Global Warning

In his award-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore rallies his audience behind a safe and secure agenda, which would in theory help prevent a fast approaching ice-age. The scientific movie convincingly persuades the captivated audience of probably the greatest threat to mankind since the beginning of time, causing a natural fear and jump-into-action attitude for the planet’s benefit. Its rhetoric is, well, scientific, therefore being passed off as factual and much too complicated to be questioned by the average Joe, who has to go ask his friends what he thinks. Its catchy title gives mixed emotions about the subject on hand because although inconvenient, Gore is telling the truth, and that is what in the end matters. The Gore-washed movie goers leave the film feeling educated and annoyed as they get into their SUV’s, which now they know, uhm, are causing that dirty little thing called, global warming. Sunglasses on, with the thought of buying a tree in Africa quickly chase the threat away.

Turn the title upside down, though and you have what most scientists (actual scientists) think about global warming: A Convenient Lie. Besides the fact that the movie has been banned from the British school system, scientists all over the world (including the United Nations Commission, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC) have found the movie thoroughly flawed and fictional, from its rising sea level assertions, to its ice-age predictions. Moreover, Gore’s little science project has cost billions and billions of dollars, for that special research done under the special eye of little guys in white coats. Naturally, Gores takes his little cut for expenses, and so conveniently enough, as global temperatures rise, so does the balance in his bank account.

In the end, to round out the two sides, the Nobel Peace Prize was given to both Mr. Gore and the IPCC. Both are researching the hottest topic of the present day and both claim a different story. Ask the guy on the street what he deems to be of utmost importance and his agenda seems to sympathize with Gore – planet first, people second. The Hollywood megaphone is heard again as the box office smash is hailed by many, and Kate Blanchett refuses to shower for the good of the planet, but to the expense of her boyfriend. Scientists are left speechless, or rather without a microphone, as the ex-senator from Tennessee sends down warming alerts from his jet-plane to any one of his followers who are kissing and smiling to him up above…

Romantic Realists

“Women are the only realists,” says G.K. Chesterton when describing the nature of Jane Austen’s books. A surprising novel (no pun intended) in light of the new romantic movie women must drag their husbands and boyfriends to see. The Miramax film, Becoming Jane, tells the love story of Jane Austen herself – the author made famous for her countless love stories, which highlight romantic love in the midst of ordinary life.

Starring Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy, the movie is set in 19th century England where balls and tea-parties, gowns trimmed in lace and satin gloves are part of everyday jargon. It depicts the courtship she had with the only man she truly loved. The story unfolds to reveal that the devoted author of books like Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, once had a love of her own -- an experience from which she was likely to have drawn her delicate and sensitive approach towards the relationship between man and woman. The perplexing climax is certainly a shock to her readers, in so far as the author never married. In short, the man she loved was an idealist, Jane a realist.

Maybe men consider love stories to be a waste of time and of little practical value when dealing with the real world, whether on the screen or in a book. However, I would place the flying car or the space alien in that precise category, defending the romantic quality of any film (or novel) that portrays a love story based on truth and value. I say this not because I am a woman, but only because it is more likely to happen than the average action-packed film where men with masks fly around the world saving desperate people.

It’s possible the sexes will never agree when it comes to the debate on romantic love stories and action packed thrillers. Women will drag their husbands to the first, while men (whether they known it or not) will drag their date to the second. Unbearable as it may seem though, Chesterton in conclusion to his discourse on women authors found that, “Any masculine reader is really an intruder among this pile of books.” Perhaps the same holds true for both types of film in the present day. Movie-goers are accompanied to the cinema by “intruders”, bound willing and solely by that one thread lasting throughout all of man’s history: the divine existence of romantic love…