I was not sure what to expect from this HBO film last night. I have read the book, but was also aware that the film was only focusing on 1 or 2 chapters from the book that dealt with Palin. Also, just because the conservative extremists are paranoid does not mean they are always wrong, and it was entirely possible this was going to be turned into a political hatchet job.
I was pleasantly surprised. This is not the film that conservative republicans would make, but it is also not a film that most of them, even Tea Partiers, would actually hate (confirmed at least by this review by a Palinista at: http://www.redstate.com/griffinelection/2012/03/11/game-change-movie-review/ ) Moore does a really fine job as Palin, illustrated most clearly in the surreal scenes where she as Palin is watching Fey pretend to be Palin. One is an actor, the other a comic, and it is easy and fascinating to tell the difference. Part of Moore's success is how much she humanizes Palin - not just the obvious as loving and protective mother of a special needs child, but the more subtle and delicate embodiment of an earnest and eager true believer who realizes she is in over her head, isolated from those she cars about and who like her. Moore portrays Palin not as someone who is stupid (meaning, with limited intellectual hardware), but as someone who is ignorant (who for whatever reason never really learned much past B- level high school information about the world). One of the best scenes is Palin eager beavering it during an early cram session with some of the smartest people the Republicans could find going over really basic Geo-politics, and she is all "gee whiz, this is really interesting". I know Palin attended three or four different colleges, but this scene made me appreciate that, either because she was poorly taught, or did not see the need to at the time, she never really took advantage of what even a basic college education can do for a person, which is to open up a wide window on complex and diverse world. John McCain also comes off very well in the film (much better, IMO, than he deserves; I don't think we should give people too many points for simply not doing horrible things. In addition to not giving the green light to the most racist of low-road campaigns, and not challenging the legitimacy of his opponents clear popular and electoral victory, he also did not rape or murder anyone during the campaign, but that hardly makes him an American hero). The main problem with the film, as with the source material, is that it largely tells the story from the POV of the McCain staffers who bear the fundamental responsibility for creating Palin and Palin-ism. While they do take responsibility (kind of) for not properly vetting her, they never really show what is happening from Palin's POV (even though Moore is on camera in a majority of the scenes). Unlike a lot of my liberal friends, I was delighted the Friday morning that the Palin announcement was made. It confirmed two major miscalculations being made by the McCain people: 1. That their biggest problem was losing their right-wing base (their real problem was losing so-called moderates and independents) and 2. That the real gender gap they were suffering from could be closed by picking up disaffected, moderate Hillary supporters simply by putting an XX as VP. McCain thought picking Palin was a bold, courageous and risky "go for the win" move - that was where he made his fatal mistake. The real risky and courageous move would have been to put a moderate woman on the ticket with him, or a pro-life man (even if Lieberman was a bridge too far for any reasonable strategy). Even if unexcited, the ideologues would still almost all have voted for him when confronted with "That One" as the alternative, and he just may have (though admitted, probably not) convinced enough moderates to come home to him. Sarah Palin, in almost everything that she did and said, pandered to the base, and alienated the middle. And here I don't even mean the obvious gaffes - she was a liability even if you only focus on what from the McCain campaign's POV were good days. In this political sense, my favorite scene in the film was the aftermath of the VP debate; the McCain strategy room erupts in orgasmic joy as if they had just completed a Super Bowl winning last second pass when Palin finishes her closing statement, then they get the word that the insta-polls have BIden as the winner by a 2-1 margin among independents. "Fuck CBS and their instant polls" they say - they are just happy she did not self-destruct. But of course they were already dead in the water by then - if Palin was not having a substantial net positive impact on their support, she was a failure as a pick. Good job by the HBO people, maybe enough of a reminder of what was to convince Romney not to risk the VP on Rubio on any other Tea Partier, but to do with someone already baptized by the fire of national political and press scrutiny. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
