Mention Al Gore’s documentary on global warming An Inconvenient Truth to people who haven’t seen it and you’re sure to find they generally fall into one of three categories;
- Liberals and environmentalists who have long been alarmed by this problem. They have waited years for a truly “accessible” mass media event to give the issue the attention they feel it deserves. They welcome it and instantly accept its thesis.
- People who don’t know much about global warming or haven’t done much research into it. They will also welcome it and then hunt out the criticism of it to see what’s being said on the other side, too.
- People who reject or belittle it out of hand, suggesting that global warming is more theory and political posturing than fact, and chuckling because this movie stars Al Gore — so how could it hold anyone’s interest?
But, guess what? The movie DOES holds your interest. It presents Gore as a witty, charming, engaging personality rattling off facts and theories not to impress or win over, but because he has done his homework and uses the data to make the case that time is being lost.
When you watch “An Inconvenient Truth” you’re blown away by Gore’s research and the way veteran TV director Davis Guggenheim packaged it with the pacing, graphics, inter-cut film clips, dramatic musical scoring and sound. Gore (and Guggenheim) effectively communicate what’s at risk if, as the former Veep charges, man’s carbon dioxide emissions continue warming up the atmosphere, melting snow caps, threatening water supplies, put coastlines with advancing shorelines in harm’s way, and making vital soil less fertile. And you come away feeling:
–Al Gore needs to sue his political consultants who advised him in 2000. If they had let the Gore we see on film come through, he most likely would have been sitting in the Oval Office. This is a PASSIONATE Gore, someone who is conducting a conversation — not unlike passionate “blog conversations” done with facts and figures and analysis. YES…he is making a case. But YES he makes it well.
–The attention-deficit nature of American society, the American news media, and the often contradictory pull of info and entertainment media have relegated this issue to a spot where some other vital issues have been tossed: to the peripheral vision of America’s collective consciousness.
To be sure, experts are split on global warming:
After listening to two local climate scholars talk about Al Gore’s global warming primer “An Inconvenient Truth,” you might think they sat through different movies.
Ken MacLeod, an associate professor in the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Geological Sciences Department, saw a refreshed Gore, liberated from the campaign march, presenting a strong, accurate summary of global warming science.
“I thought he did a very good job,” MacLeod said. “It was a very nice presentation of a pretty big field that’s not difficult in core concepts but potentially very complicated when you talk about it on a global scale and on different time scales.”
On the other hand, Anthony Lupo, an associate professor of atmospheric science at MU, saw a one-sided presentation that ignored scientists, like himself, who disagree that humans are to fault for global warming. He also saw Gore once again campaigning for president….
“His whole tone of this was, ‘We’ve got to make radical changes in our lifestyle, and we have to make them now, and that’s because the science on the issue is settled’,” Lupo said. “Well that’s not entirely the case. The science, for one thing, is not settled.”
But Gore’s title is about the fact that it is an “inconvenient truth” for many. And he cites a key Mark Twain quote that reflects a main theoretical strand in this film:
What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know but what we know for sure that just ain’t so.
Anyone who’s turned on conservative talk radio — or tried to conduct a serious or unemotional discussion of this issue with someone who keeps their radios or cable TVs tune on certain talk shows — knows that Gore’s film is dismissed and ridiculed because well, it features Al Gore!!!
But that isn’t enough anymore.
At best, Gore’s movie is a call to policy arms, urging Americans (and presumably a Democratic Congress) to start taking this issue more seriously and to scrutinize the data Gore himself presents. And, at its least, the flick nails down a start-off point for a serious, substantive discussion on how real this issue is.
But Gore and Guggenheim do what has never quite been done before: make a truly compelling documentary that is part illustration, part speculation but a large part presentation of a rock-solid talk Gore has given on the subject for years (he estimates he has given “the slide show” at least a thousand times in various cities to get the word out). Gore offers statistics, graphs, anecdotes and shocking illustrations of places that once had lots of ice…but have since melted.
News reports have centered on his contention about hurricanes and those who immediately dismissed this film and DVD because it was a movie with Al Gore!!! are really changing the subject: Gore deals with far more in his film than hurricanes.
But in this age of political demonization and attempts at image control, trying to discredit a movie by attempting to paint cartoonish images of a former politician is easier than arguing a counter case. (This game was taken to new levels when Fox News‘ Neil Cavuto blasted the smash cartoon “Happy Feet” for being part of the liberal agenda and, in effect, a propaganda piece for environmentalists. “I half expected to see an animated version of Al Gore pop up,” Cavuto said. Note the use of “Al Gore” as a derisive punchline/buzzword.)
And, indeed, liberals, environmentalists, moderates, independents and open-minded people who watch it saying “CONVINCE ME” will be amazed at how quickly it moves, how charming and naturally intelligent Gore seems, the amount of info packed into every segment, and the films quick pace. An Inconvenient Truth provides useful research and clarity on this issue.
Ironically, the movie trailer (SEE THE YOU TUBE BELOW)gives a false impression of the movie because it over-hypes the film’s most dramatic spots. Actually, many parts of the movie record Gore giving a serious, compelling slide show talk. Meanwhile, Guggenheim also weaves in bits about Gore’s political and personal history, showing him working on his laptop in a car and at home etc. Extras include a featurette update on the issue by Gore, and some audio commentary tracks with Guggenheim and several others.
An Inconvenient Truth does what some once felt was impossible. It makes global warming dramatic without a Hollywood script and it seamlessly shows you an Al Gore who is highly-passionate about a serious issue — not a kind of “environmental wacko” as his critics long suggested or the candidate who seemingly changed his persona each second when he ran for President in 2000. He’s comes across as a man who reads, asks a lot of questions — and then concludes.
Don’t believe me? Get the DVD and watch it for yourself. If you don’t like it, sell it on Amazon Marketplace. If you like it, do what I did: I donated it to a small school nearby.
And, yes, I did so even though it…is a movie with Al Gore!!!
SOME OTHER VIEWS ON THIS MOVIE:
An Inconvenient Truth(Pros and Cons)
Rotten Tomatoes (93 percent favorable reviews)
Blood Diamond hates it (…”one of the worst documentaries”)
Planetary horror story filled with Gore … thankfully
DVD Talk Review
Peswiki Review
Tail Slate has a MUST READ review. A small part of it:
The only time I felt An Inconvenient Truth was being unfair is when it shows the after effects of Hurricane Katrina, which occurred while the documentary was filming. It’s unfair because it shows the aftermath of that terrible storm as a means of showing what can happen as global warming creates more and more powerful storms. And while there’s truth to it, the damage caused in New Orleans wasn’t so much about the storm but about poor government response and weak levees. Had the levees been built properly, chances are the damage the city suffered would never have taken place. So, while the storm’s strength was an issue, the film over simplifies that particular event to make a point that isn’t really accurate.
I will make a note to defend An Inconvenient Truth in that the campaigns against the film are largely organized by special interest groups hired or backed by the oil or automotive industries that want to discredit the film for their own reasons. The facts presented in the film are fairly simple and are not disputed. The issue is really about interpretation.
GLOBAL WARMING:
Eight Reasons Why Global Warming Is A Scam
The Case That Global Warming Is Not A Scam
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.