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:

Endangered Species | Neutrality | Carbon Dioxide | Doomsday | Warmth

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 21 wins & 5 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. July 27	8:45 AM	SHOW
Thur. July 31	2:45 PM	SHOW

Cast

Al Gore	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Billy West	...	(voice)
George Bush	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
George W. Bush	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Ronald Reagan	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Davis Guggenheim

Produced by
Lawrence Bender	....	producer
Scott Z. Burns	....	producer
Lesley Chilcott	....	co-producer
Lesley Chilcott	....	line producer
Davis Guggenheim	....	executive producer
Jeffrey D. Ivers	....	executive producer (as Jeff Ivers)
Laurie Lennard	....	producer (as Laurie David)
Jeff Skoll	....	executive producer
Ricky Strauss	....	executive producer
Diane Weyermann	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Michael Brook

Cinematography by
Davis Guggenheim
Bob Richman

Film Editing by
Jay Cassidy
Dan Swietlik

Production Management
Gregory Bartlett	....	production manager
Lesley Chilcott	....	unit production manager
Beau J. Genot	....	post-production supervisor
Trevor Herrick	....	production manager: New York
Steven M. Rood	....	production supervisor (as Steve Rood)
Michelle Wilker	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
John Stewart	....	second assistant director
Jonathan X	....	first assistant director (as JJ Jonathan Jackson)

Sound Department
Tom Bergin	....	additional sound: New York
George Berndt	....	adr editor
George Berndt	....	dialogue editor
Lesley Chilcott	....	additional sound: Beijing
Joel Dougherty	....	sound effects editor
Alan Freedman	....	adr mixer
Dan Gleich	....	additional sound: San Francisco
Terry Hillman	....	additional sound: Nashville
P.K. Hooker	....	sound effects editor
Daniel Kent	....	additional sound: Los Angeles
Steve LeSieur	....	assistant sound editor
Skip Lievsay	....	sound re-recording mixer
Skip Lievsay	....	supervising sound editor
Daniel S. McCoy	....	sound
Eddie O'Connor	....	additional sound: New York
Mark A. Rozett	....	sound re-recording mixer
Jan Schulte	....	additional sound: Los Angeles
Paul Trautman	....	sound
Lu Xuelei	....	additional sound: Beijing

Visual Effects by
Brian Fisher	....	sea-level effects
Brian George	....	digital film colorist
Brian George	....	digital intermediate colorist
Kevin Prendiville	....	Flame artist

Camera and Electrical Department
Joaquín Baca-Asay	....	additional cinematographer
Ulli Bonnekamp	....	additional cinematographer
Curtis Clark	....	additional cinematographer
Jiebin Fan	....	additional cinematographer (as Jae Fan)
Davis Guggenheim	....	camera operator
D.J. Harder	....	first assistant camera
Darren Langer	....	gaffer
Eric Lee	....	still photographer
Dave Pritchett	....	camera operator
Carrie Richard	....	camera operator
Bob Richman	....	camera operator
Michael J. Schwartz	....	camera operator
John Snedden	....	camera operator
Chuck Weiss	....	tape operator: HDTV studio segments

Animation Department
Brent Chambers	....	animator: Hornet

Editorial Department
Javier Alvarez	....	additional editor
Kenny Becker	....	color timer
Owen Edinger	....	assistant editor
Larry Ferguson Jr.	....	post-production consultant
Bob Fernley	....	digital intermediate producer
Asim Matin	....	first assistant editor
Thomas Han Ul Park	....	assistant editor
Troy Rackley	....	assistant editor
Rebecca Weigold	....	first assistant editor

Music Department
Sharon Smith	....	music editor

Other crew
Susan Bradley	....	title designer: opening titles
Daniel J. Brewster	....	technical coordinator: Apple Keynote
Thom Buckley	....	on-set medic
Gwen Cassidy	....	researcher
Dayna E. Clark	....	production assistant
Heather Coker	....	production assistant
Patricia DeQuaker	....	rights and clearances coordinator (as Patti DeQuaker)
Ilana Gordon	....	creative executive
Andrew Isaacson	....	producer: Hornet
Elena Jacobson	....	assistant to producer
Matthew Klipper	....	production accountant
Drew Langer	....	production assistant
Michael J. Linowes	....	legal counsel
Eric Matthews	....	production assistant
Evan Matthews	....	production assistant
Michael McDermott	....	line producer: China
Dawn Oliver	....	assistant: Mr. Bender
Jill Ragan	....	production assistant (as Jill Pauletich-Ragan)
John Snedden	....	archive footage: b-roll
Katie Taylor	....	production assistant
Amber Thompson	....	production assistant
Melissa A. Wong	....	script supervisor
Marianna Yarovskaya	....	head of research
Garson Yu	....	title designer
Jim McCarthy	....	accountant (uncredited)

Thanks
Tal Fiala	....	special thanks
Robert Messinger	....	special thanks
Robert Redford	....	special thanks
Carl Sagan	....	special thanks
Tim Sassoon	....	special thanks
Ada Shen	....	thanks
John Williams	....	thanks
David Zucker	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Lawrence Bender Productions
• Participant Productions

Distributors

• Aisa Wide Communications (2007) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Finnkino (2006) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Magnavision (2007) (Philippines) (DVD)
• Nelonen (2007) (Finland) (TV)
• Paramount Home Entertainment Finland (2007) (Finland) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (2007) (Germany) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (200?) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Paramount Pictures Corporation (Canada) (2006) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Paramount Vantage (2006) (USA) (theatrical)
• TV2 Danmark (2007) (Denmark) (TV)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2006) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2006) (France) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2006) (UK) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2006) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2006) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures Far East (UIP) (2007) (Japan) (theatrical)

