Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this film introduces complicated scientific, political, and social issues (most prominently, the arguments surrounding global warming and environmental pollution), which will likely go over the heads of the youngest kids. While Al Gore explains his points with colorful graphics (cartoons, graphs, "nature" footage), the statistics and argument strategies may be boring for younger viewers, too. The movie includes images of the aftermath of Katrina, as well as references to other disasters (a 2003 European heat wave that left 35,000 dead). Animated sequences show mild violence (ozone-attacking sunbeams, a frog almost boiling, a weary polar bear unable to find solid ice on which to rest). It also includes sections on the death of Gore's sister from lung cancer (photos of her as he talks about missing her and the damage done by cigarette smoking) and on Gore's young son's near death in a car accident (viewers see no specifics, mostly haunting, empty hospital corridors and Gore looking sad).
Families can discuss the debate over global warming, and whether it results from human excesses or inevitable natural changes. They might discuss the film's presentation of conflicts between economic and environmental needs, the U.S. role in pollution and global warming, and accusations by some politicians (shown briefly in the film) that global warming is a hoax.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
Plainspoken and passionate, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH tracks Al Gore's efforts to convince people that global warming is an immediate, dire, and still fixable problem. Well-paced and galvanizing, the movie suggests he's finally found his calling, beyond political backrooms and official chambers, in the bright light of a cause that moves him.
Gore is alternately grave, impressive, and even funny as he makes clear the stakes he sees in changing human consuming habits. He introduces himself as "the man who used to be the next President of the United States," standing straight and designer-suited, looking out on an auditorium filled with deferential listeners. Now that he's lost a presidential contest and done a couple of Saturday Night Lives, Gore is now more determined than ever to "get [his] message across."
He's packaged that message into a slide show that, he says, he's performed more than 1000 times over the years. Not to be confused with his appearance on a Futurama episode about global warming, the movie argues that global warming is a man-made phenomenon, backing that claim with charts and graphs and statistics, as well as before and after shots of glaciers, once snowy mountains, and once full lakes. Whatever you believe about the causes of global warming, the film insists that you acknowledge its existence.
The movie occasionally leans too hard on sentimental devices, as when Gore looks repeatedly out windows while his voiceover narrates his concerns over a receding natural world. A more awkward section has Gore explaining his decision to turn his energies to the environment, because, he says, his young son was nearly killed in a car accident; while the trauma and effects are surely moving, the black and white imagery and sad music feel more exploitative than explanatory.
Still, the movie makes you think, especially about how you might have effects not only on your local environment -- recycling, reducing oil and electric consumption -- but also how you might become involved in more expansive projects, and consider yourself part of a broader, even worldwide community. That Al Gore provokes such thinking with what amounts to a lecture is no small feat.
Families who like this movie might also want to see other documentaries, like March of the Penguins and The Living Sea, the action film The Day After Tomorrow, or the animated film, The Wild Thornberrys.
Rate It!
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ViolenceImages of environmental devastation, including post-Katrina footage (bodies floating); heat-wave effects (mostly numbers of people who died in France, 2003); melting polar ice caps (a polar bear looks sad as it tries to find ice on which to rest, but must keep swimming); an animated frog almost boils in a beaker; Gore discusses shooting his rifle as a boy; a flashback sequence shows Gore worried about his six-year-old son, who almost died in a car accident. |
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LanguageOne use of "damn." |
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Social BehaviorGore's argument -- that global warming is a result of past and current energy abuses -- is not believed by everyone. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoJoke about an old classmate now being a "drug addict" (appears to be facetious); archival footage includes images of cigarettes being manufactured and ads where doctors endorse cigarettes; Gore discusses his family's roots in the tobacco industry (as farmers), his sister's smoking and her consequent death from lung cancer. |
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