"An Inconvenient Truth," the
big-screen adaptation of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's
slide-show lecture about the perils of global warming, won
Academy Awards on Sunday for documentary feature and best song.
The award for best documentary went to director Davis
Guggenheim and producers Lawrence Bender ("Pulp Fiction") and
Laurie David, the environmentalist wife of "Seinfeld"
co-creator Larry David.
But the film marked a personal triumph for Gore, the 2000
Democratic presidential nominee who left politics after
narrowly losing his White House bid to Republican George W.
Bush and embarked on a new campaign calling attention to the
threat of climate change.
"My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to
solve the climate crisis," Gore said after taking the stage.
"It's not a political issue, it's a moral issue. We have
everything we need to get started with the possible exception
of the will to act. That's a renewable resource. Let's renew
it."
Gore is the star and narrator of the documentary, which is
widely credited with helping shift U.S. public opinion on the
need for urgent action to curb man-made emissions of greenhouse
gases linked to global warming.
Director Guggenheim handed Gore the Oscar and told the
audience the movie was made "because we were moved to act by
this man."
GORE IN SPOTLIGHT
Rock star Melissa Etheridge won the Oscar for original song
for the film's musical theme, "I Need to Wake Up," which she
composed and performed for the movie. It marked the first song
from a documentary to be nominated in that category since
"More" from "Mondo Cane" in 1963.
"I have to thank Al Gore for inspiring us, inspiring me,
showing that caring about the earth is not Democratic or
Republican, it is not red or blue, we are all green," Etheridge
said.
The Oscar win helps raise Gore's public profile as many of
his fellow Democrats are beginning to jostle for their party's
nomination for president next year, though the former vice
president under Bill Clinton has repeatedly said he has no
plans to run again in 2008.
The film has topped $45 million at the box office worldwide
and sold 1 million DVDs. With $24 million in U.S. ticket sales
alone, it ranks as the nation's third-highest-grossing
documentary ever, excluding concert films and Imax movies --
behind "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "March of the Penguins."
The book version of "An Inconvenient Truth" was published
last year as a follow-up to Gore's 1992 bestseller "Earth in
the Balance."
Also nominated this year for best documentary were "Deliver
Us from Evil," about a pedophile priest, "Jesus Camp,"
exploring efforts to instill evangelical Christians in
children, and two films about the war in Iraq -- "My Country,
My Country" and "Iraq in Fragments."
© Reuters 2007
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