In 2006 Al Gore and director Davis Guggenheim released An Inconvenient Truth. It was a film that showed humanities actions and the far reaching effects we were having on our home, Earth. It was praised for its no holds barred approach to getting the message across that humanity needs to seriously step up and save our planet from our misguided machinations. 11 years later, how are we doing? Al Gore and directors Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk return with An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power to let us know.
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is a powerful film. The imagery alone will hit home with many, if not all, audiences as a lot of the predictions Gore made in An Inconvenient Truth have come true. To see the state of various places around the world is disturbing. Many frozen landscapes in the northern part of the world are crumbling into the ocean, and the film shows you firsthand what it looks like, and it’s astonishing in the most worrying way possible. The story that the directors and Gore tell is one of Gore’s journey from the late 80’s up until the end of last year. How he has tried to turn the tide against global warming, fight for the use of renewable energy, and much more.
The story the team is telling is one of hope, that even though there are many obstacles they will eventually overcome them all. Gore is a charming and affable narrator explaining the situation that the world has found itself openly and frankly. You can see though as the years and trials hit him he is slowly being weighed down, thankfully there are moments that bring cheer to both him and the audience that help you feel like this is a battle that can be won.
There are several interesting elements about An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power that make this a difficult review to write. There are no actors, so what do you merit the acting on? I suppose you judge how well they convey this distressing situation and with that the “cast” pull it off remarkably. I am worried for the world, I am concerned, and I hope that we’ll get through this. On the cinematic side, the film shows off the devastation and destruction of the world caused by our negligence well. The audience was audibly freaked out by what they saw on screen, and that is a compliment to the directors who knew exactly how to pull on the right heart strings.
The most disturbing element of the film was a personality who was sprinkled throughout the film; his presence was always felt, being teased with brief mentions of the election. I am of course talking about the clown and chief Donald Trump who at the time of this film being in production was becoming more and more of a worrying factor in the survival of Earth. And on November 10th he was elected into office, and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power had to go back and increase his adversarial presence due to the fact they didn’t believe he’d be elected. It’s a fascinating third act element that can only happen in a film as unique as this and it makes for an all more eccentric and worrying narrative.
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is a powerful film with a message that needs to be seen and spread, but I could have easily have said the same about An Inconvenient Truth let’s hope I don’t need to say this a third time.