An Inconvenient Truth is a hard film to watch.  Many of the facts and evidence brought up by Former Vice President Al Gore in defense of the massive amount of affirming scientific research advocating the impending threat of Global Climate Change are chilling as they are convincing.  In the massive wealth of scientific data Gore brings up, it’s hard to see how Climate Deniers have any real argument outside of pathetic rhetorical hand wringing.  However, Truth is hard to watch for the other reason that it is absurdly boring.  Most of the film is a long dry poorly shot power point presentation with some of the more boring graphics ever designed.  It seemed at times that this would be more fitting to be taking place in a large stale office in some accounting firm in New Jersey rather than a polemic on the dangers of poor treatment of the environment.  Gore also lacks a certain human charisma, maybe because of his years as a politician, maybe because of just being a boring person altogether.  However, the effect is the same.  It’s hard to listen to him drone on in the same pseudo-southern drawl for nearly two hours.  There are small glimpses at a life beyond the headlines with the story of his son nearly dying or how he learned how to love the environment while living on his grandfather’s ranch, but the sincerity of these moments are underpinned by their relative unimportance in the story or message of the film and the lame way in which they are presented, using typical flashback clichés such as distortion, short confusing clips, and worst of all, voice over.  Voice overs only work when the voice actor has a good or interesting inflection, brining character.  When the voice is a slow dry old guy rambling about cows, it really doesn’t serve the same purpose.  Overall, the formal elements of the film rarely, if ever, demonstrate or use cinematic techniques to tell the story. 

     Likewise, the message or diatribe of the film is equally as lackluster.  For the entire film, Gore rambles on about how Global Warming is slowly destroying the Earth.  It’s important to understand the context of when a film was made to better understand it.  in the early 2000’s, many politicians and major media makers weren’t paying attention to the growing threat of Global Climate Change.  Gore, a life long environmental advocate in the Senate and then as Vice President, wanted to increase the knowledge and threat of Climate Change by using his celebrity and political know-how to get the message out.  As a piece of instructional media, the film follows much like an instructional video or college lecture, which is effective at the base level understanding of climate change.  But, and this is a big but, Truth actively works to skirt the causes and creators of climate change by refusing to commit to a clear political political message outside of that Global Warming is bad.  It is true that the polar bears are dying and glaciers are melting, thus raising sea levels, but if you don’t actively describe why or how that is happening, then what does it even matter that all that other stuff is happening.  Also, Truth offers no conciliatory framework how to address and deal with these problems, as is necessary in any political text to ensure that reform is made.  Instead, the audience gets small tips and tricks how to reduce their “footprint” and make themselves feel better as the polluters get to keep polluting and the Earth’s biosphere dive bombs into a lifeless wasteland.