Director: Davis Guggenheim.
Presented and written by: Al Gore.
I honestly cannot remember if I saw this at it's time of release or not. I think I did, but then I don't think it got the worldwide big screen release here in the UK back then. One thing I am certain of, is that once I had watched this film, I watched it again and urged everyone I knew to watch it, possibly to the level to putting people off watching it, making my efforts counter productive. "Oh, don't get him started." Either way, this still remains to be my favourite documentary of all time. I always struggle with any other genre of film, possibly picking an essential list of any one genre; and yes, I have many favourites and essential must-see feature length documentaries, but this is the absolute paramount, that if I could only keep one documentary, this is that one without a moment to think about it.
I cannot stress the importance of this documentary enough and it seriously needs to be seen by everyone as a matter of fact, a matter of urgency and a matter of utmost important education. It's a milestone that future generations will look back to as either a blessing or as a failure depending on how we, this generation respond now. The documentary about climate change, the evident global warming and the disastrous effects it is causing to our planet.
It won not one, but two Oscars, one for Best Documentary and the other for Best Original Song going to Melissa Etheridge for her track "I Need To Wake Up". The first and only documentary to win two Academy Awards. It also earned Gore a Noble Peace Prize along with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a Grammy award for best spoken word album for the book version of this film.
If you're not familiar with American politics, you might wonder who Al Gore is and was, and even if you do know him as the 45th Vice President of the United States between 1993 and 2001 under the Clinton administration, you might think he was doing this for a presidential campaign. But environmental issues such as this has always been at the forefront of Gore's campaign. It's not a recent endeavour but something he's passionately pursued and pushed since college, some 40 years ago now, possibly before climate change was such a debatable topic. He attended a class in his senior year at Harvard, where Oceanographer and global warming pioneer, Roger Revelle would plant the seed. He doesn't claim to be a scientist but he's the strongest advocate for climate change there is and has challenged world powers, including his own administration. He knows the facts and has seen the proof; and, like any strong political candidate, he can cite these and converse without notes or a teleprompter.
We get a insight and understanding of his motives and influences behind his personal mission. It's presented in, quite simply a presentation way, an illustrated talk show with snippets of some astonishing and revealing video footage and photographic evidence. Some might think it's too much Gore, but in reality, when compared what what the man has actually been involved with and achieved, it clearly isn't. Otherwise he would gloat about how he organise the first hearings on global warming, enforcing carbon taxation and even help broker the Kyoto Protocol back in 1997 not to mention the The Gore Bill of 1991.
He comes in at all angles, covering the economics pressures but what is to gain. The geographical and ecological decline and where we're heading if we continue. He touched on the global population, and how everything, industrial, food production and disease is all related to climate change. And whilst the subject matter is horrifying, he does manage to deliver it in a friendly, personal yet still powerful and passionate approach; with the help of some funny antidotes.
It's titled The Inconvenient Truth because it's a massive Inconvenience to the profit farmers of the capitalist world. I.e, it would strip them of their business opportunities and current foundation of a multi billion dollar industry. I don't think people can fully comprehend the enormous wealth that thrives on oils, which might give us the motives as to why some people, not all, would object and oppose this documentary, and we should question who's to gain out of all this, and probably what's more pivotal to this global issue, is who is to lose the most, showing how very profit orientated the capitalist world is.
Some, unsurprisingly a small few can have their arguments against this, but I urge you to watch this before you question anything around the topic and you're more than likely to find your answer here. I'm sorry if you are already not of these people but those who denial global warming, I would place in the same camp along with holocaust and dinosaur deniers and those that believe this world is flat. Many people have scorn Gore and team as hypocrites, and I can understand why, flying around the world in private jets making his own carbon footprint much larger than the average person. But this film, with the work of NativeEnergy had already devised a plan to offset the negative emissions transforming them into investments for renewable energy, making this a carbon-neutral film. So stick that in your solar panel and burn it.
I think it's fair to say this film had an incredible impact on me, making want to recycle more with majority of my friends thinking I'm obsessed with recycling, and have even jokingly suggested I go see the doctors. But I would be more worried about the magazines left in the waiting area. Ive slowly changed my diet, though I cannot see myself even becoming a vegetarian let alone a vegan, but I have made some changes. It made me highly conscious of energy usage and waste, switching to more energy efficient products and appliances and trying not to leave things on stand-by.
But what about the rest of the world? The film production company behind this doc, Participate Media, donated 50,000 copies to the National Science Teachers Association, the Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero purchased 30,000 DVDs for their schools, DVDs that was packaged in 100% recycled material and the UK incorporated into their secondary school's science curriculum. Australia along with the USA, were the only two countries not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol but a year after this release, Australian PM Rudd signed the treaty. And this was just the beginning.
This is a must-see documentary and I implore everyone to watch it. It's a film that needs to be apart all of school and college curriculums being highly educational and loaded with shocking revelations and evidence. And if it isn't, then I beg to wonder as to why we would not want to educate our future generations of the consequences that are to come. It's a documentary that should not be ignored or overlooked.
The reason behind this being the absolute paramount documentary , is because it's the one that concerns us all, regardless of faith, race, sexually orientation, dietary requirements, political allegiances. It doesn't matter who or where you are, young, old, rich or poor, single or married with four children and a dog. This film is for EVERYONE to watch because it effects us all; because the one thing we all have in common, is that we share the share planet.
Running Time: 9
The Cast: 9
Performance: 10
Direction: 10
Story: 10
Script: 10
Creativity: 9
Soundtrack: 10
Job Description: 10
The Extra Bonus Point: 10 for being absolutely groundbreaking and being the most powerful and inspiring documentary out there.
97% 10/10
