The Journal's "Green Screen Awards" for the best environmental films of 1997 are:

Wind in the Willows. Ranked at the top of every critics' list (topping even LA Confidential), this adaptation of Kenneth Graham's classic tale reunited the Monty Python troupe for a sassy romp celebrating the friendship of small creatures and their triumph over the forces of development, machinery and greedy, vengeful weasels.

Titanic. James Cameron's mega-hit is also a grim metaphor for the 20th century. At the close of our Titanic century, a small elíte of rich folk stroll the upper decks of the global economy while Third World immigrants make do in steerage. Laboring unseen in the depths, sweating workers toss fossil fuel into hellish fires to keep the whole, massive enterprise moving. The Titanic's downfall was an iceberg. At the end of our century, climate change threatens to sink entire biospheres.

Fierce Creatures. John Cleese and the crew of A Fish Called Wanda star in a scathing satire on crass corporate greed. Following a hostile take-over, British zookeepers suffer the indignity of seeing corporate logos and celebrity endorsements slapped on workclothes, walls and wallabies. The Disneyfication of nature forces the zoofolk to walk around in animal suits and tend mechanical pandas. Bugsy (Michael Palin) saves the day with an accidental shot through the head of the Rupert-Murdoch-like villain.

Fire Down Below. Hollywood hero and holyman Steven Seagal comes through again. This time he overcomes a greedy mining company that's dumping toxic wastes into a beautiful backwoods valley. With car chases, explosions and psychotic incest subthemes, this is the kind of "environmental" film even a polluter could enjoy. Kudos to Kris Kristofferson as the mining company's Chief Executive Orifice.

Kundun. Martin Scorcese's cinematic paean to the heart of Tibet and the soul of the Dalai Lama. An eye-blessing reminder of the incredible beauty - and wrenching trials - that make our Earth a special place in the cosmos.

It's a Dog's Life. Winner of the Genesis Brigitte Bardot Award and Britain's Environmental Media Award. Filmmaker Zoe Broughton wore a hidden camera to record a workers'-eye view inside Huntingdon Life Sciences, Europe's largest animal testing lab. The horrifying footage, aired on BBC's Channel 4, triggered firings, charges of animal cruelty and a British Home Office investigation.

Our annual "Brown Screen Award" for the least environmental film is a tie.

Mousehunt. Nathan Lane destroys a Victorian mansion in a futile attempt to annihilate a small mouse. In this Dreamworks film the mouse wins. In the real world, however, the salt marsh harvest mice inhabiting Southern California's Ballona Wetlands are due to be annihilated by a Dreamworks' mega-development.

Titanic. Cameron's epic resurfaces to take a Brown Screen bow. Why? Because they spent $200 million on a friggin' movie, for Gaia's sake!

Special Mentions:

Best Rant Against US Foreign Policy: Good Will Hunting ("Why shouldn't I work for the NSA?")

Special Tongue-in-Cheek Award: Starship Troopers ("The only good bug is a dead bug!" "C'mon! Do you want to live forever?!")

Best Documentary Footage: The Humboldt Country Sheriff's Department vdeo of cops squirting pepper-spray directly into the eyes of nonviolent forest activists. ("I think under the circumstances, this was probably an appropriate use of force." - Republican Representative Frank Riggs.)