Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Ray Pridecia Vidal

An Inconvenient Truth

Directed by David Guggenheim

It's difficult to understand why the distributors of these decidedly eco-friendly documentaries weren't released ahead of the recent midterm elections. Perhaps, they anticipated the outcome and feared being accused of piling on Republican candidates. Why own a weapon if you're not prepared to use it, though?

In addition to building a solid case for the dangers posed by global warming and unchecked industrial development, David Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth helped prove that Al Gore wasn't a robot, after all. Apparently, somewhere between the time he was cheated out of the presidency and the launch of his far-flung environmental crusade, the No. 2 guy in the Clinton administration successfully underwent a personality transplant. Global warming was a seemingly non-partisan problem, about which he could expound with authority, intelligence and unforced humor. Thus, An Inconvenient Truth successfully made two points simultaneously, without putting its intended audience to sleep. Only time will tell if Gore's dire predictions will translate into a global disaster. If he's right, however, something more than a calendar will be needed to reverse centuries of misguided policy.