Sunday, January 28, 2007

An Inconvenient Truth

Did you ever think the day would come when I'd say I'm thinking of giving up my car? True story. That's how persuasive An Inconvenient Truth is. More to the point, that's how persuasive Al Gore is. It's been said before, but seriously, if Al had been this funny and intelligent and not so stiff when he was running for president, he could have won. Nay, he WOULD have won!
But back to the movie - Al makes it pretty obvious that we are fucking up our planet. All the bad things we are doing, from burning fossil fuels to not recycling and all the other things that fall in the spectrum of "inconsequential" to "huge," are leading us on the path to destruction. When he shows the projected image of what the Florida, San Francisco and Manhattan will look like if the ocean water level rises due to icecaps melting, it's astounding. And it's not just that it could happen. It WILL happen.
OK, still not really talking about the movie, am I? Al Gore is a fantastic narrator and speaker. He's both witty and forceful, and he has the information to back up his claims. Also, interspersed throughout the film are breaks from the lecture, where the audience gets to see a more personal side of Al Gore. This is very effective - it makes the drama of the global perspective that much more powerful.
I have to go recycle now.

An Inconvenient Truth - A-

3 comments:

equippedtofascinate said...

I've wanted to see this movie for a long time, but haven't yet. I've heard before that it is physically impossible for a race to destroy itself, be it human or otherwise. Before that can happen, people/animals/etc, will begin to die off from exposure, starvation, etc. It's always fascinated me because I feel if we don't change what we are doing, we will kill ourselves, but then I wonder if it is truely possible to destroy the entire human race by our own devices.

Anonymous said...

I always thought "The Day After Tomorrow" should be a companion piece with "An Inconvenient Truth".

Frannie Farmer said...

I haven't seen it yet either ... not sure I want to, because then I would feel all guilty and stuff and have to change my ways - blech, where the fun in that?
Joking aside, I have heard terrific things about this movie - and Al.