Promised Land is a 2012 American drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, John Krasinski, Frances McDormand, Rosemarie DeWitt and Hal Holbrook.

Promised Land follows two petroleum landmen who visit a rural Pennsylvania town in an attempt to buy drilling rights from the local residents.

Steve Butler has caught the eyes of top management at his employer, Global Crosspower Solutions, an energy company that specializes in obtaining natural gas trapped underground through fracking.

The community seems willing to accept Global's offer, until the elderly, local high school science teacher Frank Yates, who used to be a successful engineer in his working life, raises the question of the safety of fracking during a town meeting.

He is motivated by a tale of his family losing its Nebraska dairy farm after the herd died as a result of Global's industry-standard fracking process.

One night Butler receives a package from Global that includes an enlarged copy of a photograph of dead cattle on a field that Noble said came from his family's Nebraska farm.

The enlargement shows that the structure thought to be a silo is, in fact, a lighthouse, which are nonexistent in Nebraska, revealing that Noble fabricated his story and deceived the people.

Promised Land is directed by Gus Van Sant based on a screenplay by Matt Damon and John Krasinski, who are film producers along with Chris Moore.

In interviews, Krasinski and Damon said[3] that the idea for the movie was partially inspired by an investigative series of stories in The New York Times by Ian Urbina, called "Drilling Down",[4] about fracking.

[7] The project was in turnaround at Warner Bros., and by February, Focus Features and Participant Media acquired rights to produce the film.

[13] Three songs by The Milk Carton Kids including Snake Eyes, The Ash & Clay and Jewel of June were also written for the film.

[14] Promised Land was criticized by the energy industry for its portrayal of the resource extraction process hydraulic fracturing, colloquially known as "fracking".

McAleer said despite Dimock families' claims that fracking activity contaminated their water, the state and EPA scientists did not find anything wrong.

"[18] Mike Knapp, one of the organizers of the Facebook group said, "One of the things that really aggravates me, is that they seem to have a very condescending view" of farmers as portrayed in the film.

[12] The Huffington Post reported, "The procedure has caused concern due in part to the chemicals injected into the wells for drilling, which may taint nearby drinking water."

In Pennsylvania, the industry group Marcellus Shale Coalition bought a 16-second onscreen ad to be shown at 75 percent of theaters in the state at the same time Promised Land was released.

Box Office Mojo reported before the film's wide release the following week, "It's unlikely that it will be able to pull many people away from the various other appealing options in theaters right now.

The website's critical consensus reads, "The earnest and well-intentioned Promised Land sports a likable cast, but it also suffers from oversimplified characterizations and a frustrating final act.

Scott praised Promised Land as a film that "works" mainly "by putting character ahead of story" and by "inviting the actors to be warm, funny and prickly".

[31] Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail is critical of the film: "Apart from its warm, gentle tone, much about Promised Land simply isn't good, especially the inconsistencies in the screenplay.