An Inconvenient Truth: A movie covering such an important issue doesn't need a witty title.
Written: Jun 18 '06 (Updated Jun 19 '06)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Well directed and presented. Devastating in its facts and conclusions, but also hopeful.
Cons: More people will not go to see it, although they should.
The Bottom Line: ...
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| weirdo_87's Full Review: An Inconvenient Truth |
Imagine this. It is the greatest crisis mankind has ever faced. Decades of pollution have damaged the Earth’s atmosphere. Polar caps and ice flows are melting at an alarming rate, while the rising temperature of the world’s oceans has increased the strength of storms to where a little tropical storm could grow to devastating proportions. Scientists and others constantly warning and pressing the issue on, but American politicians ignore it and tell the general public that it’s nothing severe or even that it’s a ‘hoax’. The unheeded warnings lead to the collapse of the Earth’s ecosystem, with thousands dying from flooding caused by rising ocean levels and from ‘super storms’.
Sounds like a great plot for a Hollywood blockbuster, doesn’t it?
The problem: It isn’t a movie. Or, actually, it is a movie. Just not the one you want to see.
In the mid 1960’s, a young college student by the name of Albert Gore, Jr. was first exposed to an up and rising problem. A college professor of his had done research concerning the percentage of the sun’s heat waves that get into our atmosphere. The sun’s ultra-violet rays are deadly, but our atmosphere keeps out most of them or reflects them, allowing only enough to warm the Earth to make it habitable. His professor noticed, though, that the number of rays being trapped inside the Earth was increasing. The culprits were pollution, which thicken the atmosphere. The side-effects, if this continued, could eventually become devastating.
Gore would take a pathway that led him to the House of Representatives and to the Senate from the state of Tennessee. In 1992, he accepted an offer from Bill Clinton to be his Vice-President. Clinton/Gore served two terms in the White House. During this whole time, though, Gore’s main focus remained the growing problem of global warming. Many brushed him aside as a nut job or as exaggerating the problem. Gore, as is well known, lost the 2000 presidential election in a controversial fashion. Gore claims to have been bitter after the election and he indeed was. Suddenly, he vanished off the political radar. Gore had decided to re-focus on his topic of choice.
Shots near the beginning of An Inconvenient Truth show Gore being welcomed by crowds at various universities, town halls and theaters across the country and the world. Gore made a PowerPoint presentation on Global Warming that he estimates over the years he’s shown over a thousand times in as many different areas. It is this presentation that forms the basis of An Inconvenient Truth (With interludes to show Gore’s earlier life or his elaboration on certain topics).
Ever since the 1970’s, the topic of global warming has been put out into the forefront of political debate. Gore, in fact, claims to have helped organize the first congressional hearings on the topic. He thought the facts and figures that had been assembled through years worth of research would make a huge impression on the congressional committee and the American public. It didn’t, or at least not on the level he hoped for. The American people were in the midst of economic problems and still cynical over Vietnam and Watergate: The last thing they wanted to hear about was how chemicals in our sprays could (Nobody was sure at the time) wreck the atmosphere. Gore pressed on the issue, though, and during the Clinton presidency was the major proponent of the Kyoto Treaty. The latter, which would put regulations on carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse gases and even have nations engage in “emissions trading” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_treaty), has been ratified by scores of nations across the world and even by various cities in the United States. The U.S itself, though, has refused to join in. The reason? A number of Americans believe that global warming is still debatable. It is claimed that the “scientific community” is torn over the issue (In fact, Gore says that scientists in general are in agreement on the topic; it’s the popular press- newspapers, magazines, the media- that are in conflict). Some use the theory that the Earth is just naturally warming, like it does every four hundred years (Gore says that is true, although the rate of heating in this current cycle is far more dramatic). Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma, on January 4, 2005, called Global Warming the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” and then used reasons that have been discredited by various scientific sources.
