(2006)
Lauded by critics, widely viewed internationally (grossing nearly $50 million worldwide), and honored with a panoply of accolades, An Inconvenient Truth is perhaps the most important film of the last decade. It effectively increased worldwide awareness about the perils of global warming in an entertaining and straightforward manner that could not have been achieved by scientific journals alone.
The film’s protagonist is one of the reasons the film was such a success, as he offers the audience an emotional connection to the film. Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. is viewed by many as a cult hero following his ill-fated 2000 presidential election bid (in which he f*ing won the “popular vote” by half a million ballots). An Inconvenient Truth is just as much an overview of his career as it is about environmental calamity. It’s a moving scrapbook, in which Guggenheim strings together formats ranging from 35mm film and HD to JPEGs and even VHS tape. In an interview with StudioDaily, he noted, “the only thing we didn’t use was charcoal drawings.”
The former Vice President thrives as an ambassador for the environment. Gore makes the claim that he delivered his now infamous presentation on global warming over a thousand times. By featuring that lecture in the film, he ensured that his audience would grow exponentially.
Gorian Graph (via NOAA)
What constitutes a great film is obviously a subjective criterion. An Inconvenient Truth was bestowed the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature on February 25, 2007. While it may not be the most innovative documentary of 2006, nor that with the highest superior aesthetic, the statue was likely bestowed on the film because of its consummate use of documentary film as a method of broadcasting global issues.
Gore concludes the film by saying:
Each one of us is a cause of global warming, but each one of us can make choices to change that with the things we buy, the electricity we use, the cars we drive; we can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero. The solutions are in our hands, we just have to have the determination to make it happen. We have everything that we need to reduce carbon emissions, everything but political will. But in America, the will to act is a renewable resource.official film site * trailer * buy it here
Trivial Tidbits:
- First documentary to win two Oscars: 2007 Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song for Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up"
- Gore interview with grist.org: http://www.grist.org/article/roberts2/
- "Long ago I decided that global warming must be real, because Al Gore's movie made money...the market has spoken." - Stephen Colbert on The Report
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