Two Audio Commentary Tracks, One of Them Good
The DVD provides a very good feature-length audio commentary by director Davis Guggenheim, who says he doesn't consider himself to be much of an environmentalist. He states that Gore's main concern was that the film would fail to get the climate crisis science across to viewers, and the Vice President was reluctant to have much personal information about himself in the movie. But Guggenheim insisted since he feared that the science alone wouldn't hold the audience's interest.
Guggenheim wisely structured the movie after the Joseph Campbell model, that is, it's a hero's journey. The director obviously grasped that in making An Inconvenient Truth, he was basically trying to capture a concert-type performance on film and says that the movies that influenced him most were Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz (1978) and Jonathan Demme's Swimming to Cambodia (1987).
The DVD also has a feature-length audio commentary by producers Laurie David, Lawrence Bender, Scott Z. Burns and Lesley Chilcott. They occasionally have something interesting to offer, but if your time is limited, this is an extra you probably won't mind skipping.
DVD Packaging Reflects Asceticism
The DVD packaging is Spartan and claimed to be made from 100% post-consumer recycled material. This is symbolic of the notion that climate is affected by the amount of trash we generate and the way we deal with it. Printed on the DVD package are ways to help stop global warming such as driving less, setting thermostats in buildings lower in winter and higher in summer, recycling more household waste, turning off electronic devices when not in use, etc.
DVD Details
Below I've listed all the details for the DVD containing An Inconvenient Truth.
Release Date: November 21, 2006
Widescreen, Color
Feature Film Run Time: 1 Hour 36 Minutes
MPAA Rating: PG for Mild Thematic Elements
English 5.1 Dolby Digital
English 2.0 Surround
English Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
French Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Director Davis Guggenheim
Audio Commentary by Four Producers
An Update With Al Gore (32 min.)
The Making of An Inconvenient Truth (11 min.)
"I Need to Wake Up" Music Video by Melissa Etheridge
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