Gore’s Power Point makes use of a number of statistics, comparisons, videos and animation. For people whom believe that the Earth is just going through a natural increase in heating, he shows statistics over the years of temperature increases (With the last few years being the hottest by far). Warmer waters have allowed storms to grow in areas where they didn’t happen before (A hurricane occurred in July 2005 in the South Atlantic; something that was considered scientifically impossible) and for storms to become much stronger, too (The waters of the Gulf of Mexico were warmer then usual in summer 2005, which proved to be a recipe for disaster when Hurricane Katrina hit in August. The time lapse video of Katrina’s rapid build up as it reached Louisiana is particularly startling). He shows how CO2 levels correlate with temperature increases. For people whom believe that being more environmentally save would also wreck the economy, he shows that the best selling cars in the world are made by Toyota and Honda, whom have made tremendous steps towards increasing mileage and making hybrid cars, while Fords and GM models are not very popular worldwide (He also shows that the U.S is ranked last in a list of cars and mileage. Heck, the state of California, on average, is ranked better in mileage then the U.S as a whole! And even though they’ve taken initiative, California will be in ten years at the mileage level that China right now considers acceptable)
Gore’s main focus is on the damage that global warming is doing to the Antarctic and the North Pole. He shows how glaciers all over the world have melted significantly, while the thickness of ice flows is also decreasing and that large chunks of ice in Antarctica and Greenland have broken off at an alarming rate. He even shows other side effects of this (For instance, the Bush Administration has been pushing for drilling to be done in the Arctic. Gore shows that the increasing temperatures have decreased the number of days that ice and snow would cover the frozen, sticky tundra of the north to permit trucks to carry the oil out. Such drilling would almost certainly be a disaster for that reason). Now the sinking and melting of ice flows has already occurred enough for some results to be seen (Various islanders in the south pacific have been forced to move because of it). However, Gore also shows what would happen if say huge chunks in Antarctica and Greenland broke off: The world sea levels would drastically increase, sinking large parts of various cities and countries around the world that are heavily populated. His CGI recreation of what this would be like startled many people in the audience of the theater I was in.
A number of people I know are reluctant, even refusing, to see this movie because of Al Gore. First off, Al Gore did not make this movie (It was directed and produced by Davis Guggenheim, whom was inspired after seeing one of Gore’s presentations. Gore had no other influence on the production or making of the movie). Second, Gore does make a political jab here and there (He says near the end of the movie that “Political capital is a renewable resource in America”, which is an obvious hint at the upcoming elections in November), but he doesn’t use the movie to sulk over the results of the 2000 election (Which he has said that he’s over) or to build a campaign for 2008, since he has repeatedly and firmly said he will not run. Nor does Gore attack the Bush administration (He does tell about how they hired an environmental secretary whom had worked in the petroleum industry. Gore does say, though, that that man resigned over a controversy from an environmental report he edited and now works for Exxon-Mobile). Gore says that he doesn’t want this to be a political issue- which it would be if he ran for president- but a moral one that all of us must look at, regardless of what Major Kong called “Your race, color or your creed”. Finally, Gore- whom was referred to as “The Tree” back in his political days for his monotone, dull appearance- shows himself to be a remarkable and passionate public speaker. He has learned a lot over the last six years. Or maybe it’s just because he’s finally talking in detail about the topic he feels most strongly for.
The picture presented in An Inconvenient Truth is a bleak one: We’ve done lots of damage to the world and have created a dangerous situation. Fortunately, Gore says that we are not hopeless. We’ve done a lot of harm and will do much more if we continue with our current mindset. However, each person can do little things to make a difference, as listed during the end credits (Also visit the official website (Listed below) for lists of things that you can do), from little things such as conserving energy (Don’t leave air conditioners or heaters running all day) to recycling to driving more fuel efficient cars (Or using other transportation when possible). Gore has presented a grave problem, but he also leaves us with tips and ideas on what we can do. It is now up to us individually to solve this, because together we can achieve the victory.
This weekend, I’ll understand if you want to see something like X-Men III or Cars instead of this (Those are more pleasant, family oriented movies, after all). If you choose to see An Inconvenient Truth, though, you’ll be greatly rewarded. It’ll definitely leave you thinking about the world right now (I never really noticed how many trucks and SUVs are used by people until I was in the parking lot after seeing the movie). Who knows: It could very likely change your life, and- more likely- will make you want to change it for the best.
Further info:
(The official website) http://www.climatecrisis.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Truth
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Serious Movie
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
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