Lived Through It

bobzmcishl

One of the best movies I have seen this year and one of the few I would watch again. Outstanding performance's by the leads, especially Woody Harrelson and the amazing Julianne Moore. A great screenplay that brings the best selling book alive by just focusing on the McCain/Palin campaign. The movie really is better than the book although to be fair, the book covers a lot more ground including the Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama primary fights and the strategic decsions made by both political parties. Although Palin defenders won't like this movie and won't watch it, they should. They will be surprised at how sympathetically she is portrayed. She is a victim, as much as we are. The GOP needed a "game changer" and promoted her to the big leagues before she was ready. She thought Alaskan politics had prepared her for the worst but she was sadly mistaken. McCain could have told her the horrors he had to endure at the hands of the George W. Bush team in 2000 but apparently he didn't. Palin no doubt has charisma few politicians possess and she has a genuine love of her family and for special needs children. She truly is a mom to be admired. But those attributes won't prepare you for the scrutiny of the national media and the glare of public opinion. She wilted and then recovered or so she thought. Instead of looking inside herself she blamed her handlers for not preparing her. Perhaps she was right. It took Steve Schimdt a while to figure out Palin was a great political actress and could learn her lines if he gave her a script rather than forcing her to relearn world history and politics in a few short weeks. With her script, she had the tools to fend off Joe Biden in the VP debate and that was her ultimate failing. She elevated herself in her own mind and starting going "rogue" as the audience applause went to her head. I hope these are not "spoiler alert" material since most of us lived these events and saw first hand the Palin phenomena. Those of us involved in the 2008 political campaign saw first hand much of what the movie covered especially the "dark side of American populism" as John McCain described it when he came face to face with a Republican supporter who was convinced Barack Obama was not really an American. He had to gently put her in her place and we all saw that on television and a lot worse. McCain wanted to maintain his "maverick" persona, but in the end he gave in to the right wing politics he wanted to avoid. McCain is also portrayed sympathetically and his public gaffes are not in the movie, such as his emphatic reply after the Lehman Brothers meltdown that our "Economy was fundamentally sound". Also not covered in the movie is how unknown Palin was to the mainstream media and to the general public, but she was well known in right wing conservative politics and considered a rising star. Perhaps if she waited her time and served out her full four years as Alaska governor she might have been more ready to move onto the national stage. Now she is a highly paid commentator for Fox News and merely reports on the new Republican players moving on to the general election. Too bad so many viewers won't watch this movie because of their partisanship but if they are honest with themselves they would have to admit Palin was not ready in 2008. McCain, Schmidt, and Wallace came to that conclusion and they are all die hard Republicans.

score 9/10

bobzmcishl 11 March 2012

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2579782/