An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary that amplifies and converts into an international campaign Al Gore’s personal crusade to make global warming a recognized problem worldwide.

Al Gore, who introduces himself at the beginning of the documentary with the now famous “I was the next president of the United States”, is the single protagonist of An Inconvenient Truth, directed by Davis Guggenheim.

If you have arrived at this Internet site perhaps you are well-informed of the campaign of Clinton’s former Vice President, who has given more than a thousand conferences to raise consciousness among the worldwide population about the urgency to confront climate change.

An Inconvenient Truth explains, with the simplicity of a good speaker with innate communicative gifts, an argument with scientific foundation. “It is now clear that we face a deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly, and wisely.”

Though Gore’s ability to convert complex speeches into attractive messages works in the documentary, it also makes clear that his intellectual superiority over other politicians was confused for arrogance in the presidential campaign that he lost by a few thousand “conflictive” votes in Florida to George W. Bush.

The election team of his opponent, headed by Karl Rove, knew to take advantage, among the less urban electorate of the Midwest, of the supposedly arrogant, overly-educated Gore causing him to lose votes that perhaps would have achieved what has yet to come to fruition: that the United States not only signs the Kyoto Treaty, but ratifies it and puts it into practice.

As Gore explains in the documentary, whose simplicity and pleasantness are to the credit of Davis Guggenheim, his unexpected defeat in the 2000 elections allowed him to dedicate more time to speak freely and honestly about global warming, why it occurs and why it should become a problem and a priority of worldwide scope.

Al Gore has followed the evolution of global warming since 1970, when to defend this type of theory was more the domain of little-published scientists and so-called treehuggers, or militant ecologists of American counterculture, some of whom have tried to prevent the destruction of forests by living in trees for months.

Whether or not you like the simplicity of the format, it doesn’t leave space for metaphor or the personal taste of Guggenheim, but solely for the power of the content and Gore’s oratory skills. (His speaking prowess is comparable to those of the charismatic co-founder and present CEO of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs. Al Gore only is not personal friend of Jobs, but he has been a member of the board of this computer business since 2003.)

The movies expository capacity is driven by its concise messages and reinforced with a mixture of interludes to lighten the content – an always well-chosen set of slides, next to some practical speech or unexpected intervention of some colleague or employee.

The repercussions

In August of 2006, An Inconvenient Truth surpassed Bowling for Columbine at the box office to become the third most successful documentary in U.S. history.  Gore has also published a book that, under the same title, delivers the same message as the movie, as a type of print transcription of the documentary.

Coinciding with the launch of the film, in May 13, 2006, Gore took advantage of the opportunity of being promoted on the most-recognized comedy TV show in North America, Saturday Night Live, where he took part in a sketch about becoming the president of the United States in a “Parallel World”, after winning the elections of 2000.

In this parallel world, Gore assures that the government managed to stop global warming; George W. Bush has dedicated himself professionally to the promotion of baseball; the welfare state and Social Security have been prioritized and the United States enjoys quality universal health care; among other sarcastic exercises of perspective.

Many of his compatriots would have been pleased if Gore’s Parallel Land from Saturday Night Live could have been the real one.

An Inconvenient Truth won the 2007 Oscar for best documentary feature.

Technical Facts

• Title: An Inconvenient Truth
• Director: Davis Guggenheim
• Company: Paramount Pictures
• Genre: documentary
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• Year: 2006