Directed by:
Davis GuggenheimScreenplay:
Al GoreComposer:
Michael BrookCast:
Al Gore, Billy West (narrator), George Bush (a.f.), George W. Bush (a.f.), Ronald Reagan (a.f.)VOD (3)
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Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Al Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change in the most talked-about documentary of the year. An audience and critical favorite, An Inconvenient Truth makes the compelling case that global warming is real, man-made, and its effects will be cataclysmic if we don't act now. Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way: often humorous, frequently emotional, always fascinating. In the end, An Inconvenient Truth accomplishes what all great films should: it leaves the viewer shaken, involved and inspired. (official distributor synopsis)
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Al Gore, with his environmental sensibilities and close ties to the scientific community, has always been somewhat out of step with the US political establishment, his books (one of which was published in this country), articles and lectures speak for themselves. This film is one of those lectures. Fortunately, Gore is no boring uncle, he can often be funny, caustic, but above all specific, without using clichéd phrases, but offering scientifically proven facts. Chilling comparative photo-documentation, relentless graphs, opinions of top scientists and some light-heartedness here and there (the creators of The Simpsons also contributed). All this in a very understandable way, so the hour and a half passes very quickly. Then you can even forgive some of Gore's brief, undisguised grievances, which are a bit "off-topic" (the lost presidential race, the death of his wife and the subsequent anti-smoker activism, although I otherwise have no objections to them). The UN report, based on the conclusions of the Paris conference of world climatologists in January 2007, agrees completely with Al Gore. Among the few who rejected the conference conclusions were China and Saudi Arabia (how typical) and also Václav Klaus, Oilman of the Year 1993 and two-time winner of the "Green Pearl of the Year" poll, i.e. someone who has spent his entire political career downplaying environmental problems and treating the issue of global warming as a leftist myth, adding "I don't see any destruction of the planet, I've never seen it in my life, and I don't think any serious and reasonable person could say that." - Hospodarske noviny, February 9, 2007. The professor has his sights set on another Green Pearl. PS: On 1 February 2007, Al Gore was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his environmental work.
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Unsettling. In fact I now have the feeling that we’re screwed. Very much so. There will always be people who go to a lecture and then they take something away with them, people who shrug it off and people who won’t even go to any lecture. And that applies to most people. Because they have much more important things to do, don’t have the time or whatever. But back to this. The documentary is really well made. Al Gore is a great speaker (using humor at the right moments and isn’t afraid of pointing fingers) and overall a nice guy. He shows graphs, photos and tells true stories. When you see a lake disappear in front of your eyes, it shatters what you believed about the speed of global warming. The funniest thing about it is that the reason behind the blue planets problems are the two most superfluous things that human kind has come up with: Economics and Politics. Hmm, I should really write an essay about the manipulative elements that were employed here. So why not post it here? :-) /// An Inconvenient Truth is a really pleasant movie, works with your emotions, with the good inside you. Why? How? Do I hear you ask these questions? Maybe you are more intelligent than the creators of this documentary thought. Did you notice those manipulative moves that not even House MD would be ashamed of? Good for you. And if not. You can find the answer to why tears were gushing out of your eyes right here. So firstly. Al Gore is a nice guy and he plus lost. He lost his struggle against that inhuman monster who plunged the US into a war where people are dying and destroying the environment. He’s somebody who you can believe, who you want to believe because he’s able to convince you that he’s one of us and has good intentions. He’s only a person too and, hell, maybe he truly believes what he’s saying. It doesn’t matter whether it’s true. And we have the right composition of shots. A drowning bear, dying animals etc. Although it’s hard to believe it, people love nature. And why not, that’s where we all came from. We crawled out of the swamps of the Earth and in the end its earth swallows up our bodies. We should respect the Earth and not devastate, change and transform it like heartless monsters. The movie nostalgically forces us to remember how we first entered the forest and breathed fresh air. And we also have our good friend named television. What is better for forcing somebody to think than when the creators of a popular TV show film a short and humorous movie about how global warming is bad and point their fingers at dumb people in governments and in factories who don’t want to listen to the facts and solve everything with a well-matured sarcastic comment. Nasty people. Facts and graphs can also be interpreted in different ways, and if we want we can make things look... let’s say more dramatic than they really are and if we intersperse it with photos of melting ice and polar bears, we can certainly hit the target group. Another fact remains, that smoke is bad. Even smokers know that. Smog, pollution, suffocating daisies have a bad effect on the human psyche. You don’t go on holiday to visit smoking factories, but into the countryside. Sun, beaches. Not a smog-clad urban Jungle, uranium mines and slag heaps. A world of green, blue, harmony and peace are much more fulfilling. At least until the moment when your cell phone rings and you have to go cut down rainforests to earn money to feed your hungry kids. Kids. Kids. It’s for them and their future that we must sustain the world. We live for them and we have to protect the planet for them. To teach them to care for Mother Nature and to learn from our mistakes. We behave like a disease and they need to find a cure. They are going to have to save us, so why not try and make that possible. Give them enough time to solve it. Slow down tipping the scales. Kids. Documents are a strong weapon. In conclusion let’s get on to the most important aspect. Music. They say that music plays on human emotions and when you combine it correctly with pictures, you have a weapon that has such an impact that you can change beliefs and convictions with one uplifting tone on the viola. Oh, how heartless the human race is, if it is prepared to analyze in depth such a sincere and good movie as the An Inconvenient Truth. Instead of sitting in schools writing essays, shouldn’t we be out there planting trees which fall by the thousand for textbooks and paper that we end up burning in the end?
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A film of two contradictions. On the one hand, it features Al Gore as a skillful and witty speaker, who sprinkles onto the viewer one fact after another, the veracity of which even a layman cannot doubt (graphs, comparative photographs). On the other hand, Al Gore is a politician building a fertile ground for his next political career (the Oscar only helps). Still, it has to be admitted that his swimming against the current has something to it and he could change a lot if holding high political office. However, that depends on the voters on the other side of the Atlantic.
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