A global warning from Al Gore

Documentaries are slowly making their way into multiplexes and are becoming the trendiest new form of cinema. Each year one or two popular documentaries are met by varied responses from movie theater audiences.

The first offering of the year delves into a topic that is becoming an increasingly heated debate with each passing sunny day: global warming. The popularity of Davis Guggenheim's Oscar-nominated "An Inconvenient Truth" doesn't spring from the fact that it's a great documentary or the result of extensive research. The film's popularity has risen mostly from its narrator, former U.S. Vice-President and presidential candidate Al Gore, along with the grave nature of its subject matter.

Documentaries are the new independent films. Making their way slowly into the multiplexes, the documentary is becoming the hip new form of cinema. Thanks to Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," released in 2002, each year one or two popular documentaries are met by varied responses from movie theater audiences.

This year's first contender delves into a topic which is becoming more of a heated debate with each passing sunny day: global warming. The popularity of director Davis Guggenheim's Oscar-nominated documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," doesn't spring from the fact that it's a great documentary or the result of extensive research. The film's popularity has risen mostly from its famous narrator, former U.S. Vice-President and presidential candidate Al Gore, along with the grave nature of its subject matter.

You can look at the new film "An Inconvenient Truth" in two ways; as a documentary on global warming or a documentary on what the most famous expert and activist on global warming has to say about it. In the end both boil down to the same thing. There is something far more dangerous than the clash of civilizations at our doorstep and Al Gore is a man who has devoted much to doing something about this before it is too late.

"An Inconvenient Truth" is a multimedia presentation by Gore on the current and possible future impacts of climate change, known as global warming, interspersed with personal accounts. Global warming is a subject the former vice-president has been passionate about since the 1970s, and this film is the distilled version of the same presentation Gore has given globally more than a thousand times in six years.

Al Gore, with all his self-confidence and grasp of the subject matter, gives impressive and frightening information. The hottest 10 years in history all came within the last 14 years; Mount Kilimanjaro has gone through drastic changes; the fate of cities like New York if the glaciers in Antarctica or Greenland start melting; global warming's proceeding at an ever-accelerating pace, beyond that which scientists predicted.

In this documentary, Gore is at his most charismatic. He feels self-confident, he knows what he's talking about, he focuses on the information that will have the greatest impact on the audience and is accessible to a wide variety of people. It's true that the documentary comes off as a video recording of a PowerPoint presentation, but it doesn't affect the power of what's said. Instead of focusing on the hype surrounding Gore's tour de force on global warming around the world, Guggenheim prefers to act as a mediator and make sure that the presentation is told in its simplest form to a wider audience.

In essence, "An Inconvenient Truth" is the documentary of Gore's campaign, with various audience members from Gore's conferences around the world interviewed, talks with experts and cynics, and rich visual material. The humane, modest and funny sides of Gore are clear from the documentary's first moments. The scenes about the personal tragedies that Gore experienced might seem unnecessary, but serve to assist in showing the passion this man has for the subject of the environment and global climate change.

"An Inconvenient Truth" should not be assessed on the basis of the various awards it won from Chicago, Los Angeles or Florida film critics or for the Oscar nomination it garnered this year, but rather with regards to its impact on various European governments, such as its screening in the Belgian Parliament. As a documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" has its flaws, but it is apparent that the world we're living in may be experiencing its final days and this documentary may prove important in triggering global change. Turkish Daily News