An Inconvenient Truth: Must See for Democrats, Republicans would prefer The Omen remake

I will start off with my full disclosure on this movie review since any former national office holder is a lightning rod, even when giving the time of day. First, Al Gore is on the board of directors at Apple, my primary employer, so the Right-Wing Noise Machine will claim that I’m indirectly on “his payroll.” Second, I didn’t vote for him in 2000 because I live in Texas, a place with an inherent hatred of democracy in its DNA, thus I cast my vote for Nader with the intent to boost the Green Party. However, I was always biased toward him winning the presidency over Bush, I just knew voting for Gore wouldn’t matter in Texas due to the volume of Republicans, Dixiecrats and NeoConfederates. 
 
With the disclosure out of the way, I can focus on the film, not entirely on its lead “actor.” 
 
An Inconvenient Truth is Al Gore’s presentation on Global Warming that he has given to live audiences for years. The people behind the film’s production (Gore included) have most of one particular presentation captured to reach a wider, larger audience faster and more easily. More easily? What’s an better way to see a politician speak; in a movie theater or trying to get one of the few seats remaining at some university’s auditorium? The movie isn’t exclusively 100 minutes of Gore speaking and showing slides from his PowerBook. There are breaks covering his upbringing, his sister’s death from lung cancer, his son being hit by a car in 1989, his travels around the world giving the presentation to people outside the US and of course, the whole 2000 election debacle. The presidency being handed to Bush on a silver platter by the Supreme Court will always be tied to Gore, it’s as unavoidable as asking Seth McFarlane (creator and voice actor of Family Guy) about how he feels over his near-death experience on September 11. 
 
How well does this work as a documentary? For me, it’s pretty decent. Gore is clear, concise and pretty passionate about Global Warming. He’s even funny and uses a scene from Futurama to illustrate his overall point about the subject and the current administration’s stance. He does some name dropping of scientists (Carl Sagan being one) as his friends but then again, name a politician who doesn’t. Oh wait, when there’s indictments and convictions involved, Bush suddenly never knew Ken Lay and Jack Abramoff. Overall, it’s a documentary showing a presentation (or to Gore’s critics, a lecture) with segues about the host’s background. It just has high production values unlike the same recording one would normally see on Public Access or a college-class podcast. That’s the best impartial review I can give. 
 
Now as a Democrat, I found myself growing angry at Gore and the jackass campaign staff (namely Donna Bazile and Bob Shrum) for losing the 2000 election to a man who couldn’t even be the successful president of a frathouse. Admittedly, Gore has done this Global Warming bit for years so he’s perfected his presentation technique to show the world he’s not stiff, robotic and patronizing. Yet I honestly don’t feel his passion, concern and time are disingenuous on this. He’s a former vice president and he could be making millions more using his past to shill for numerous corporations, playing golf all day and hiding from further public scrutiny like Ford, Bush the Elder and Quayle do. Reagan only campaigned for further Alzheimer’s research because it was killing him, unlike HIV/AIDS. If Gore had only fired those handlers that only specialize in losing elections to gay-bashing, race-baiting, class-warfare Republicans and showed the American people this side of him, he would’ve won 2000 handily without having to fight over the inevitable screwing he got on Florida. Then again, what’s the point? Our lazy, celebrity-obsessed media would still follow the Republican script of saying Gore is a liar, wonk, patrician and android while Bush is just a “regular joe you’d want to drink a beer with,” if he weren’t a former drunk. 
 
I apologize for falling off the wagon on politics regarding my site. There just is no way to review this film like it were the latest X-Men sequel. Could one say the same thing of Michael Moore’s work or something sympathetic to Rush Limbaugh’s drug addiction? No. People are going to see the movie with their minds made up already. The camp I belong to are going to see this to gather ammo against the doubters of Global Warming, pretty much people who don’t listen to scientists but economists and pundits for a counterpoint because they’ve had no success finding a credible scientist. The remaining minority going to this are the usual Gore-, Green- and Liberal-haters looking for some kind of gotcha’ to use against Global Warming. I’m sure they’ll find it but it’ll be the usual imagained “fact” or something pulled out of context like Gore inventing the Internet. I genuinely liked An Inconvenient Truth warts and all. I bought the companion book to it. I will never apologize for what I try to do to help combat the Earth’s decline. The movie ends on a high note too. Gore says, political will is a renewable resource and getting the US to being a Carbon-Neutral producer isn’t as expensive or as difficult as his detractors say through a handful of little changes (appliances, power sources, etc.). The closing credits show other additional minor and major changes you can make to turn the tide against Global Warming.