Movie watchers are very fickle folks. Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth has a way of slapping people awake or knocking them out cold. In Berlin they loved the film, and in Bangkok theaters people walked out. The good folks over at yahoonews.com give us this:
U.S. critics swooned over “An Inconvenient Truth,” the documentary film about global warming starring ex-Vice President Al Gore, but international response has ranged from raves in Oslo to yawns in Bangkok. Promoted as a true-life disaster flick — “It will shake you to your core … By far, the most terrifying film you will ever see,” the trailer thunders — it is Gore’s 80-minute environmental argument about the need for immediate action to combat climate change.
In eco-friendly Germany, where Gore attended last week’s Berlin premiere, the film was a multi-media event, covered by major newspapers and several television news shows. It drew specific praise from German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel at a news conference on energy.
“It carries a strong message and hard fact with Al Gore as the presenter but it is a boring documentary presentation that could have been made more fun and exciting with some editing techniques,” Bangkok film critic Natakwang Sirasoonthorn said.
An Inconvenient Truth” has grossed more than $23.7 million in the United States since it opened in May, distributed by Paramount Pictures. That makes it the third-highest grossing documentary, behind No. 1 “Fahrenheit 9/11” and second-ranked “March of the Penguins” — both of which have been running far longer.
But foreign box office receipts for “Truth” have totaled only $4.1 million, compared with $103.3 million for “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
I can understand the mixed reviews on this film. I saw it back when it first opened in Canada and although I liked it, it did leave a bit to be desired when it came to entertainment and film style. But if you want to see ten thousand charts that all look the same, those desires will be fufilled.
On the positive side An Inconvenient Truth is one of the few documentaries on the environment that didn’t make me feel helpless, it gives concrete ways to fix what we have broken in our world. And it’s also an interesting peek into Al Gore’s life.
But as some may remember from when he was running for president, Gore does tend to be a bit monotone and dry.
So it makes sense that certain parts of Europe just wouldn’t have the patience to see a film about the environment that has Al Gore as the star. But it’s still a solid documentary that I always recommend to people. How about everyone out there? Would you reccomend this movie?
Scanning these entries I’d say there are few here capable of a thoughtful, carefully considered non-polemic analysis of this film. If I had nothing else to go on, reading all this ill considered nonsense would make me believe that the world is populated by Homer Simpson’s.
Boring? I guess Homer would find this documentary sleep inducing -no car chases, dancing bears, tightrope walkers, etc., in it. But then I don’t remember much in the way of entertainment elements in any college lectures either -but I did learn from them.
Question: Why are environmental issues political? Seems to me all people of whatever political stripe need to drink the water, breathe the air and eat food that is safe to consume.
Rednecks in the US? Yes –and not just in the southern states either. I’ve met blockheads with redneck values/attitudes in every state I’ve visited, and it seemed as tho the only differences were in accent. Actually, the southern brands of rednecks tend to have slightly better grammar; none are capable of rational thought.
It’s really amazing what sort of, what passes for, thought that rattles down the long dim halls of perception and out of mouths or on to blogs/message boards.
PS: Great poem Jagmir, so well written, so profound. I suppose you also share your creations on bathroom walls?
Ok from the rednecks to the Eurpoeans, anybody who saw that movie to be entertained is an idiot. All Gore isn’t supposed to be exiting. You’re supposed to LEARN something.I really liked the movie because being from the US, a lot of this stuff is distorted a lot. I liked just hearing the facts instead of it always comming from some commerical or something. All you people preaching about global warming being bull and how rednecks saved europe in world war 2 need to get a life.
Uhm a lot of you are missing the point – the film isn’t supposed to be exciting as in explosions and falling towers and people jumping off cliffs. The film is actually quite exciting if you actually interpret the data presented and see that we are very close to destroying the only place we can live.
People who are saying global warming is a load of bull – what are you basing your opinions on?
