Last week, Heidi and I went to see An Inconvenient Truth as part of our double feature. I didn’t really know what to expect from this movie. Documentaries often have this annoying habit of either being too serious and thus preachy or too entertaining (often masquerading as being “accessible”) and thus too light or even misleading. When I heard about Truth, I was worried it would fall on the preachy side. Even more concerning, when I found out that Al Gore’s life forms a major part of the story, I was concerned that it would be sappy and too much to handle. That, and well, two hours of Al Gore and two hours of a Keynote presentation… how much fun could that be? When the mostly positive reviews started coming out, we decided to go give it a shot. I’m happy we did.
The movie is built around a presentation Al Gore has been giving for years (even before he became a Senator) on global warming and the evidence of an impending climate crisis. The presentation has gone through different versions over the years, of course. The version shown in the film is a modern slideshow built on Keynote. Much of the movie, indeed most of the best sequences, are simply of Gore doing the presentation in front of a studio audience. Between sections of the presentation, we’re treated to back story about how Gore became aware of this issue, what he’s done over his political career to help improve policy around global warming and climate issues, and other personal stories that are relevant to the film.
These segments are how the filmmaker keeps the movie from being “Two Cameras and a Slideshow.” In general, they are deftly woven into the film and provide the transitions between different topics. Too often, however, a monologue or narration by Al Gore is simply played over a really tight shot of his face lit by the glow of his Powerbook and Keynote. He’s not a bad looking guy but I really don’t want to be that close to him (or anyone, really).
In general, though, the stories about Gore are not really about him. A story about the Gore farm becomes an allegory about how humans change habits. The story about his political efforts is about how Congress deals with long term warnings. My fears ended up generally unfounded.
Even better, though, is that very little discussion of the current administration or partisanship in general comes into the film. Short of a few jokes and a discussion about Kyoto, there are few mentions of the Bush administration. Katrina, while held up as an example of the types of disasters we can expect if warming continues unabated, doesn’t become a polemic against Bush’s inaction. As Gore himself says in the movie, this isn’t about politics and the film stays true to that.
The movie also doesn’t really try to scare the audience with the scenarios presented. That’s not to say we’re not shown worst case scenarios, including the ocean current theory butchered in Day After Tomorrow. They’re just not presented in the Dateline/11 o’clock news way, where everything is soooooo very scary. The director doesn’t want you to be afraid. He wants you to act.
It’s this lucid discussion and sensible presentation of the science that makes the film so powerful. You will end up concerned, but in a thoughtful way. This is the first time I’ve watched a film or TV special about global warming where I walked away learning something while also believing there’s still time to do relatively simple things to curb the overall effect.
This is my favorite part of this movie, by the way. I love that the movie spends a significant amount of time talking about what you can do to improve your energy usage and reduce your output of greenhouse gases. The most interesting slide is the one where Gore shows how employing existing technologies can reduce global output of CO2 to 1970 levels. Best of all, none of these involve everyone switching to electric cars or something else ridiculous. Increasing fuel efficiency, replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, and improving home insulation all have far greater impacts than I would’ve expected. Granted, some of the steps listed require political action and legislative help, so they’re not all possible unless Congress and both parties take this issue more seriously.
I recommend seeing this movie. It’s worth it and is a far better documentary about a politically charged issue than any I’ve seen. If you’re interested in taking action to reduce your own impact on climate change, the film’s website lists many ways you can help reduce your own carbon footprint. We’re taking some of those steps today because of this film.
Rating
An Inconvenient Truth: 
Other Reviews
- RealClimate.org’s review, which includes errors in the science
- Salon.com review by Andrew O’Hehir
- Rotten Tomatoes list of reviews
- Google’s review page
December 27th, 2006 at 11:26 AM
I’m glad you liked the movie, but Global Warming is a Liberal farce cooked up by the loonie left so they can have an excuse to tax us and spend our money on more environmental nonsense. You call it a sensable presentation, which means you were duped into believing what they wanted you to believe. The proof is always in the pudding, and this movie presented no varifyable truths or proof to back up their so called facts. This is typical of Gore and the Liberal left.
December 27th, 2006 at 11:28 AM
Did you watch the movie? It doesn’t sound like it, as the movie is backed up by a number of independent, peer-reviewed research studies. All Gore is doing in the film is summarizing and presenting them as a coherent presentation.
Also, calling people names doesn’t actually add value to your argument. I suspect you know that, and simply wanted to call people names anyway. If that’s your contribution, please take it elsewhere. Thanks.