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An Inconvenient Truth

Synopsis:

Former vice-president Al Gore presents a documentary shoot, capturing his presentation on the devastating effects of global warming.

Review:

As someone who collects activist documentaries, I have been looking forward to the chance to see Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth for months, so I leapt at the chance to go to this press screening, even though 5.30pm is an inconvenient time.

Boy, was this movie weird: really good and really bad. Basically, it is a video of a slideshow that Al Gore delivers around the world, interspersed with footage from his life and childhood.

First of all, Al Gore is the greatest PowerPoint person in the UNIVERSE. Seriously, if I was that good at public speaking, I would run for President. He takes the global warming issue apart, and explains each bit so that you not only get it, but that you care about it in exactly the way he wants you to care about it. Which is no mean feat, as this movie is stuffed with science and you still walk about feeling like you’ve got it.

That was the really good bit. The really bad bits were the bits about his life. They were chair-writhingly unnecessary, over-scripted and annoying. Honestly, great swathes of footage are wasted on thoughtful poses of Al in front of his iMac… and why? It didn’t add to the movie at all. Unless of course he is planning to make a presidential comeback as the Enviro-Martyr once New Orleans becomes the New Orleans Bay. But then couldn’t he have just put those scenes in the US version?

Bottom line? Go see it. It’s your best shot at a comprehensive Global Warming 101 lecture, which, let’s face it – we all need.

And, if you are now feeling prickles of enviro-panic, assuage yourself by visiting www.climatecrisis.net and finding out what you personally can do to reduce global warming.

- Sam Wilson

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