An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim, 2006) [7]
This site is meant to be my two-bit reviews of films released months ago; this isn't really about political discourse, something that at one time I had interests in but am now so sick of with all the shrieking hyenas on 24-hour cable news that I've become cynical of any thing that smacks of propaganda, from the right or the left. I've stated before that I'm very liberal, but didn't particularly care for the shrill tactics of Fahrenheit 9/11 or the cheap, pandering faux-liberalism of Hollywood shown in Crash. I didn't vote for Al Gore in 2000; I voted for Nader mostly because I felt Gore wasn't liberal enough on some (most) positions. I had the feeling that this film, a shoo-in for Best Documentary, was only a way for Gore to suck up to the hardcore liberals after abandoning them for the center.

There, I got all of my political baggage out of the way. As for this film, it isn't great in terms of cinema, but it does have an important, sobering message that actually makes Al Gore show traits of being a human being. The information in this film could have been portrayed a little better; at times it still feels too much like the viewpoint is skewed for left-leaning audiences. I'm not going to call it bias as all the conservative weasels would like their followers to believe. There is no denying that the information that Gore covers in the films is pretty near scientific fact: the earth is warming because of carbon emissions in the atmosphere and it is most certainly the result of human activity. Anyone douchebag that tries the whole "this is just cyclical climate change, there's no hard proof of global warming" should have to watch this A Clockwork Orange style, so when they hear someone like Limbaugh or Hannity start spewing nonsense it makes it want to puke, like the rest of rational society. When a worldwide committee of scientists released a report in the last week saying essentially the same points Gore raises in the film, it raises it above bias, doesn't it?....See, it's impossible for me to review this film without bringing my politics into it. That's the greatest weakness of the film is that those who happen to be on the opposite end of the political spectrum won't pay attention to important scientific information simply because it's Al Gore as the messenger. This film's message should be listened to by everyone, because at its essence, we owe it to future generations if 1/3 of what is being predicted actually occurs. That a good number of people, a good many of them in the Republican Party and the current administration, choose to ignore information that a majority of the rest of the world acknowledges and is trying to do something about, make me be ashamed to be an citizen of the United States.

By the way, the film would be a lot stronger if Guggenheim didn't cut into vignettes on Gore's life. It dulls the potency of his presentation and gives the Fox News crowd a reason to cry bias.