WeвЂ™re so used to Americans getting either hysterical or terrifyingly gung-ho about Armageddon that this alternative approach is wildly effective and far more disturbing. Al Gore is such a quiet, reassuring presence that you fully expect him to come over to your house and, in true Vera Drake style, offer to make you a nice cup of tea while he explains how we are slowly destroying the world. ItвЂ™s reminiscent of nothing so much as one of those late-1950s English films like The Earth Dies Screaming where a group of people sit in a pub and discuss the onset of global apocalypse. It may seem paradoxical to say this about a film which centres on a soft-spoken Tennessee politician giving a high-tech PowerPoint presentation, but the reason An Inconvenient Truth works so well is that itвЂ™s somehow so very British. Seeing this explained in such clear terms is quite an upsetting experience and, as a result, I think An Inconvenient Truth is the most terrifying film IвЂ™ve seen for many years. The film is a documentary record of a slide-show given by the former Vice-President Al Gore on hundreds of occasions, during which he uses freely available statistics вЂ“ all of them agreed by a broad base of scientists вЂ“ to demonstrate the impact that humanity is having on the climate and the possible consequences. I knew it was happening but I didnвЂ™t realise it was happening quite so fast or with such devastating consequences. This is a film which, in my case, was preaching to the converted вЂ“ I personally have no doubts that climate change is one of the two or three major issues facing mankind in the 21st century вЂ“ and it still managed to disturb me. ItвЂ™s a measure of how effective An Inconvenient Truth is that I was shocked by it. Mike Sutton reviews ParamountвЂ™s upcoming disc of one of the best films of 2006.

An inconvenient truth dvd