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Al Gore Has Some News For You

Published on October 3, 2006

If someone had approached you in December 2000 and said the man who had just conceded the Presidential election would become a major box office draw in 2006, you probably would have laughed in her face. If that same person then had told you that the nominee's movie would make box office records and moviemaking history, you might have doubled over with hysteria.

An Inconvenient Truth has become the third highest grossing documentary in movie-making history, taking in more than $23 million.

You would have been laughing of course, because that person was Al Gore, the seemingly straight counterpart to a charismatic Clinton for eight years. Al Gore lost the presidential election by running a lackluster campaign that refused to ride on the coattails of Clinton's successes. Many believed that the Presidency was his for the taking in 2000, but there was concern that his public persona was not dynamic enough to engage a country used to the brilliance of "Bubba."

Many of those naysayers did not know that Al Gore had the potential to be an incredibly passionate man when talking about global warming. His commitment to the environment began during his Harvard days and has remained strong throughout his thirty+ years of political service. By fighting for the environment, Al Gore found an outlet for his passion both in and outside the Beltway.

In the late 1980s, after a failed attempt to capture the Democratic presidential nomination and a car accident that almost claimed his son, Gore decided to "reevaluat[e his] priorities." As a pet project, he created a "low-tech" slideshow presentation that revealed the effects of global climate change and the science supporting it. After hundreds of appearances all over the world and years of fine-tuning, the presentation evolved into Gore's "traveling global warming show." Dr. David Merkey, a Senior Scientist at a large engineering firm, saw Gore's presentation as a Wetland Ecology graduate student at the University of Michigan in 2005. Though Merkey considers himself "pretty knowledgeable about the environment and climate change," he was "shocked" by the portrait of the Earth that Gore presented.

Many Hollywood and media moguls have since sat in Gore's audience, Ted Turner and George Soros to name a couple. However, it was Laurie David, an environmental activist and producer who was inspired enough to bring Gore's presentation to the big screen. As a veteran of the entertainment industry and a committed environmental activist, David had firsthand knowledge of how media can be used to change minds (she is one of the founding members of The Detroit Project). So when she saw a special presentation of Gore's lecture after a screening of The Day After Tomorrow, she convinced fellow producers Lawrence Bender and Scott Z. Burns to join her and persuaded Davis Guggenheim to direct.

Al Gore and the production team behind An Inconvenient Truth.

The results are astonishing. An Inconvenient Truth has screened on almost 600 screens, and not simply in "liberal" cities like New York or Chicago, but all across the country. In its second week of release in Greenville, NC, An Inconvenient Truth "was averaging a strong $7,300 in ticket sales per screen." It has become the third highest grossing documentary in movie-making history, taking in more than $23 million.

Those who are on the frontlines of the movement to save the world from environmental devastation have seen the effects of the film on their work. Scott T. Paul, Campaigns Manager at Citizens for Global Solutions, explains that An Inconvenient Truth has contributed to a rapid shift in the way citizens are engaging in the global warming debate. "Polls show that even before Mr. Gore's film, the American public was well aware that human activities are behind climate change," Paul comments. "The challenge now is to help people understand the significance of climate change and what they can do to solve the problem; Mr. Gore's film tries to do exactly that."

Dr. Mike Shirberg, Director of Environment Michigan agrees. An Inconvenient Truth has been "part of a larger series of events to bring global warming to the forefront." The film's power comes from its ability to serve as a catalyst for conversation among new audiences. "Traditionally, scientists are not the best communicators, and because global warming is such a huge issue, environmentalists are often written off as alarmist. Gore solved this vital messenger problem," Shirberg states. More people have engaged him in the discussion of global warming than before the movie was released.

Both Shirberg and Paul also point out that the release of the film is only a first step, albeit a significant one. Shirberg observes Gore "did a fantastic job of presenting a problem that is global in scope and devastating in nature. However, the solutions he presented were on a scale that did not match the magnitude of the problem. The public consciousness could have been pushed farther." Ben Adler, Editor of CampusProgress.org, complains that An Inconvenient Truth "does not tell the average viewer...enough about what she can do about it [global warming]."

While the standalone film may not go as far as some advocates would like to empower audiences, the film's outreach campaign and website strive to push viewers to fight global warming. In addition to comprehensive Take Action and Downloads sections on the film's website, the film has partnered with the Global Warming Virtual March, a grassroots campaign to pressure government and corporations to change environmental policies.

Activists credit An Inconvenient Truth with getting the public talking about global warming.

An Inconvenient Truth has squarely placed the issue of the environment in the American zeitgeist and has transformed the persona of Al Gore. The stiff public speaker has transformed his public perception into that of an engaging, fascinating scene-stealer. The Washington Post described Gore in this film as "more at ease in the lecture hall than he ever was on the stump." During a screening in Los Angeles, Gore was met with a "deafening roar." Gore has been a guest on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and he has been featured in trendy magazines like Rolling Stone, Wired and Entertainment Weekly, for which he graced the cover.

All the pieces of An Inconvenient Truth's success were in place well before its first screening. Gore has been a public figure since 1992 and has given his presentation for years, and environmental tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina brought the effects of global warming in stark relief. However, it was the merging of these elements -- film, social-consciousness and an awareness of the zeitgeist -- that created this phenomenon. Like the ideal ecosystem for which environmental activists fight, a politician and a cause can coexist and enhance each other through documentary.