In this(not so) thrilling documentary former U.S vice president Al gore presents the hard hitting facts on global warming and what we need to do about it. An uplifting spectacle or a desperate appeal for attention find out in this review of Al Gore's An Inconvenient truth.
Overview
An Inconvenient truth is a documentary about Al Gore campaigning to raise awareness about global warming.The documentary focuses on global warming and its effects. It was filmed in 2005 and released in 2006 and director Davis Guggenheim complies locations from Al Gore's global warming seminars from mainly the U.S.A but a few other locations, like Japan.While mr. Guggenheim may have techniquely directed this Al Gore's voice is the one that comes through
Basic arguments
Al Gore's main argument is that we are the cause of global warming and that we need to stop. Throughout the documentary he bombards the audience with various facts and statistics that give evidence to the increase of C02 in the atmosphere and shows what has and will continue to happen to the earth if we don't do something. He claims that it will lead to melting of the polar ice caps and subsequent flooding of earth, the death of several endangered species, the rise of many invasive species( mosquitoes longhorn beetle), the ruining of the landscape and the overall destruction of our planet. In conclusion it all comes down to global warming is serious its happening right now and we need to do something soon.
Audience appeal
An inconvenient truth appeals a lot to people's inner environmentalist and perceives its solutions as not only necessary but easy. At the end of the film Al gore list was we can reduce our carbon footprint, and help diminish C02 in the atmosphere. He gives a ink to a website with information on ways to reduce our carbon footprint and ultimately put an end to global warming. the documentary clearly wants people to take a stand and through their actions force the governments into take this issue seriously and make it a global effort to maintain our enviroment.
Persuasive appeal
An Inconvenient Truth utilizes all 3 persuasive techniques to a certain degree. Al gore displays ethos through his constant reminders of political career and vice presidential position. He even cleverly starts off his documentary by saying "I'm Al Gore the man who uses to be the next president of the United States" by making this joke he lightens the mood a bit while establishing his credibility as someone to be listened to. He also uses a fair amount of pathos too. In certain segments he takes the documentary away from his global warming seminars to gives a bit of his life story. In these segments we see things like a his son being in an accident, his childhood friend dieing of cancer losing the 2004 election and being harshly criticized by bush and his supporters. There is pathos to be found on the global warming side too, like the polar bears who are dying due to lack of ice. But most dominant in the film is the use of logos. The whole documentary is chart after statistic after study, Al gore use charts to show the increase of C02 in recent years to predict flooding and the amount of hrricanes. Gore uses any numbers that help prove his point and show what is is saying is not speculation but logic based fact.
Bias
Al Gore is not what we can call a neutral party. He is the co -founder of Generation Investment Management an organization that is looking to regulate climate change. He is also critical of the way the government at the time was apparently ignoring the global warming epidemic. The government that was being led by George W.Bush who happened to barely beat Al gore in the 2004 election. Al gore views global warming as a no-brainier case and claims to discredit the evidence against it But he never actually stops to explain what some of the opposition is he just moves on and expects us to fully believe he is right. He might make a mention of argument here in there but it usually just to transition to the next statistic.Al Gore is not interested in a balanced discussion , he's interested in your undivided approval.
The Inconvenient Untruths
As I indicated in the last section, Al Gore does not provide a fair or balanced description on the threat on global warming and relies on a lot of exaggeration or speculation instead of pure scientific fact. In fact the film was actually taken to court over a UK school official not wanting to show the film to his students. The judged ruled while the documentary was broadly accurate it contained 9 alleged errors. Here are some of the following. Al Gore claimed the sea would rise up to 20 ft when Antarctica or Greenland melted in the near future(about 20-50 years), this devistation would take at least a millennia. He claims Lake Chad in Africa dried up due to global warming, when evidence points much more to overgrazing, population increase and other human factors. Al Gore also claims that hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming when there is insufficient evidence to make that claim. these are just a few of the outrageous claims made in An inconvenient truth and it really destroys a lot of the urgency and danger of the issue when so much data has exaggerated or practically made up. Al Gore thinks he can fool you with fancy speaking and impressive loking chart but if you look deep enough you can see the blatant propaganda that comes from his film.
Impact
overall An inconvenient truth is a paranoid alarmist publicity scheme. It's a terribly one sided view on global warming and shows you more of Al Gore's personal life and political career than footage for the focus of te documentary. The fil should have been caled Al Gore:the Movie because it's a desperate ploy for attention and way to make himself relevant after losing the a presidential election. I could forgive all that if it was very engaging and provided in depth and new scientific angles on global warming, it does neither. There is nothing interesting about an Inconvenient truth because it is just one long seminar. We treated to charts and slideshows the entire way through and nothing else besides Gore's autobiography.Since the documentary is so boring and one-note it doesn't leave much of an impact. I don't feel any more inclined to do any more for the environment than I( was already doing.In conclusion An inconvenient truth is dull, uninteresting piece of cinema that while intending to save the world provided to be something the world didn't need.
Works Cited
An inconvenient truth.Dir. Davis Guggenheim.perf. Al Gore. Paramount Vantage. 2006. film retrieved from http://putlocker.is/watch-an-inconvenient-truth-online-free-putlocker.html
Baram,Marcus.An inconvenient verdict for Al gore.abcnews. ABC.12 Oct. 2007. web. 11 Jan. 2015
Peck,Sally. Al Gore's 'nine Inconvenient Untruths'. the telegraph. n.p. 11 Oct 2007. web. 11 Jan. 2015
By Elijah Mourillon amateur critc
