Collegiate Times

Ladies and gentlemen, Al Gore is back, and surprisingly, it?s not to launch a second run at the nation?s top office (at least not yet, anyway.)

The one-time ?should?ve been? presidential candidate has chosen instead to move into the realm of celluloid and box office numbers. Gore has made a movie. Upon hearing this, I was admittedly not all that surprised. I assumed that in a desperate attempt to grab some publicity he wrote an embittered screenplay depicting a malevolent political conspiracy that robbed him of the presidency. Perhaps Bill Pullman would be portraying the former vice president in all his wooden glory. Alas, while such a premise would?ve undoubtedly been entertaining, at least at some guilty pleasure level, it was not to be.

Gore has gone back to his roots for this one: addressing pressing environmental issues. Set for release this summer, the film is titled ?An Inconvenient Truth,? and the public can now watch the trailer online. In the ad, creepy, intense music and extreme, in-your-face claims like ?By far, the most terrifying film you will ever see!? and ?If you love your planet, if you love your children, you have to see this film? cascade across the screen while juxtaposing Gore giving a slideshow lecture of ?this will happen, unless ? ? scenarios.

While I never thought of Gore himself as being all that scary, his subject material certainly is. The ?truth? that the movie professes is one that everyone has heard at some point in his or her life. In a nutshell, humans are causing global warming, which leads to disasters like Hurricane Katrina, and which will eventually lead to the polar ice caps melting, which will then lead to inland flooding in low sea level places like Shanghai, Calcutta, and Manhattan. Even though I might not understand all the facts behind everything being claimed, because of Gore?s gripping trailer, I really want to see his movie.

In fact, I think I have to see it. I need to understand more about the impending global dangers coming our way because I?m now utterly afraid of what might happen. So now the first step in preventing worldwide catastrophe is to fork over nine bucks to see Gore?s movie this June.

Is this what he and director/producer Davis Guggenheim had in mind for capturing an audience ? scaring us into theaters based on a guilty desire to change? A controversy over this approach has been brewing since the trailer?s release, and critics are biting at the bit to downplay Gore?s doomsday environmentalism ? or ?green scare,? as it is being called. Jonah Goldberg of the National Review Online writes that the movie will be ?the most adept piece of scaremongering ever captured on film, making ??The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? seem like ?Toy Story 2?.? Harsh criticism, but is scaring people with all the bombast of Hollywood terror the only way that remains for creating changes in global warming?

Other films have tried the same approach with very few visible results. Documentaries like Morgan Spurlock?s ?Super-Size Me? and Michael Moore?s ?Bowling for Columbine? attempted to both scare and amuse people off fast food and guns, respectively, but despite the success of both of these films, the trends of obesity and gun violence are still very high in America.

But Al Gore doesn?t just want America to change ? although that is obviously his target market. He wants the whole world to change. An ambitious goal for a man who has essentially become a political pariah since his 2000 election defeat. This should not be an issue, however, in focusing on his message: an impending global crisis that threatens our way of life.

I am not criticizing Gore for making this film. I think that with his limited political visibility, this is the best way for him to reach the biggest audience. Gore has likely made similar presentations on CSPAN-2, PBS and other low-viewer mediums.

By taking it to the next level, he is increasing the exposure of something that he undoubtedly feels very strongly about. But will shocking people into seeing the movie really work how he wants it to? He?ll be lucky if it does.

At best, he can hope for drastic environmental legislation to arise out of the public uproar he wants to create with this film. At worst, he will face more harsh ridicule from those who will be unwilling to swallow his message. All I know is I?ll be seeing ?An Inconvenient Truth? when it comes out. How could I miss it? I do love my planet, after all.