Posted on 06/22/2011 5:04:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
More than any other Republican presidential prospect, Sarah Palin draws white-hot journalistic loathing. She's too red-state, too gun-toting, too religious and too unwilling to abort a disabled "fetus." Even so, filmmaker Stephen Bannon remains deeply optimistic that his forthcoming Palin documentary, "The Undefeated," will sway the media to see Palin in a different light.
Bannon, a former Goldman Sachs banker turned filmmaker, told National Review's Kathryn Lopez that once he and his producing partner delved into Palin's life story, "we decided that not just the American people but even the mainstream media were both fair and decent -- that when presented with something that represented a completely different point of view, they would be at least open to considering it."
The movie is not an attempt at objectivity. It's a campaign film, a longer version of the kind Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason produced for Bill Clinton. You know, "I believe ... in a place called Hope." Or the one PBS darling Ken Burns made for Ted Kennedy in 2008. The only difference is that our media tend to greet liberal films with open arms and swooning heads, while similar conservative efforts are inevitably trashed.
Still, it would be nice if journalists would be open to considering as accurate the movie's version of Palin's life and career, since they often still confuse Palin quotes with Tina Fey satire ("I can see Russia from my house!"). The three phases of this movie are antidotes to media myth-making.
Myth 1: She's a bubblehead. The first part of the movie covers her time as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. The film shows that Palin rebuilt Wasilla's infrastructure to attract national retailers, which helped grow the local economy. (Rather than give her any credit, reporters were more concerned with false rumors about her ignorant censorship/mistreatment of the town librarian.) As mayor and as governor, Palin governed in boring detail, not with Crayola crayons.
Myth 2: She's no populist. The media want Palin's post-gubernatorial book and TV deals to cancel out her appeal to fly-over country. The second part is where Bannon's real passion shows: the story of Palin's tenure as governor, especially her management of energy issues and her advocacy of a gas pipeline into Canada. This is a story that voters either forgot or never even heard about (and it's the one that's emerging again from her vault of e-mails). She was a hands-on populist executive, not the "Caribou Barbie" cartoon.
Myth 3. She can't appeal to the middle. This section's 2011 footage of Palin at a rally in Madison, Wis., against the union-thug takeover of the state Capitol was certainly impressive. Reporters are so enthralled by government and its employee unions that they can't envision a scenario where centrists or independent voters would vote in favor of taking out the scissors to slice government budgets with "draconian" cuts. But independents voted for conservative Gov. Scott Walker and other budget-cutters in 2010, and they loved Gov. Palin. Before John McCain selected her for the GOP ticket, she had an 80 percent approval rating.
Most conservatives are Palin fans, but if she runs for president, will they favor her over other candidates? This is where the film begins to grate, suggesting Palin is a better, more conservative alternative than all the male GOP presidential contenders. Andrew Breitbart, Mark Levin and Tammy Bruce suggest Palin is Ronald Reagan's natural heir. The governing experience of other conservatives is somehow translated into a negative.
Is Palin that much better? Breitbart steps on more than a few toes by insisting that conservative men inside the Washington Beltway are all "eunuchs who have run as men but aren't men" for failing to be aggressive enough against Obama and for allowing Palin to be criticized. That's not exactly a page from "How to Win Friends and Influence People."
The movie also implies that every other conservative in the race is "the establishment," as if Palin will be able to claim that somehow Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum or Herman Cain is the latest version of a Gerald Ford or Bob Dole campaign. That dog won't hunt.
The public will have a decent chance to consider the movie, at least in some markets, with AMC Theatres. The major film chain will screen the film beginning July 15 in Dallas, Denver, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Atlanta, Phoenix, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Orange County, Calif. That's a nice alternative to theater chains that generally only run leftist Michael Moore-like documentaries.
One thing is for certain. "The Undefeated" is more than a documentary. It's an event -- one that shows that Palin is far better prepared, at least technologically, to wage a primary campaign than any of her rivals. And she hasn't even announced.
Yes.
The film is promoting a candidate. Usually, when promoting a candidate, one says "My candidate is better than the other candidates".
I don't see a problem.
FYI. Another review
I don’t either. I wished the movie would play in my area
Definitely
The MSM will never be “fair and decent” where Sarah Palin is concerned.
That is, the only thing standing in her way of the GOP nomination and the general election victory is the straw-man caricature of her that the media has built up in the last (just shy of) three years. Both the email dump and The Undefeated show the falsity of that media creation. "Sarah Palin" isn't Sarah Palin, it's a cartoon character.
The naysayers will point out that she has high name recognition and high negatives, which means she's doomed. But that's not really true -- "Sarah Palin" has those qualities but Sarah Palin is far less well-known than her doppleganger. If she can successfully distance herself from that image -- at least among the voting population that matters (for example, leftists will believe whatever fantasy that validates their warped worldviews, so why bother even trying to appeal to them?), then none of those poll numbers matter much at all.
SarahPAC is offering a pre-release DVD as a bonus for $100 donation, indicating that they have mastered a production DVD in addition to their stated plans for pay per view streaming/dnload video.
Presumably it will be available after playing in theaters.
Looking forward to getting my DVD, can’t get it soon enough.
I do hope that the final release has better cover art than the Victory Film web site is currently showing. Too much like a 60’s acid rock cover.
LOL. A slow connection and having to thumb a Blackberry gave you the time to post before my ping to you. Shoulf have known.
;>)
The media has been throwing dirt at her for 3 years. Nothing really sticks aside from the generalized sense that "she's stupid and has no chance of winning". There are no scandals. No crimes. No skeletons. As she shows up in debates and interviews, people will have to stop saying she's stupid -- because she clearly is not stupid. And as she rises in the polls, people will have to stop saying "she cannot win" -- because she can.
I think this is going to be huge.
One thing I really like about Palin is that she has ‘grown up’ (politically) over 3,000 miles from Washington DC.
Bozelle's only failure was not suggesting Breitbart was right in his critique of the eunuchs.
Bozell is of the Gop “establishment”. He hasn’t really had too many good things to say about gov Palin over the course of the last several years. His sitenewbusters basically only covers Gov Palin when they can make some type of Tabloid headline about her.
The problem with lies is they can be disproved by the truth. And the probem with MSM created narratives is they only work if the subject’s actions reinforce that narrative.
So I think the MSM narratives and lies are going to fall apart pretty quickly. The email dump killed pretty much aall the narratives about Gov Palin.
Bozell is one of those eunuchs that Breitbart was talking about.
Yeah. Good luck with that.
Palin is orders of magnitude better than the current crop of pubbies. In contrast to Bachmann, Sarah hasn't hired a rino hasbeen & neverwas like Ed Rollins. She has always been opposed to the gigantic ethanol scam, an economic and environmental disaster. Herman Cain, the only other principled conservative in the lot, would be subject to the same kind of invidious, endless vilification as the RACIST mainslime media has fraudulently foisted on Justice Thomas ever since his confirmation hearings. So, in the present MSM climate, he cannot defeat the Kenyan usurper on his own. But how gladsome and heartening it will be when Sarah Palin selects him as her running mate. Then he will run wild in the general election. Moreover - he will bring people into the campaign who have never participated before
Th work required for the task of perpetuating a monstrous lie is far greater than that needed to simply let the truth shine through.
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