An Inconvenient Truth

I was among the first to watch Al Gore's new documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, when I attended a preview of the soon-to-be-released movie. Al Gore was to speak at a global warming conference I was attending, but he had to cancel at the last minute (not clear why he canceled: some thought it had to do with a union strike at the site of the conference, but the movie is premiering at Cannes this week, so maybe he was just looking for an excuse to be somewhere more important). Since Gore couldn't make it, he sent his film instead, which will open sometime this summer. The showing was VIP only, but me and my friend Aaron managed to sneak in (I found a janitor who told me how to get in the backdoor - janitors usually know everything!).

No one should use a four-syllable word in the title of a movie, but perhaps its appropriate for the wonkish Gore. The movie is about his attempt to educate the public about global warming. He talks a lot about the evidence and causes - but little about solutions or promising new technologies. In hindsight, the absence of proposed solutions makes the movie seem somewhat dreary. Gore's knowledge on the topic is pretty solid and he does a good job of explaining many of the nuances of global warming and makes no major errors. I thought his explanation of the mechanics of global warming was dumbed down too much, but maybe that's fine for the average viewer.

Too much of the movie felt like a political advertisement for how great Al Gore is and all the great things he's done. On several occasions, the movie tries to tie in events of his life to the story of his crusade to save the world. The story about his son's car accident seems irrelevant, while the story about his sister's bout with lung cancer worked well (especially because it worked with the theme of breathing).

I hope a lot of people watch this movie and learn something, only I figure it probably won't reach many mainstream conservative voters who might stand to learn the most.