I just finished watching the movie via Netflix. I wish it had stayed within just a few pertinent levels. Instead, I saw Al Gore: having his son hit by a car, having his sister die of cancer, having him button up his coat several times, trundle through the airport with his carry-on several times, point out where he wrecked the family car and so on. I saw him lose in Florida, by that suspicious darn vote, and there was even smilin' Chimpy, gettin' sworn in and all.djm wrote:Sorry, I guess I didn't make myself clear. I did not expect this to be an entertainment. I simply found the information to be shallow and out-of-date. That is why I suggested the Discovery Channel. Also, check out Nova on the PBS stations. You will get a more thorough and more current presentation of facts.emmline wrote:Yes, it is a documentary, not a diversion.
I have nothing against Gore personally (except that he lost). As for the topic, you would have had to be living in a cave for the last ten years not to be aware of what is going on to our weather or in the media (and the bogus controversies raised by the oil conglomerates' media spin doctors).
djm
I felt betrayed, frankly. He drew me (and everyone else) into the tent to see the attraction (the info about climate change). The ticket price was enduring his smarmy personality, supercilious face and unctuous implications. At times, I felt like I was looking directly at the blueblood distressed nobility that came to Virginia to begin with and started the tobacco legacy, and here was their descendant princeling (sorry, I have done a lot of genealogy in my life and know a bit about our various social strains, and Al Gore is a prime example as described). Hey, you can't get much more American than that, especially considering our Virginian presidents and Founders. Al Gore has always struck me as a nearly worthless blueblood, having accomplished little but carried the genetic imperative to "lead" or more properly, be in charge of everybody else. He is somewhat successfully redeeming his aristocratic existence, just like Prince Charles has across the Pond with his environmentalism and such.
But I also felt a bit of the circus barker, just brought and massaged very much into the 21st century. Production values were high, nice soundtrack, tho the Melissa Etheridge tune at the end was a bit stressful to hear.
And there is one big, whoppin' stinkin' mis-representation that really angered me. He brought out the stock footage of Katrina victims, in the context as though Katrina was the super-storm of all storms because of global warming (his theory being that Katrina was worse because it picked up more force over the newly-warmed Gulf). But anybody with more than a pothead's memory realizes that the tragedy of Katrina in New Orleans wasn't the power of the storm itself (we've had worse landfalls, I think), but the failure of American leadership to keep the levees up-to-date, and deal with the reality of the bigger Mississippi River drainage issue. And I couldn't help wonder about what role the Clinton-Gore admin had especially in the levee issue. I wish he hadn't used Katrina victims in that way. Fortunately, he couldn't work the tsunami in...
The underlying message of the movie is to vote for Al Gore and at-times I began wondering if he was the anti-Christ or sumthin, because the two messages (the other being to save the planet) were so deftly woven, just as Lucifer would want (light=knowledge). Everytime I started to really feel strong about the global warming issue, it cut to Al and his personal journey. Yuck. If I didn't have a pre-existing condition regarding Gore, I might have felt a further sense of en-light-enment.
That said, the movie did make me want to figure out how I can continue beyond what I already do to reduce CO2. So it was somewhat effective. I liked that part, really.
If you watch it, maybe don't do it alone. Then mebbe group hypnosis will kick in and you'll think it's great. Or, just don't watch it with the Weekender.
