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April 23, 2008

An Inconvenient Falsehood

Al Gore loves Hollywood.  Hollywood  loves Al Gore.  And why not?  If reality wouldn't provide the truth he needed, Hollywood conveniently manufactured a facsimile.
Reality and fantasy merge in Hollywood and apparently An Inconvenient Truth (sic) was no different true to the entertainment world's operating motif.  The movie's signature shot of the Antarctic ice shelves was actually
Sculpted from Styrofoam and later scanned into a computer, the ice shelf "flyover" looks real.
And in the saving the planet spirit of recycling garbage the Styrofoam flyover shot was originally used in the 2004 Hollywood fantasy The Day After Tomorrow.  The special effects supervisor of that film stated
the shot is a digital image. She was glad Al Gore used it in the documentary since "It is one hell of a shot." Both movies use the shot to convincingly portray global warming, but it is left to the audience to decide if this created image can both entertain and educate us about our changing planet.
Well it certainly does educate us in Hollywood--and Gore--trickery and puffery as neither inconveniently publicized its use in a supposed accurate documentary.  But apparently Al Gore successfully absorbed the Hollywood mindset that truth is whatever aids the box office. 

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