An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Director:

Davis Guggenheim

Release Date:

31 August 2006 (Thailand)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

A Global Warning

Plot:

A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.

Plot Keywords:

Climate | Global Warming | Global Climate Change | Environment | Audience

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 21 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Al Gore	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Billy West	...	(voice)
George Bush	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
George W. Bush	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Ronald Reagan	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Davis Guggenheim

Produced by
Lawrence Bender	....	producer
Scott Z. Burns	....	producer
Lesley Chilcott	....	co-producer
Lesley Chilcott	....	line producer
Davis Guggenheim	....	executive producer
Jeffrey D. Ivers	....	executive producer (as Jeff Ivers)
Laurie Lennard	....	producer (as Laurie David)
Jeff Skoll	....	executive producer
Ricky Strauss	....	executive producer
Diane Weyermann	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Michael Brook

Cinematography by
Davis Guggenheim
Bob Richman

Film Editing by
Jay Cassidy
Dan Swietlik

Production Management
Gregory Bartlett	....	production manager
Lesley Chilcott	....	unit production manager
Beau J. Genot	....	post-production supervisor
Trevor Herrick	....	production manager: New York
Steven M. Rood	....	production supervisor (as Steve Rood)
Michelle Wilker	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
John Stewart	....	second assistant director
Jonathan X	....	first assistant director (as JJ Jonathan Jackson)

Sound Department
Tom Bergin	....	additional sound: New York
George Berndt	....	adr editor
George Berndt	....	dialogue editor
Lesley Chilcott	....	additional sound: Beijing
Joel Dougherty	....	sound effects editor
Alan Freedman	....	adr mixer
Dan Gleich	....	additional sound: San Francisco
Terry Hillman	....	additional sound: Nashville
P.K. Hooker	....	sound effects editor
Daniel Kent	....	additional sound: Los Angeles
Steve LeSieur	....	assistant sound editor
Skip Lievsay	....	sound re-recording mixer
Skip Lievsay	....	supervising sound editor
Daniel S. McCoy	....	sound
Eddie O'Connor	....	additional sound: New York
Mark A. Rozett	....	sound re-recording mixer
Jan Schulte	....	additional sound: Los Angeles
Paul Trautman	....	sound
Paul Wittman	....	p.a. mixer
Lu Xuelei	....	additional sound: Beijing

Visual Effects by
Brian Fisher	....	sea-level effects
Brian George	....	digital film colorist
Brian George	....	digital intermediate colorist
Kevin Prendiville	....	Flame artist

Camera and Electrical Department
Joaquín Baca-Asay	....	additional cinematographer
Ulli Bonnekamp	....	additional cinematographer
Curtis Clark	....	additional cinematographer
Jiebin Fan	....	additional cinematographer (as Jae Fan)
Davis Guggenheim	....	camera operator
D.J. Harder	....	first assistant camera
Darren Langer	....	gaffer
Eric Lee	....	still photographer
Dave Pritchett	....	camera operator
Carrie Richard	....	camera operator
Bob Richman	....	camera operator
Michael J. Schwartz	....	camera operator
John Snedden	....	camera operator
Chuck Weiss	....	tape operator: HDTV studio segments

Animation Department
Brent Chambers	....	animator: Hornet

Editorial Department
Javier Alvarez	....	additional editor
Kenny Becker	....	color timer
Owen Edinger	....	assistant editor
Larry Ferguson Jr.	....	post-production consultant
Bob Fernley	....	digital intermediate producer
Asim Matin	....	first assistant editor
Thomas Han Ul Park	....	assistant editor
Troy Rackley	....	assistant editor
Rebecca Weigold	....	first assistant editor

Music Department
Sharon Smith	....	music editor

Other crew
Claire Bernard	....	production assistant
Susan Bradley	....	title designer: opening titles
Daniel J. Brewster	....	technical coordinator: Apple Keynote
Thom Buckley	....	on-set medic
Gwen Cassidy	....	researcher
Dayna E. Clark	....	production assistant
Heather Coker	....	production assistant
Patricia DeQuaker	....	rights and clearances coordinator (as Patti DeQuaker)
Ilana Gordon	....	creative executive
Ally Hawkins	....	assistant: Mr. Guggenheim
Andrew Isaacson	....	producer: Hornet
Elena Jacobson	....	assistant to producer
Matthew Klipper	....	production accountant
Drew Langer	....	production assistant
Michael J. Linowes	....	legal counsel
Eric Matthews	....	production assistant
Evan Matthews	....	production assistant
Michael McDermott	....	line producer: China
Dawn Oliver	....	assistant: Mr. Bender
Jill Ragan	....	production assistant (as Jill Pauletich-Ragan)
Ryan Robertson	....	main title producer
John Snedden	....	archive footage: b-roll
Katie Taylor	....	production assistant
Amber Thompson	....	production assistant
Melissa A. Wong	....	script supervisor
Marianna Yarovskaya	....	head of research
Garson Yu	....	title designer
Jim McCarthy	....	accountant (uncredited)
Noel Davis Poyner	....	publicity intern (uncredited)

Thanks
Tal Fiala	....	special thanks
Robert Messinger	....	special thanks
Robert Redford	....	special thanks
Carl Sagan	....	special thanks
Tim Sassoon	....	special thanks
Ada Shen	....	thanks
John Williams	....	thanks
David Zucker	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Lawrence Bender Productions
• Participant Productions

Distributors

• Aisa Wide Communications (2007) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Finnkino (2006) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures Corporation (Canada) (2006) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Paramount Vantage (2006) (USA) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2006) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2006) (France) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2006) (UK) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2006) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2006) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures Far East (UIP) (2007) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Magnavision (2007) (Philippines) (DVD)
• Nelonen (2007) (Finland) (TV)
• Paramount Home Entertainment Finland (2007) (Finland) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (2007) (Germany) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (200?) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• TV2 Danmark (2007) (Denmark) (TV)

