory, some news clips on the BP oil spill and lots of footage of DeChristopher’s pals in the nose-ring-wearing guerrilla street theater movement. At least there is a happy ending — DeChristopher, for wasting the government’s resources, properly served 21 months in federal prison. Now, he has moved on to Harvard Divinity School, where his sanctimony will serve him well.