Skip to footer

'An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power' delivers a nimbus-tinged view of Al Gore's actions

( PG ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

The documentary is the follow-up to the Oscar-winning documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth,' in which Al Gore laid out the case for climate change Armageddon.

|
Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press/AP
Al Gore poses for a photograph before talking about his new film 'An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth the Power' in Toronto.
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

“An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” is the follow-up to the 2006 Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” in which Al Gore laid out the case for climate change Armageddon. He’s still at it, leading “climate leadership training” sessions as he circles the globe educating and cajoling politicians and business leaders to take up the cause of wind, and especially solar energy, as a replacement for fossil fuels.

Gore’s unstinting optimism, drive, and behind-the-scenes maneuvering at such events as the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference is well documented in this film, directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk. (Davis Guggenheim directed the first film.) I find much to admire in Gore’s mission, although I wish the filmmakers had not delivered such a nimbus-tinged view of his exploits. The documentary is like the cinematic equivalent of humblebragging. But it does provide one great “told you so” moment: In the first film, skeptics scoffed when Gore touted scientific projections showing rising seas flooding the demolished site of the World Trade Center. In the new film, we are presented with footage of superstorm Sandy ravaging the site. Grade: B (Rated PG for thematic elements and some troubling images.) 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power' delivers a nimbus-tinged view of Al Gore's actions
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2017/0728/An-Inconvenient-Sequel-Truth-to-Power-delivers-a-nimbus-tinged-view-of-Al-Gore-s-actions
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe