France: "So, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, we'd like all the gold that these dollars represent."
Us: "Um... what gold?"
In the paraphrased words of Chris Rock, that is some crack dealer shit right there.
The film is full of fun facts like that and cool charts and graphs and, most importantly, real people talking about real problems (or being stumped by questions like "What's a trade deficit?"), which keeps the film grounded through oceans of econo-speak.
One of the producers was there and actually asked us for suggestions since the final cut won't go to theaters until August. Some wanted more Bush-bashing, some wanted a clarification on how this was a bipartisan issue, many wanted more solutions. For my part, I mentioned that the film was lacking what I called a "San Francisco moment."
In An Inconvenient Truth, you see a map of San Francisco drowned. That stays with you. It says, in very simple, visual, concrete terms, "This is what happens if we do nothing."
While you get the sense that Something Bad is going to happen if we don't do something about this debt stuff, you never really get a handle on what that is (although the Suez scenario comes close).
Even without heeding any of the audience's suggestions, though, they've already got a great and, yes, Important film on their hands.
Next: What else the government has been doing with your money.
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