Special Effects

• Buck (graphics and animation)
• Duarte (additional graphics)
• Hornet Animation (polar bear and frog animation)

Other Companies

• ABC News Video Source  moving image archive courtesy of (as ABC News Videosource)
• ABC News  moving image archive courtesy of
• Allstock  moving image archive courtesy of
• Apple  still imagery courtesy of
• Arc Light EFX  lighting
• Artbeats Digital Film Library  moving image archive courtesy of
• Associated Press/Wide World  still imagery courtesy of (as AP/Wide World Photos)
• Best Shot  moving image archive courtesy of
• Bloomberg L.P.  still imagery courtesy of
• CBS News Archives  moving image archive courtesy of (as CBS Newspath)
• Cable News Network (CNN)  moving image archive courtesy of
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)  moving image archive courtesy of
• Corbis  still imagery courtesy of (as Corbis)
• Current TV  moving image archive courtesy of
• Cut Run  negative cutting
• DeLuxe Laboratories  color
• EFilm  digital intermediate
• FILM Archives  moving image archive courtesy of
• Fat Dot  publicity
• Fish Films Footage World  moving image archive courtesy of (as Footage World)
• Footage Bank  moving image archive courtesy of (as Footagebank)
• FotoKem Laboratory  color
• Getty Images  moving image archive courtesy of
• Getty Images  still imagery courtesy of
• Hammerhand Studios  sound editing (as Hammerhead Sound)
• Marcella C. Public Relations  special publicity
• Monkeyland Audio  re-recording facility
• NBC News Archives  moving image archive courtesy of
• Oddball Film and Video  moving image archive courtesy of
• PRG Lighting  lighting (as PRG Lighting Los Angeles)
• Prairie Pictures  moving image archive courtesy of
• Scarlet Letters  end crawl
• Silverman Stock Footage  moving image archive courtesy of
• Storm Stock  moving image archive courtesy of
• Streamline Films  moving image archive courtesy of
• Third Millenium Films Inc.  moving image archive courtesy of
• Tricity Photon Research  lighting
• Warner Bros. Studio Facilities  re-recording facility
• Widget Post Production  adr facility
• yU+Co.  end titles

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:

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

Company:

Lawrence Bender Productions

Trivia:

50,000 copies of the film were given away to teachers in the United States via the participate.net website between 18 December 2006 and 18 January 2007.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the shot of the ocean's current is on screen, the tail of the arrow resets from a pointed end to flat repeatedly when it overlaps the other line.

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:

Spoofed in The Simpsons Movie (2007)

Soundtrack:

I Need to Wake Up

This Time, the Sky Could Be Falling for Real

Is Al Gore is doing a Chicken Little act in "An Inconvenient Truth"? I wish he were. This stunning documentary about global warming is a well-reasoned, clearly-proved, intelligent, cogent, irresistible torrent of scientific data, in a curiously warm, engaging, often funny presentation. What an entertaining horror movie this is! Unexpectedly, improbably, Gore is doing a Hitchcock act here, all affable and chummy... before scaring the hell out of the audience. And that he does, with charts, statistics, projections coming from hundreds of peer-reviewed studies, none challenged, while allowing how some 50% of mass-media treatment of global warming *is* subject to questions. There is even a cute animation segment about exaggerated global-warming claims.

There is no need to exaggerate. Unchallenged studies are showing an extraordinary rise in ocean temperatures, the disappearance of glaciers, the melting of the poles - and then Gore twists the knife with a series of graphics showing areas to be inundated by rising waters. In a flooded Manhattan of the future, Gore says, the site of the World Trade Center will be under water. "Terrorism," he says, without drama or overemphasis, "is not the only danger we must face." The threatened catastrophe is not in the distant future. The US Geological Survey predicts that by 2030, Glacier National Park will have no glaciers left. In the last 30 years, 400,00 square miles of Arctic sea ice have melted; polar bears today drown when they cannot find an ice floe to rest on. What has Congress done about global warming? Absolutely nothing.

Davis Guggenheim's documentary is based mostly on Gore's multimedia presentation on climate change, a lecture he has delivered hundreds of times in recent months. While Gore is managing the show with powerful efficiency, there is nothing dry or tired about it. The film is virtually flawless, even some of the cornier visuals fit in. Gore's personal remarks are affecting: the death of his sister from lung cancer, after lifelong smoking, forced the family - after generations of tobacco-growing in Tennessee - to quit the business. No overt statement is heard, but there is an inevitable comparison with the world's addiction to many activities directly contributing to climate change.

Political references are at a minimum. The only strong criticism of the Bush presidency is in the context of the Republican rejection of the Kyoto Treaty, making the US one of two countries in the world to do so (Australia is the other one). Following a huge list of countries paying at least lip service to the cause of climate control under the treaty, Gore shows a similarly large list of US cities where local government is taking measures not supported by Washington.

Gore is clear about the danger of being overwhelmed by the danger of what's happening, and he concludes the film by saying that going from denial to despair without pausing to see what can be done is the wrong course of action, or rather inaction. "Political will," Gore says, "is a renewable resource." Gently, but firmly, he calls for attention to a clear and present danger that cannot be ignored... even if faith-based denial of the evidence before us remains largely the order of the day, with all the comfort of darkness behind closed eyes. An alternative is at http://www.climatecrisis.net/.