An Inconvenient Truth

Year: 2006

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Guggenheim

Review

the film begins with gore’s voice over and several shots of him from behind, in the darkness. then, as he says “i’m al gore” we see his face. beginning in this way it’s clear that the film is going to be more about gore’s reemergence into the public eye than any pet issue of his. this documentary is ostensibly about that pet issue of global warming, but is much more in the way of explanation to the dominant question regarding gore lately: “whatever happened to him?” the answer is that he’s been touring the world, asking tough questions, meeting with world leaders and organizing all in the context of doing something about global warming. most of the science is pretty well covered in a global warming episode of nova which i saw a few years back. some of the stuff is new, but it mostly serves as an cohesive intro to global warming and it’s useful in that regard. but the other half is mostly shots of him looking stately and talking about personal triumphs and tribulations and portraying himself as someone with a sense of humor. it’s basically a well-done campaign video that’s really informative. i was a bit turned off by the commercial aspects of the film, but i have to acknowledge that the film was honest from the get go that this was going to be an al gore film, not a documentary on global warming. if you go into the film knowing that then you should be totally fine.

Watched in theater