An Inconvenient Truth: A Review

So I've been hearing all the buzz and hoopla surrounding Al Gore's Oscar-nominated documentary An Inconvenient Truth and it's been one of those movies I have both looked forward to and dreaded, if that makes sense. I had a pretty good feel for the science behind all the global-warming crusaders and really had no reason to feel they were wrong. But it has been such a topic of conversation lately in so many places, especially talk radio, that I had just grown weary of the whole thing.

Additionally, Al Gore has always gotten on my nerves for some reason. Some of that is pre-conceived opinions based mainly on Darrell Hammond's droll impersonation on Saturday Night Live for so many years. He just seemd boring I suppose. It's not that I disagree with him politically in most cases; I just couldn't imagine he could hold my interest for the length of the movie. I was wrong.

I found myself unfairly lumping this movie- and by association Gore- in with Michael Moore and his increasingly higher levels of insanity. Moore was brilliant with Roger and Me and some subsequent docs, but his manic, disheveled persona has veered into cartoonland. He is the anti-Rush Limbaugh and is equally irritating to me. So anyway, his recent crap had left a bad taste in my mouth and I was afraid Gore was going to tread there as well.

This movie made me sad, angry and frightened all at once. I understand there are more people than not who consider the subject matter to be a simple political issue; the usual Republican versus Democrat and Conservative versus Liberal line that somehow every issue seems to be assigned. The manner in which Gore presents the data is both understandable and sufficiently detailed to make a strong case in favor of humankind's direct and catastrophic contribution to global climate changes. To make it a "He's wrong because he's a Democrat/Liberal" argument is insane, more so when you take into account the recent opinions the recently released IPCC report gives regarding the issue. They only reinforce the data Gore presents here.