‘An Inconvenient Truth’

Al Gore film presents environmental issues with gravitas, humor

At first glance, it’s rather difficult to judge Davis Guggenheim’s “An Inconvenient Truth” on an aesthetic level, because it’s more interested in conveying an uncomplicated message to the public than anything else. As such, it simply sets up a few cameras to film a computer slideshow-aided lecture by Al Gore, who’s got a few things to say about the state of the environment.

To recount the film would inevitably lead to a regurgitation of Gore’s presentation: that carbon dioxide is rising to alarming levels, along with the planet’s overall temperature; that it will result (and has resulted) in catastrophic weather patterns; and that human activity is the primary culprit. But of course, that’s precisely the point: to raise awareness of the global warming issue, and most importantly, to get people to do something about it.

There’s no doubt, however, that Gore forces us to pay attention, presenting his message in a wonderfully dynamic way. It’s a relative surprise from the presidential candidate so often parodied as a slow-talking plank of wood. With his easygoing Southern accent, he cracks jokes left and right in between matter-of-fact presentation graphs and charts, and even presents a scene from the television series “Futurama” as a humorous way to explain the effects of global warming (though unrevealed here, it is part of an episode in which he guest stars as himself). It’s an awfully breezy treatment for such a grave topic, but like any good speaker, that’s how Gore draws you in. Once that’s happened, however, you realize the seriousness of the issue, not just in the facts he espouses but how his efforts have affected him personally; his face has become a mask of worry since the controversial 2000 election, and his hair has grayed faster than what six years would seemingly allow.

Why? Gore has devoted most of his political career to an attempt to spread awareness of the issue, and he regards the “so-called skeptics,” as he calls them, with nothing but derision. The problem is, however, that the “skeptics”—strongly implied to be big oil companies and their cronies—have been gaining political ground. Despite substantial agreement among peer-reviewed scientific papers as to the reality of global warming, there has been a concerted political effort to present it to the public as “theory rather than fact.” Subsequently, newspaper and magazine articles have been nearly divided in half as per agreement/disagreement with its occurrence. It worries Gore to no end; he reasonably likens it to the spin-doctor treatment on the relationship between smoking and cancer, and he can only barely contain his anger and disappointment. “It’s not a political issue so much as it is a moral issue,” he intones with unwavering certainty.

For its objectives, the film is wise to let the loosened-up Gore take the reins, when it starts a wannabe biography of the man—which really should be the incentive to watch the film as itself—“An Inconvenient Truth” becomes sorely lacking in content. We are given some examples of how the man gained his sense of empathy and responsibility—the death of his sister by lung cancer, the near-death of his son in an automobile accident—but it’s all so cursory. The editing goes haywire, and we are treated to a series of archive footage of congressional hearings and hanging chads, which by themselves tell us nothing. We are left wishing for some greater insight into the man, or just hoping that the film will soon be returned to Gore’s own capable hands.

It soon is. Lucky thing, because Gore is a man who knows how to present his message on his own terms. He realizes that the proper way to convey his message isn’t as an alarmist or a doomsayer; in fact, he seems certain that it would be an inappropriate course of action. The CGI-produced images of Florida and Greater Europe being swallowed up by rising sea-levels are frightening, but he’s smooth about it, and confident that humanity (and this country, in particular) will end up doing the right thing—but if only the facts are made public and people begin to make conservation-minded changes to their lifestyles. In following that attitude, I’m going to say, sure, take everybody you know to see “An Inconvenient Truth,” because it presents a compelling case on an important issue that can’t be cast aside, and presents it in a way that makes sure that you can’t cast it aside.