A Gore-y Shocker
George W. Bush expressed doubt that he'd watch this documentary
| 13 Sep 2006
The presenter of this documentary introduces himself thusly: "I'm Al Gore. I used to be the next President of the United States." It gets a laugh ("I don't see why that's funny" he retorts) but the subject is a serious one – global warming. Gore has a background in environmental issues, having initiated the first congressional hearing on global warming and written a book about the issue in 1992 entitled 'Earth in the Balance'. The film is adapted from his lecture (efficiently illustrated with clips, quotes, and statistics) which he took to giving around the world after losing the presidential election in 2000. It sets out to show that the climate is changing for the worse, what the consequences could be, and what we can do about it. The tagline, appropriately enough, is 'By far the most terrifying film you will ever see'. But this hasn't put people off – the film got three standing ovations after it was screened at Sundance, reviews have been very, very complimentary, and the accompanying book topped the New York Times bestseller list.
One might imagine from all this that people realise what a serious issue the environment has become. George W. Bush, however, expressed doubt that he'd watch this documentary. No one was expecting miracles. Still, Gore is hoping to make some progress, and has promised to begin doing so by donating all of his earnings from the film and the book to environmental education programmes. The film's distributors, Paramount, followed suit with a pledge to donate 5% of the theatrical gross to these same programmes. And that's no small thing, given that the film is the fourth highest grossing documentary released in North America to date. All of which is to say that 'An Inconvenient Truth' might not just be worth passing your time with, it might actually be important.
One might imagine from all this that people realise what a serious issue the environment has become. George W. Bush, however, expressed doubt that he'd watch this documentary. No one was expecting miracles. Still, Gore is hoping to make some progress, and has promised to begin doing so by donating all of his earnings from the film and the book to environmental education programmes. The film's distributors, Paramount, followed suit with a pledge to donate 5% of the theatrical gross to these same programmes. And that's no small thing, given that the film is the fourth highest grossing documentary released in North America to date. All of which is to say that 'An Inconvenient Truth' might not just be worth passing your time with, it might actually be important.