Film Reviews

An Inconvenient Truth

• Rating:
• Director: Davis Guggenheim
• Starring:
• Details: US / 100mins (G).

Mother Nature is mad as hell and she's not going to take it anymore. Former presidential candidate Al Gore was always fascinated with the effects of global warming and even George Bush is quoted to have said "This guy is so far out in the environmental extreme, we'll be up to our necks in owls and outta work for every American. He is way out, far out, man". It's true, America doesn't like extremists and Al Gore is intense when he talks about the environment. Gore likes to sensationalise the effects of global warming but, as he points out himself, being nice about it isn't getting us anywhere and if the images of eroding glaciers and disappearing lakes taken at ten year intervals won't shock you, nothing will. An Inconvenient Truth is "like a nature hike through the Book of Revelations" and if that seems a little sensational, then just watch the images that Gore flashes on the screen. With only a nod to the Florida debacle of 2000, Gore keeps party politics out of his lesson and concentrates on what will benefit us all in the long run. If the thought of sitting through a documentary filled with charts and figures doesn't appeal, Gore is engaging enough to let the time slide by; like sitting in a lecture hall, listening to a charismatic professor telling us about something that affects us all.

Review by Gavin Burke