A Convenient Screening of "An Inconvenient Truth"

Attending Thursday night for Variety's screening of "An Inconvenient Truth," several audience members asked themselves... where was this Al Gore when he was running for president? Dry wit, personable, relaxed... and extremely intelligent without being too wonkish.

(Of course, it wouldn't have mattered... Gore did win... but hey, who's paying attention, right?)

Actually, someone from the audience did ask Gore -- who was there, live in person for a post-screening Q&A -- that very question. To his credit, he doesn't cringe when asked about the depressing events of 2000 and even jokes about the Supreme Court's eventual ruling.

Variety's Ted Johnson, who moderated the Q&A, writes about it at his Wilshire & Washington blog:

(Gore) had particular digs for the Bush administration's arguments in the Supreme Court, in which states are pressing the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. In the case that Slate called "Bush vs. Gore's movie," administration lawyers argued that there was still insufficient evidence that carbon dioxide emissions cause global warming, and therefore there is no reason to impose such regulations...

At the Variety screening, Gore said he couldn't predict how the Court would decide the case --- and drew more than a few laughs when he deadpanned that he hasn't had the best of luck with the justices.

Joining Gore were director Davis Guggenheim and producer Lawrence Bender, in a session in which the former Vice President blended plenty of irreverence (often at his own expense) with a mini-speech on a whole other front: the influence of political ads. Although Gore says he has high hopes for the Internet in opening up the political discourse, it's not there yet, and campaigns on both sides of the aisle amounted to a barrage of commercial messages, many of them negative. The intensity of his "system-is-broken" argument got so passionate that you couldn't help but think that maybe another movie was in the offing.

Although the film may have shifted some public opinion --- Pat Robertson and Rupert Murdoch are now pressing for action --- Gore says he hasn't heard anything from the White House, or whether anyone there had seen the movie. In fact, he seemed a bit puzzled that the question even was asked, given that Bush has said he has no plans to see it.

If you haven't seen it yet, you really should take a moment to screen "An Inconvenient Truth." It's actually a quick watch, and the helmer Guggenheim managed to turn what was a simple slide show into a pretty interesting -- and gripping -- film. I truly had no idea that things were accelerating so bad so fast, particularly in Antarctica and in higher elevations. That old cliche that our children or their children are going to be impacted by this? Nuh-uh. We're going to be hit hard by this in just another few decades. See the movie.