Top 5 Environmental films

[Ecto Jedi]

Originally Posted by Fugitoid Jones

I know this was a question for odupianist, but I just wanted to reply. If Al Gore's information was so important, then why is he charging us money to learn it?

You know, it's no skin off my back, really, but your arguments in this matter are so damn easy to shoot down I guess I'll keep replying. Let's forget for a moment that movies actually cost money to produce and thus need to see a return. Once the marketing, production and distribution costs were out of the way, Gore donated 100% of the profits from the film and his accompanying book to a new bipartisan educational campaign to spread the message about global warming. Even the damn production company, Paramount Classics, is donating part of their profits to something called the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Incidentally, 50,000 free copies of the film were offered to the National Science Teachers Association for educators to use in their classrooms. They refused because, as they put it, it'd place "unnecessary risk upon the NSTA capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters." One of those supporters, it turns out, is the Exxon Mobil Corp. Dun-dun-dun...

Originally Posted by Fugitoid Jones

I'm not trying to be rude and I'm not bashing the movie, I'm just stating some of my reasons why I won't see it.

Honestly, at the risk of sounding like an overzealous enviro-nut -- which I assure you I am not -- you are doing yourself a disservice. Even if someone disagreed with the film's message, disliked Gore's political track record and remained skeptical about global warming, it's still a thought-provoking documentary and a surprisingly well-constructed one at that.

I enjoy it because, sort of like Fahrenheit 9/11, it does a really unprecedented job at targeting some of the misconceptions and hoopla surrounding an issue we hear on the news all the time and presenting it in an eye-opening, interesting, and visually appealling way. When all is said and done, it's still an exercise in good filmmaking. That it's one of the most important films of our time is incidental.