‘An Inconvenient Truth’: The documentary that Jane Fonda called “important”
There’s no doubt that the American actor Jane Fonda is among the Hollywood elite, rubbing shoulders with other vintage icons such as Katherine Hepburn, Robert Redford, Roy Scheider, Bruce Dern, and Michael Caine. The recipient of two Academy Awards, winning for Klute in 1972 and Coming Home in 1979, Fonda was known as one of the best actors in the industry during the late 20th century.
Daughter of the Oscar-winning actor Henry Fonda, the Klute star was given a head-start in her career but very much forged her own path, becoming especially popular during the 1970s when she gained fame and notoriety at the very same time. Although several starring roles allowed her to thrive on-screen during the decade, her political activism would draw the most attention.
In 1972, she appeared in a photograph next to Vietnamese firearms during their conflict with the USA, a decision that sparked fury back home. “A two-minute lapse of sanity that will haunt me forever,” she said of the regretful occasion which lost her a lot of public support, “But the photo exists, delivering its message regardless of what I was doing or feeling. I carry this heavy in my heart…It was never my intention to cause harm”.
Indeed, while Fonda is best known as one of Hollywood’s most prized actors, she is, and remains, an outspoken figure who has never been afraid to discuss pressing issues from the world of politics, society and beyond.
While speaking to Feminist back in 2006, Fonda discussed her dedication to such causes, specifically the climate crisis, where she delved into the issue with reference to one particularly empowering movie.
“I think we’re in serious trouble,” she told the publication, “That’s why I loved Al Gore’s movie so much – is that he, with great clarity and documentation, he shows us the peril that we’re facing, but he also says we have a decade – if we do these things,” making reference to the 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth, written by the former US Vice President Gore and directed by Davis Guggenheim.
The two-time Oscar-winning movie outlined and publicised the ever-more dangerous climate crisis, with much of the film being a lengthy presentation that called for immediate action to help reverse the effects of a changing environment. The film is credited for helping to wake the general public up to the imminent threat of the climate crisis, with a sequel, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, even being released in 2017.
Speaking further about the issue, Fonda added: “Now it’s interesting, there too is this lack of gender – he mentions in the list of problems that we can address – he lists population, but he doesn’t go the next step and say the way we address population is by empowering and educating women and girls. This is a gender issue. But still it’s a very important movie that fills me with hope, because I think a lot of people are seeing it and being affected by it”.
Take a look at the trailer for the sequel to the seminal documentary below.
