An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Director:

Davis Guggenheim

Release Date:

31 August 2006 (Thailand)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

A Global Warning

Plot:

A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.

Plot Keywords:

Global Warming | Climate | Science | Crisis | Truth

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 21 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Al Gore	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Billy West	...	(voice)

MPAA:

Rated PG for mild thematic elements.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:G | UK:U | Ireland:G | Singapore:PG | Finland:K-3 | Netherlands:MG6 | Norway:A | Hong Kong:I | Australia:PG | Portugal:M/6 | Sweden:Btl | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | USA:PG (certificate #42438) | Iceland:L | South Korea:All | France:U | Germany:o.Al. | Malaysia:U | Brazil:Livre

Company:

Lawrence Bender Productions

Trivia:

This is the first carbon-neutral documentary. NativeEnergy, which works with individuals and organizations to help them compensate for their contributions to global warming, calculated the "carbon footprint" from producing the film, including all travel, office, and accommodations related emissions. The company then offset emissions through renewable energy credits or "green tags from new renewable energy projects. Paramount Classics and Participant will split the cost of these tags; the funds will go towards helping build new Native American, Alaskan Native Village, and farmer-owned renewable energy projects, creating sustainable economies for communities in need and diversifying our energy supply. As Participant founder Jeff Skoll explains: "It would be ironic, not to mention wrong, if we added to the global warming that Al Gore warns about in his film. Plus, these renewable energy projects offer options that will decrease our demand for fossil fuels and otherwise would likely not happen without these kinds of investments." Participant, NativeEnergy and Warner Bros. partnered in a similar way on Stephen Gaghan's film, Syriana (2005), where 100% of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by the production were translated into investments into renewable energy. This follows on from the first "carbon neutral" film The Day After Tomorrow (2004), which director Roland Emmerich paid for out of his own pocket.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Gore shows the slide of the ice core graph at the beginning of the movie (about 20 minutes in), the numbers on the y-axis are wrong - the average is at 0.5, and the negative numbers are flipped. This graph is correct in the book; the slide is wrong and therefore misleading.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Al Gore: You look at that river gently flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling with the wind. You hear the birds; you hear the tree frogs. In the distance you hear a cow. You feel the grass. The mud gives a little bit on the river bank. It's quiet; it's peaceful. And all of a sudden, it's a gear shift inside you. And it's like taking a deep breath and going, "Oh yeah, I forgot about this."

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The War at Home: It's Not Easy Being Green (#2.13)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Blocks

A good film overall, but there are a few problems

I thought that this was on the whole a good film - I can imagine it being an EXCELLENT film for teachers to show to a class to explain global warming, actually. It explains the facts very well, explains away the objections that people have been hearing about from the media, and is also pretty funny at times. The film basically consists of a tour of Al Gore's climate change speeches around the world. It is, in essence, one long speech in various cities around the world (Al Gore says that he's given this presentation thousands of times), inter-cut with some various other footage. The film starts off with a few diagrams that many of you will probably have seen already, as well as a rather famous Futurama clip. In fact, if you're well-versed in your science, you'll probably already know much of what Al Gore talks about (though probably not quite all) - this film is really for the general public who doesn't quite know all of this, and also for those who might have heard something about global warming here and there but want to see exactly how all of the facts fit together.

As I said, a very good educational film. The problems come in the short but noticeable periods when the film tries to be a biography of Al Gore at the same time. Now, I don't know about you, but I was watching this to find out about global warming, not to find out what Al Gore thought about losing the 2000 election. I imagine that these are the bits that teachers will fast-forward over when they show this to their classes, since they don't really add anything to the film. I would have respected Al Gore a bit more if he hadn't tried to make this a film also (in a way) about himself. I guess it's to be expected, since he's a politician, but it's disappointing.

In closing, although it's not a perfect film, it's a pretty good one. It is THE film to watch if you want to find out about global warming (at least, I haven't heard of any better films out there). I don't really understand all of the "10" or "1" ratings on IMDb. It's not a "10" or "1" film. Even its biggest fans will have to admit that as a movie it could be a little tighter sometimes. I think it's good enough, but it's not perfect.