An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
Directed by: Bonnie Cohen & Jon Shenk
Documentary - 98 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 1 Aug 2017
Documentary - 98 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 1 Aug 2017
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power arrives with its branding ready made. There is its built-in climate change aware, liberal audience. There goes the global warming is nonsense brigade and anti-science detractors who will deride anyone who takes the time to learn from this film. I assume there is a minority middle hiding amongst the more vocal tribes; the same way there are probably still the slightest handful of folks who still could not choose between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Therefore, this review is for an audience who can acknowledge Earth’s climate is in danger and supports the evidence drawing that conclusion. If you deny climate change and believe Fox News over peer-reviewed scientists, move on.
I was most fortunate to watch the follow-up to An Inconvenient Truth (2006) with an enlightened, left-swerving audience who at one moment cheered Justin Trudeau’s brief cameo and the very next moment hissed at Vladimir Putin’s mug. Somewhere in there a passionate voice shouted, “Fascist!” when Trump’s smirking, bronze visage mocked environmentally conscious voters. If you walk straight out the front door of Washington D.C.’s Newseum, where I saw the film as the centerpiece of the AFI Docs Film Festival, and look left, you will see the U.S. Capitol. Turn right instead and walk a few blocks and you will arrive at the White House. These two centers of power are endowed with the authorities to respond and confront climate change. However, the occupants of both these legislative and executive establishments would rather pocket lobbyist treasure than accomplish any affective change.
I was most fortunate to watch the follow-up to An Inconvenient Truth (2006) with an enlightened, left-swerving audience who at one moment cheered Justin Trudeau’s brief cameo and the very next moment hissed at Vladimir Putin’s mug. Somewhere in there a passionate voice shouted, “Fascist!” when Trump’s smirking, bronze visage mocked environmentally conscious voters. If you walk straight out the front door of Washington D.C.’s Newseum, where I saw the film as the centerpiece of the AFI Docs Film Festival, and look left, you will see the U.S. Capitol. Turn right instead and walk a few blocks and you will arrive at the White House. These two centers of power are endowed with the authorities to respond and confront climate change. However, the occupants of both these legislative and executive establishments would rather pocket lobbyist treasure than accomplish any affective change.
Co-directors Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk point to why there isn’t even any current environmental debate occurring in the halls of Congress. It’s hard to respectfully disagree or compromise on policy when one side compares former Vice President Al Gore to Joseph Goebbels. While the Oscar-winning Inconvenient Truth was a wake up call focused on Gore’s PowerPoint presentation showing climbing line graphs and skyrocketing temperatures, An Inconvenient Sequel is more cinema verité as the camera follows a global ambassador training the next generation’s activists and working behind the scenes to seal the momentous Paris Climate Agreement.
What was signed and cheered in Paris took decades to attain. The delicate dance of negotiations attempting to convince developing nations to skip their own Industrial Revolutions for the good of the planet was, against all odds, accomplished. However, climate change was in the headlines back then. Scan the newspapers today and all you will see are investigative articles refuting malicious and deceptive tweets. Global warming? Perhaps you’ll find it buried in the weekly Science section. Corrupt politicians may have their attention elsewhere, but Jon Shenk proclaims, “If our leaders refuse to lead, then the people are ready to lead.”
Al Gore, amusing crowds with lines like, “I am a recovering politician,” is now a civilian in the fight. He moved beyond the political tiger he used to be. Winning the popular vote in a divisive presidential election only to have five Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices take it away from you would have crushed most people into early retirement and weekend walks to the ice cream parlor. Gore chose a more optimistic path to help call attention to what many people believe to be mankind’s self-inflicted downfall. No, not the Kardashians. Global warming.
Therefore, An Inconvenient Sequel is more than a sequel; it is not updating numbers and charts. It spends time with Al Gore the motivator and environmental acolyte. He could, but does not, sub-contract out the work. He flies to Greenland to see firsthand the gargantuan glaciers melting into oblivion. In what was not accomplished before the 2000 election, the film actually humanizes the man still mocked today for wanting to put the late-‘90s budget surplus in a “lockbox” rather than hand another tax cut to the wealthy who would not, in fact, create jobs with the extra dough.
Want the film’s best line? “The evening news is a nature hike through the Book of Revelations.” Floods, famine, expanding deserts, shrinking rainforests, an enormous chunk of Antarctica breaking free and floating away. The genie is out of the bottle. Miami is underwater, storms are different, Houston routinely floods. Yet, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power preaches to the converted. In 2017, movie-goers do not attend films which disagree with their political beliefs. Those who should see the film the most will continue to walk outside, form a snowball, walk back inside to the Senate floor and say, “See, there can’t be global warming; there is snow outside!” It’s enough to make you cheer for Justin Trudeau.
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