Special Effects

• Buck (graphics and animation)
• Duarte (additional graphics)
• Hornet Animation (polar bear and frog animation)

Other Companies

• ABC News Video Source  moving image archive courtesy of (as ABC News Videosource)
• ABC News  moving image archive courtesy of
• Allstock  moving image archive courtesy of
• Apple  still imagery courtesy of
• Arc Light EFX  lighting
• Artbeats Digital Film Library  moving image archive courtesy of
• Associated Press/Wide World  still imagery courtesy of (as AP/Wide World Photos)
• Best Shot  moving image archive courtesy of
• Bloomberg L.P.  still imagery courtesy of
• CBS News Archives  moving image archive courtesy of (as CBS Newspath)
• Cable News Network (CNN)  moving image archive courtesy of
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)  moving image archive courtesy of
• Corbis  still imagery courtesy of (as Corbis)
• Current TV  moving image archive courtesy of
• Cut Run  negative cutting
• DeLuxe Laboratories  color
• EFilm  digital intermediate
• FILM Archives  moving image archive courtesy of
• Fat Dot  publicity
• Fish Films Footage World  moving image archive courtesy of (as Footage World)
• Footage Bank  moving image archive courtesy of (as Footagebank)
• FotoKem Laboratory  color
• Getty Images  moving image archive courtesy of
• Getty Images  still imagery courtesy of
• Hammerhand Studios  sound editing (as Hammerhead Sound)
• Marcella C. Public Relations  special publicity
• Monkeyland Audio  re-recording facility
• Monkeyland Audio  re-recording mix services
• NBC News Archives  moving image archive courtesy of
• Oddball Film and Video  moving image archive courtesy of
• PRG Lighting  lighting (as PRG Lighting Los Angeles)
• Prairie Pictures  moving image archive courtesy of
• Scarlet Letters  end crawl
• Silverman Stock Footage  moving image archive courtesy of
• Storm Stock  moving image archive courtesy of
• Streamline Films  moving image archive courtesy of
• Third Millenium Films Inc.  moving image archive courtesy of
• Tricity Photon Research  lighting
• Warner Bros. Studio Facilities  re-recording facility
• Widget Post Production  adr facility
• yU+Co.  end titles

Also Known As:

Eine unbequeme Wahrheit (Austria) (Germany) [de]
En obekväm sanning (Finland: Swedish title) (Sweden) [sv]
Une vérité qui dérange (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
An Inconvenient Truth (Greece) (DVD title) [el]
En ubekvem sandhed (Denmark) [da]
Epämiellyttävä totuus (Finland) [fi]
La verdad incómoda (Colombia) [es]
La verdad incómoda - Una advertencia global (Argentina) [es]
Mia avoli alitheia (Greece) (TV title) [el]
Mia enohlitiki alitheia (Greece) [el]
Neprijatna istina (Serbia) [sr]
Uma Verdade Inconveniente (Brazil) (festival title) [pt]
Una scomoda verità (Italy) [it]
Una verdad incómoda (Spain) [es]
Uygunsuz gerçek (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]

MPAA:

Rated PG for mild thematic elements.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:G | UK:U | Ireland:G | Singapore:PG | Finland:K-3 | Netherlands:MG6 | Norway:A | Hong Kong:I | Australia:PG | Portugal:M/6 | Sweden:Btl | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | USA:PG (certificate #42438) | Iceland:L | South Korea:All | France:U | Germany:o.Al. | Malaysia:U | Brazil:Livre

Company:

Lawrence Bender Productions

Trivia:

The DVD case, in which the film is packaged, is made from 100% recycled cardboard.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Gore shows the slide of the ice core graph at the beginning of the movie (about 20 minutes in), the numbers on the y-axis are wrong - the average is at 0.5, and the negative numbers are flipped. This graph is correct in the book; the slide is wrong and therefore misleading.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Al Gore: You look at that river gently flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling with the wind. You hear the birds; you hear the tree frogs. In the distance you hear a cow. You feel the grass. The mud gives a little bit on the river bank. It's quiet; it's peaceful. And all of a sudden, it's a gear shift inside you. And it's like taking a deep breath and going, "Oh yeah, I forgot about this."

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Getaway: (#16.37)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Blocks

"You owe it to yourself to see this film ...

... If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to." - Roger Ebert

After the closing credits to An Inconvenient Truth rolled, I walked out to my car in the theater's parking lot. LA's infamous haze hung low, crimson in the twilight. In the foreground a solitary grasshopper pump drew up oil that had laid dormant for hundreds of millions of years. If Supersize Me made the prospect of a Big Mac and fries a little less appealing, imagine the feeling of slipping into a six cylinder car for a three mile trip home.

Just the same, An Inconvenient Truth is not about blame. It's also not only about the problems that global warming poses. Instead, it sets aside the matter of "who's fault is it" and leaves the viewer with the desire to ask and answer the question of "what can I do?" The film (and companion website) does not fail to deliver: both offer practicable steps to take regarding the literal sea change facing the planet.

The movie presents evidence that, to me, was quite compelling. Is it incontrovertible? Not being an environmental scientist, I couldn't say. But it's telling that out of almost 1000 peer reviewed scientific journals the film examines on the topic of global warming, the matter was not questioned by one (though doubted in more than half of the popular literature written during the same time). It's also worth mentioning that while Al Gore hosts the film, this movie is not about him. And while he may have showed up for some six years ago as stiff and stodgy, in this context he is masterful in blending the informative with the entertaining.

Go see the film for yourself. Bring a friend. Trust me, you'll be glad to have carpooled.