Al Gore’s cinematic call to arms, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, opens today. Global Cool’s already seen it, see what we thought…
If you’re reading this website or regularly read The Independent, there’s a good chance you’ll already know a considerable amount about climate change. That doesn’t however mean this film isn’t for you.
As an exercise in getting a simple but urgent message across, Al Gore is a well equipped communicator. The former Vice President claims to have presented what he modestly calls his “slide show” over a 1,000 times and here he’s honed it down into a slick, hi-tech and easily accessible 95 minutes.
There’s no danger of being blinded by science as the usually unintelligible-without-a-PhD graphic representations have been greatly enlarged and six-form-simplified courtesy of a hit design team and a Hollywood budget. At one point Gore goes a step further (or back) by screening sci-fi cartoon Futurama’s take on global warming, claiming it is his preferred method of explaining the science behind the problem.
Rather than spouting statistics and pointing at countless graphs, Gore’s presentation follows a more autobiographical path, beginning with his first introduction to climate change via his university tutor, Roger Revelle, who was the first scientist to record the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. At times the narrative steers a little too far into Gore’s halcyon sentimentality but this is obviously a device aimed at hooking in an audience unfamiliar with the lecture format, which is frankly the people this presentation so urgently needs to engage.
After stating that climate change is no longer a political matter and is now “a moral and ethical” issue, Gore does take more than a few stabs at his former presidential nemesis, one Mr George W. Bush, which does raise the fear that he may alienate or aggravate a large section of his potential audience. However, Bush’s frequently raised refusal to sign up to the Kyoto agreement is a continual sticking point in the bigger picture and does warrant repeated referral.
The comparatively little time given to the potential solutions to climate change also raises concerns, as does the fact Gore advises that appliances should switched off when not in use, before leaving his product-placed and constantly in-shot Apple PowerBook very evidentially on charge when exiting his hotel room.
Still, if this film lives up to its tagline of, “by far the most terrifying film you will ever see”, it will hopefully act as a rallying call for immediate action. That is, providing the audience has not left the cinema before the too-little-too-late flag-ups to the film’s informative website spring up in the end credits.
In summary, go and see ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. Take your parents, your children, your friends and foes. You will laugh at least three times, you will be shocked at least a dozen but ultimately you will no longer have any excuse not to act.
Click here for ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ website
