An Inconvenient Truth - Movie Review Example

An Inconvenient Truth is about an impertinent truth that is facing mankind: global warming. The protagonist of the film is Al Gore and his efforts inthe film largely comprise of educating the public about global warming, with the goal of creating the political will necessary for the United States to take the lead in efforts to lower global carbon emissions. The film tries to inspire the need of a Pax Americana, and is decidedly non-partisan in its outlook. However, what it also does is allude subtly to the Bush administration's lack of leadership on environmental issues.

Though the film is dominated by Al Gore giving a slideshow on the science of global warming, it has some, has lots of breath-taking locales and some very slick graphic, in the vein of Carl Sagan. The main attraction, however, is the beautiful blend of awesome digital animation, and personal reflections from Gore that add a very nice human element to the film. The way the film mixes the autobiographical elements: from Gore in a classroom in 1968, listening with rapt attention to the great geochemist Roger Revelle explaining the first few years of data on carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere to the Al Gore on the family farm, talking about his father's tobacco business, and how he shut it down when his daughter (Al Gore's sister) got lung cancer: is simply phenomenal.

The natural elan with which Gore carries off his acting makes us realise that here is a man who he is clearly in his element here, talking about something he has cared deeply about for over thirty years. What was most heart warming to notice was the efficient manner in which the film handles science, including reference to some of the very latest research that is going on in contemporary times. Not only are discussions of recent changes in Antarctica and Greenland expertly laid out, but Al Gore also does a very good job in talking about the relationship between sea surface temperature and hurricane intensity.

To make things more tangible, he makes a use of the Katrina disaster to underscore the point that climate change may have serious impacts on society. However, the film does not emphasise upon the connection any more than is. An Inconvenient Truth, like a good documentary, makes a few some bold statements. Where as, critics have rebuffed Gore's claim that the aerosol concentrations in Antarctic ice cores change "in just two years", due to the U.S. Clean Air Act, the boldness of the statement was really eye-catching.

So was an image illustrating an invasive plant species relating to carbon dioxide emission, though not scientifically correct as the problem of invasive species is predominantly due to land use change and importation, not to "global warming". After all, no one can deny that the effect of reduced leaded gasoline use in the U.S. does clearly show up in Greenland ice cores. Unlike other documentary movies like Baked Alaska, which presents a depressing nomenclature of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the context of Alsaka's accelerated warning, Inconvenient Truth has an element of hope.

At best, the movie is meant to be a stark warning, a means for mankind to shake up from their stupor of forgetting to care about Mother Nature before things become irrevocable. A plea to every nation to have the courage to do what is necessary. "The world won't 'end' overnight in 10 years," Gore says. "But a point will have been passed, and there will be an irreversible slide into destruction." The screenplay is brilliant and the he director, Davis Guggenheim, uses words, images and Gore's concise litany of facts to build a film that is at the same time fascinating and relentless.

It is a film worth seeing. For after all, as Gore says, "It is a moral issue" we should be bothered about