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 | Audience | Crisis

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
Faith Brewer	....	camera operator
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:

This is the first carbon-neutral documentary. NativeEnergy, which works with individuals and organizations to help them compensate for their contributions to global warming, calculated the "carbon footprint" from producing the film, including all travel, office, and accommodations related emissions. The company then offset emissions through renewable energy credits or "green tags from new renewable energy projects. Paramount Classics and Participant will split the cost of these tags; the funds will go towards helping build new Native American, Alaskan Native Village, and farmer-owned renewable energy projects, creating sustainable economies for communities in need and diversifying our energy supply. As Participant founder Jeff Skoll explains: "It would be ironic, not to mention wrong, if we added to the global warming that Al Gore warns about in his film. Plus, these renewable energy projects offer options that will decrease our demand for fossil fuels and otherwise would likely not happen without these kinds of investments." Participant, NativeEnergy and Warner Bros. partnered in a similar way on Stephen Gaghan's film, Syriana (2005), where 100% of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by the production were translated into investments into renewable energy. This follows on from the first "carbon neutral" film The Day After Tomorrow (2004), which director Roland Emmerich paid for out of his own pocket.

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:

Spoofed in An Inconvenient Penguin (2008) (V)

Soundtrack:

I Need to Wake Up

Good, but flawed

Before seeing this movie I thought that it might sway the debate on global warming. I assumed that the entire movie was going to be about global warming, and if it had been it would have been much more effective. While about two-thirds of it is about global warming, the other third is a promo for Al Gore--including footage of the contentious 2000 presidential election. As someone who is deeply concerned about the issue of global warming, I am disappointed because I think this diversion from the ostensible subject of the movie makes it much less effective as rhetoric. It has the immediate effect of alienating any republicans that may be in the audience, and global warming should not be seen as a partisan issue, or nothing will ever get done. I'm afraid that because of this the movie will mostly be "preaching to the choir." It still may be an effective tool for educating democrats that were previously uninformed on global warming. As a doctoral student in climate science, I can say that Gore mostly gets the science right, although he weakens the presentation by not pointing out which things are still open to debate.