The most striking fact about the movie for those of us that have actually read Game Change is the fact that the book is mostly about the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama with the John Edwards affair playing out on the side. Only one chapter of the book is dedicated to the rise of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential nominee. The fact that the producers determined to ignore the most compelling story of 2008: a woman as the frontrunner and the rise of the first African-American president is, in-and-of itself telling.However, the movie seems to be mostly factual. Although I love Sarah Palin and view her as an important voice in the Republican Party. I think most of us can now admit that she wasnt qualified for national office. The problem with the bias of the movie isnt that they mislead us on the facts. The movie reflects the stories told in the book. Which are probably somewhat true. The problem is that half of the film includes screen shots of Campaign managers Nicole Wallace and Steve Schmidt looking down their nose at a candidate that they never vetted.
The story does little to show Palins side of the story. Palin was a highly successful politician in a small state and obviously couldnt even comprehend what she was jumping into. She is a politician and it is her job to do a good job and take greater opportunities when they present themselves. She really did the best she could without hardly any knowledge and as the movie demonstrates, she did a heck of a job.The movie also underlined what is so great about John McCain. I can hardly think of a republican that angers me more than McCain on policy or on the fact that he never seemed to want to fight Obama to win the nomination. However, as the film demonstrates, McCain never, to this day, blamed Palin for his problems.
On a certain level, McCain had to know that he was just so far out of sync with the base of the party that he had little chance. McCain would likely tell you that the party left him behind. The problem is of course he isnt really conservative on any issue and thus, Ronald Reagan himself couldnt of helped John McCain beat Barack Obama.Obviously, a more balanced approach would have attempted to stay clear of making Sarah into a religious nutcase, instead every ounce of Palins religiosity was quickly followed with the judging eyes of a campaign staffer as if she was some sort of imbecile.The film also portrays Palin as extreme for not supporting embryonic stem cell research and refusing to campaign with a pro-choice candidate onstage. While these scenes were meant to paint her as strange, tt was these moments that reminded me of her backbone and the reason why we love her.
At the end of the film, McCain warns Palin not to be co-opted by the extreme fringe of the party, commenting that they would destroy the party. The film focused on showing how angry, bitter and racist the republican base was. On both the left and the right, it is easiest to demonize those that you cant understand. That seems to be the tone the movie sought to strike in showcasing republican voters.All in all, the game change decision was a masterful one. There was no one that was going to help McCain defeat Barack Obama, and a beautiful, gun-toting, pro-life woman with an 80% approval rating was a high risk/high reward decision that took guts. In the end, it wasnt Sarah Palins lack of knowledge that sunk McCain, it was McCains stunt in suspending his campaign that really demonstrated his complete and utter lack of knowledge on anything economic. It was that moment when regular non-democrat voters began seeing Barack Obama as a man with presidential poise. Watch free movies online
All in all, this was a very entertaining film that told a compelling story. It focused on the worst parts of Palin while often failing to demonstrate the reason Americans continue to love her today. While Sarah Palin is likely done with public office, I hope she will continue to speak out in endorsing conservative candidates in primaries and pushing conservative candidates in the right direction.Now, the people at HBO, and the writer/director behind Recount, that network's superb retelling of the machinations in Florida in the aftermath of the 2000 election, have adapted one long portion of that book for a movie that debuts this Saturday, in what can fairly be called The Last Temptation of Sarah Palin. The movie is completely faithful to the spirit of the book in that it shows how some generally sensible people worked night and day to put a pretty obvious dimwit one heartbeat away from the nuclear codes and now feel really, really bad about it. It's basically the story of Steve Schmidt, the political pro who convinced John McCain that his campaign needed a "game-changing" moment, and that picking Palin as a running mate was what he was looking for. The great arc of the movie shows Woody Harrelson's Schmidt gradually realizing the catastrophe he has unleashed upon the campaign and, possibly, upon the country itself. It's Frankenstein with BlackBerries. By the end of it, you half-expect to see Schmidt, who now is one of the best things about MSNBC's political coverage, chasing Palin across the Arctic pack ice with dogs baying in the distance.
As with most HBO productions, the movie has an impeccable A-List cast, particularly Julianne Moore, whose performance as Palin takes her from nave enthusiast, to terrified political naf, to impossible egomaniac in a fashion that almost makes Princess Dumbass of the Northwoods sympathetic, except that Moore is so very good at that last transition that the sheer terror we all felt during Palin's off-the-cliff interview with Katie Couric comes back again in all its gorge-rising power. (The movie's mind-bending meta moments come when we see Moore playing Sarah Palin watching Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin. At these points in the film you wonder quite seriously whether Palin is herself a real person anymore, or just a collection of people playing Sarah Palin, including herself.) What is surprising is that for a long time, until Palin turns into the spotlight-gobbler with whom we have become so familiar, what with all the travelling on buses and its twangy soundtrack, Game Change looks like nothing more than one of those country-and-western biopics, most notably Coal Miner's Daughter, with Moore's Palin replacing Sissy Spacek's Loretta Lynn as the accidental blue-collar hero buffeted this way and that by the cruel demands of fame, wah-dee-doo-dah. Of course, Spacek's Lynn has her breakdown on stage. For Moore, it comes when, after being put through candidate-preparation boot camp, she ends up curled up on a hotel-room floor, or meeping softly to her handlers how much she misses her kids. There is some genuine pathos in those scenes. And, then, of course, after what the movie's producers seem to think was a triumphant debate performance, she turns into the biggest backstabber of them all.