The fact that anyone is debating over politics, adgendas or who fought in what war even though they weren’t even ALIVE back then – while completely over looking THE MOVIE’s SUBJECT MATTER AT HAND, are droning idiots. If there was an edge of the internet, I’d shove you off.
Stick to the topic. Quit barking about your favourite president as if you’re making a difference.
We need a new term for movies that pretend to be documentaries but are simply a long-form political advertisement. Calling them documentaries makes it seem like they are factually and scientifically valid.
Hey, Henrik, you sure liked us “ridiculous rednecks” fine when we rescued your collective European asses not once, but TWICE, you condescending jackass.
All hail Gore….
The Gore… the Gore….
Goree hallellula.
Gored to death.
How Goring.
Gore.
I liked the film for bringing to the forefront a problem we’ve all known about for years but that governments and people of power have sidelined. I thought it focused too much on Gore himself and it created a fair bit of positive talk which, if he was running for office, would be a huge coup, but the bottom line is that it’s good science and if takes Gore talking about it to get people to listen, so be it. Sharon said it best though, it was nice to see a film about the environment that didn’t leave you feeling like the world is coming to an end and we can’t fix it.
I find it quite “convenient” for Gore to push this environmental issue at this point in his declining career. The media has been crooning over this issue for decades, yet, someone should ask him why he and Clinton kept delaying action on setting acceptable levels for gaseous mercury emissions during the 8 years he was VP.
(source: The Scientist, Oct 2006)
The ‘acceptable mercury levels’ legislation was eventually delt with by the Bush admin. and yep, you guessed it, Bush was criticized for it.
(There’s another example of media bias for you)
Hey John,
i live in Munich and have seen the movie last thursday with my english course and i really liked it. but there isn’t much advertising on this movie in germany, i sort of ran into it on the internet. so it’s no surprise nobody’s seeing it here.
As Rodney pointed out I did make references to both Europe, Asia and America in this post but just for clarity’s sake I have now changed to overseas from Europe. :)
Who Killed The Electric Car is a very good doc as well. Good call drewbecca.
A better doc is “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
~Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com
The movie was boring and the world is actually getting colder not warmer.
Hey guess what, I’m european and I think Global Warming is a load of bull.
Sharon mentions two specific reviews, but also states that there have been mixed reviews all over Europe. She wasnt implying that Bangkok is in Europe.
Also Flynn, the openning weekend comparison is valid as movies tend not to earn more money on weekends following its openning weekend. Movies make the most on openning, and decline week after week. Its unlikely that this movie will gross more than F911 comparing their openning weekends.
I’m working in my local Cinema so I saw bits of An Inconvienient Truth. The parts I saw were Al Gore pointing at bar charts. Not very exciting……Fahrenheit 9/11 was intresting because it was exciting and kept you intrested from start to finish.
I don’t think this film really cares about what you think of it as a piece of art/entertainment, I don’t think that anybody who watches it should either. Its not about that.
I’m pretty puzzled by this article. First by the Bangkok/Europe reference, then by the comparison at the end. The movie is running for just 4 days over here. Why compare that to the total revenue of Fahrenheit 911?
the truth is, the movie is An Inconvenient Bore. even if it has Gore. but strangly not much violence…
We went to see this film at the local art theatre and we loved it. I thought his presentation was flawless, he was engaging and didn’t come across as being heavy handed or manipulative. I wasn’t bored for a single minute and could have watched a lot more.
I even teared up at the end a little bit. But maybe that’s because i’m a sentimental tree hugging hippy.
“An Inconvienient Truth meets with mixed reviews in Europe”
You DO know that Bangkok isn’t in Europe, right? :)
The thing about this movie here in Europe is that we don’t really have any controversy at all on the subject. We don’t have to put up with the ridiculous rednecks that the united states do, and I have never met anybody who was even doubtful about global warming.
So the movie is a bit boring here – especially after the trailer is so ridiculously over-the-top pumping it as something truly earth-shattering.