The question mark in the title is crucial to Gabe Polsky’s documentary about Patrick McCollum, an environmental and peace activist who claims to have been identified by Indigenous leaders as the person who will save the Amazon. Indeed, if you’re skeptical of the claim, you’re not alone — so was Polsky, the documentary filmmaker (Red Penguins, In Search of Greatness) who chronicles the unlikely savior in his latest effort.
Despite its momentous stakes, The Man Who Saves the World? features the quirky sensibility of Werner Herzog (a mentor to Polsky) and executive producers Peter Farrelly, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride. It isn’t hard to imagine McBride playing McCollum in the inevitable Hollywood adaptation.
The Man Who Saves the World?
Quirkier than life.
McCollum, aged 75, proves quite the character, albeit not one without serious credentials. His professional career began as a jewelry designer whose work was sold by prestige retailers. He later became an interfaith minister and has served on numerous boards and committees dealing with issues relating to civil rights, prison reform, religion and environmental concerns. His devoted admirers include the late Jane Goodall, seen in the film in a Zoom call plagued by camera issues. She describes him as “probably the most extraordinary person I’ve ever met.”
He lives in a house in the New Mexico desert that he’s built himself, although it isn’t quite completed yet. Asking to use the bathroom, Polsky is informed that there’s no light and that he needs to bring in a bucket of water to flush the toilet. Which, Polsky discovers, hasn’t been properly flushed by whoever used it previously.
McCollum has had no small share of misfortune in his life, as demonstrated by his recounting a story of how, when he was only 12 years old, his younger brother was nearly cut in half by sharp glass. His mother gave him the task of holding the pieces of his sibling together until they could get him to the hospital.
He also suffers from myriad medical issues, including a bad knee that, as a result of a surgical procedure, leaks profusely during a meeting with tribal leaders. His aged dog disappears and is later found dead at the bottom of a ravine. He lives on Social Security, and is so depressed that a therapist he turns to for help refuses to take him on.
Nonetheless, he pursues his mission diligently. It seems that the elder figures of several Amazonian tribes informed him that he is the person identified in ancient prophecy as the one who will bring people together to save the Amazon. McCollum believes this fervently, getting quite testy with Polsky when the filmmaker registers his doubts. But when we see representatives from numerous South American and North American indigenous tribes gathering together in Colombia, it’s hard not to agree with McCollum’s contention that the meeting essentially fulfills the prophecy that he would be the one to make it happen.
Embedding himself with his subject, Polsky makes himself a central figure in the proceedings, becoming a stand-in for the viewers’ skepticism and even hiring a private investigator to check out McCollum’s claims. At one point, he gets deathly ill, filming himself as he violently vomits from the deck of McCollum’s house. Nonetheless, the two become close, to the degree that they are compared to Don Quixote and his faithful servant Sancho Panza.
Although he mostly maintains a lighthearted tone throughout, the filmmaker can’t help but get serious toward the film’s conclusion. “In the end, how we see Patrick, and how we see this story, reveals everything about who we are,” he intones.
Maybe. Maybe not. But either way, The Man Who Saves the World? makes for both fun and thoughtful viewing.
