Man from Plains. Tue Steen Müller.17.11.08
Tue ei ole varauksettoman innostunut Jonathan Demmen Jimmy Carter-elokuvasta, jonka Dokumenttiprojekti esittää ensi keväänä. Dokumentti on kuitenkin erikoisen kiinnostava, kun Carterin näkemyksiä Israelista vertaa Obaman lausumiin.
The biggest part of this hommage to Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the US and nobel prize peace winner for his tireless international work for peace in the world, is about his promotion of the book ”Palestine. Peace not Apartheid”, that raised a lot of discussion and anger a couple of years ago as it was also seen as a strong criticism of the state of Israel.
It’s Carter in and out of cars, Carter signing books, Carter in the media, first of all in tv studios, Carter repeating the same argument again and again to all those who have not really read the book but maybe just the title... He is constantly followed by bodyguards and his pr agent, he is (at an age of over 80) very fit, and he is emotional on several occasions. As is his wife, Rosalynn, with whom he has been together for more than 60 years.
Some archive material goes back to when he was president and had Anwar Sadat and Menachim Begin meet and sign a peace agreement at Camp David, but otherwise there is not a lot about his time as leader of the country.
Purely positive to the main character, with ”sugar-on-the-cake” (for me) music from start till end (Demme has made great music films with Neil Young and Talking Heads but here it is bring in some flavour), the film and the special Jimmy Carter smile becomes boring to watch. But I still leave the film with a lot of sympathy for an honest and honorable man, who takes a very unamerican point on Israeli politics on the West Bank.
USA, 2007, 125 mins.
http://www.sonyclassics.com/jimmycartermanfromplains/
http://www.filmstransit.com/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0011VIO64/
1 kommentti
Ma 17.11.2008 @ 20:55
Dear Tue,
Demme really made a superstarhero-portrait of Carter, with a lot of anti-bush politics, also from Carter's own mouth of course, but it is really Carter's honesty and sincerenity that saves this film. He is a wonderful character and a personality, and proved so many (european) prejudices wrong. I'm glad film is soon (well, in february) to be seen on TV, even with the Obama-administration coming out, this is also a different view to US that is very healthy to see.
Another question is, would another film maker (not that famous and coming not from fiction?)have been able a.to make this film, b. have been able to make a better, more layerd view to the world that Carter is able to show and talk about?
Looking forward seeing Man from the Plains again,
Ulla Simonen