The story does little to show Palins side of the story. Palin was a highly successful politician in a small state and obviously couldnt even comprehend what she was jumping into. She is a politician and it is her job to do a good job and take greater opportunities when they present themselves. She really did the best she could without hardly any knowledge and as the movie demonstrates, she did a heck of a job.The movie also underlined what is so great about John McCain. I can hardly think of a republican that angers me more than McCain on policy or on the fact that he never seemed to want to fight Obama to win the nomination. However, as the film demonstrates, McCain never, to this day, blamed Palin for his problems.
On a certain level, McCain had to know that he was just so far out of sync with the base of the party that he had little chance. McCain would likely tell you that the party left him behind. The problem is of course he isnt really conservative on any issue and thus, Ronald Reagan himself couldnt of helped John McCain beat Barack Obama.Obviously, a more balanced approach would have attempted to stay clear of making Sarah into a religious nutcase, instead every ounce of Palins religiosity was quickly followed with the judging eyes of a campaign staffer as if she was some sort of imbecile.The film also portrays Palin as extreme for not supporting embryonic stem cell research and refusing to campaign with a pro-choice candidate onstage. While these scenes were meant to paint her as strange, tt was these moments that reminded me of her backbone and the reason why we love her.
At the end of the film, McCain warns Palin not to be co-opted by the extreme fringe of the party, commenting that they would destroy the party. The film focused on showing how angry, bitter and racist the republican base was. On both the left and the right, it is easiest to demonize those that you cant understand. That seems to be the tone the movie sought to strike in showcasing republican voters.All in all, the game change decision was a masterful one. There was no one that was going to help McCain defeat Barack Obama, and a beautiful, gun-toting, pro-life woman with an 80% approval rating was a high risk/high reward decision that took guts. In the end, it wasnt Sarah Palins lack of knowledge that sunk McCain, it was McCains stunt in suspending his campaign that really demonstrated his complete and utter lack of knowledge on anything economic. It was that moment when regular non-democrat voters began seeing Barack Obama as a man with presidential poise. Watch free movies online
All in all, this was a very entertaining film that told a compelling story. It focused on the worst parts of Palin while often failing to demonstrate the reason Americans continue to love her today. While Sarah Palin is likely done with public office, I hope she will continue to speak out in endorsing conservative candidates in primaries and pushing conservative candidates in the right direction.Now, the people at HBO, and the writer/director behind Recount, that network's superb retelling of the machinations in Florida in the aftermath of the 2000 election, have adapted one long portion of that book for a movie that debuts this Saturday, in what can fairly be called The Last Temptation of Sarah Palin. The movie is completely faithful to the spirit of the book in that it shows how some generally sensible people worked night and day to put a pretty obvious dimwit one heartbeat away from the nuclear codes and now feel really, really bad about it. It's basically the story of Steve Schmidt, the political pro who convinced John McCain that his campaign needed a "game-changing" moment, and that picking Palin as a running mate was what he was looking for. The great arc of the movie shows Woody Harrelson's Schmidt gradually realizing the catastrophe he has unleashed upon the campaign and, possibly, upon the country itself. It's Frankenstein with BlackBerries. By the end of it, you half-expect to see Schmidt, who now is one of the best things about MSNBC's political coverage, chasing Palin across the Arctic pack ice with dogs baying in the distance.
As with most HBO productions, the movie has an impeccable A-List cast, particularly Julianne Moore, whose performance as Palin takes her from nave enthusiast, to terrified political naf, to impossible egomaniac in a fashion that almost makes Princess Dumbass of the Northwoods sympathetic, except that Moore is so very good at that last transition that the sheer terror we all felt during Palin's off-the-cliff interview with Katie Couric comes back again in all its gorge-rising power. (The movie's mind-bending meta moments come when we see Moore playing Sarah Palin watching Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin. At these points in the film you wonder quite seriously whether Palin is herself a real person anymore, or just a collection of people playing Sarah Palin, including herself.) What is surprising is that for a long time, until Palin turns into the spotlight-gobbler with whom we have become so familiar, what with all the travelling on buses and its twangy soundtrack, Game Change looks like nothing more than one of those country-and-western biopics, most notably Coal Miner's Daughter, with Moore's Palin replacing Sissy Spacek's Loretta Lynn as the accidental blue-collar hero buffeted this way and that by the cruel demands of fame, wah-dee-doo-dah. Of course, Spacek's Lynn has her breakdown on stage. For Moore, it comes when, after being put through candidate-preparation boot camp, she ends up curled up on a hotel-room floor, or meeping softly to her handlers how much she misses her kids. There is some genuine pathos in those scenes. And, then, of course, after what the movie's producers seem to think was a triumphant debate performance, she turns into the biggest backstabber of them all.
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