A global warning on global warming.
In An Inconvenient Truth, director Davis Guggenheim brings us a surprisingly gripping documentary about the slide presentation on global warming that former Vice President Al Gore has been giving around the world for years.
That the words “Al Gore” and “gripping” could even appear in the same sentence is a shock to many, let alone in the context of a documentary about environmental issues. But all the hype is true. Gone is the excruciatingly wooden, heavily-made up candidate from the controversial 2000 Presidential election. In his place, the team from An Inconvenient Truth shows you the Gore democrats wish the voting public had seen—a comfortable, enthusiastic, and dare we say personable man at his best standing on a podium in front of hundreds of people. In fact, the documentary is so compelling that it just made the shortlist for documentaries being considered for nomination for this year’s Oscars by the Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences.
At its core, An Inconvenient Truth is basically an accessible college lecture given by what would surely be everyone’s favorite professor. It is full of scientific facts covering all aspects of global warming—from the melting of the ice caps to all the natural disasters of recent years to species loss and diseases such as SARS and West Nile Virus. Gore makes it his goal to cover all possible bases, so as to have the best chance at convincing even the most stalwart of global warning skeptics that this threat is a very real one.
Interspersed between the key parts of Gore’s presentation, snippets about his life (growing up on a tobacco farm, his son’s near-fatal childhood accident, and devastation of the 2000 election) help move the story forward and keep viewers from being totally overwhelmed at all the data coming their way.
Most importantly, the movie comes with a call to action. Instead of feeling powerless in the face of such a terrifying obstacle, Gore presents viewers with a variety of changes—big and small—they can make to reverse the course of global warming. Whether or not you love documentaries about environmental threats, An Inconvenient Truth definitely packs the power to stir its audience. After seeing this DVD, you’re going to want to run out and buy yourself some energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs, at the very least.
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What’s On the Disc
The packaging of this DVD is a little more significant than the extras it features. True to Gore’s carbon-neutral ideals, An Inconvenient Truth dispenses with the plastic casing and instead comes in a recycled paper case that lists 10 ways viewers can help stop global warming.
On the disc itself is one commentary by director Davis Guggenheim and another by the producers (Laurie David, Lawrence Bender, Scott Z. Burns, and Lesley Chilcott). There is a featurette on the making of the movie, as well as a music video by Melissa Etheridge with the movie’s theme song, I Need to Wake Up.
But most importantly, the half-hour long Update with Former Vice-President Al Gore catches viewers up with yet more global warming-related data and advances that have come forth in the year since the movie was first out.