DVD REVIEW

Jimmy Carter Man from Plains

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment || PG || Mar 25, 2008

Synopsis

Embarking on a national publicity tour to promote his new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter ignites an international firestorm of controversy when he argues that only Israel’s complete withdrawal from the occupied territories can bring lasting peace to the Middle East.          


Critique

Jimmy Carter was in the White House when I was born.  That’s one of the first things I think about that when his name comes to mind; that, Georgia, peanuts, Billy Beer, and, lately, Israel and the Middle East.  Man From Plains focuses on Carter’s recent views on Israel and the controversy those views generate.  We also see that Carter is not without some experience in Middle Eastern diplomacy.

The film opens – after a clip of Lillian Carter, the president’s mother, on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1979 – with Carter driving through a part of Georgia that has been in his family for more than a century.  He talks about land and what it means.  Himself a former peanut farmer, Carter is a man who knows what it is to be tied to the land.

Jimmy Carter is one of those former presidents who have a reputation for being better ex-presidents than they ever were presidents.  Carter has certainly kept busy since leaving office, founding Habitat for Humanity and, among other things, speaking out on the Middle East.  His effectiveness as a president is a matter for debate (and we get some perspective on that in the film), but he did accomplish some important things while in office.  In 1979, the same year his mother appeared on Carson, Carter brokered a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.  He brought Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin to Camp David and, after intense negotiations, worked out a treaty.  Carter is revealed as someone who is as invested in the Middle East as he is in Georgia farmland.

All of this seems lost on the media that takes Carter to task for his latest book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.  No one can seem to get past the title of the book, and few of the people in the film seem capable of looking past the word apartheid to what point Carter might actually be making.  In some interviews, he is met with indignant reactions to the title of his book; how could he dare call the situation in Israel Apartheid?  As though there were some kind of monopoly on the term.  He is also met with those who seem to think that any criticism of Israel is ridiculous, if not outright anti-Semitic.

The scene changes when we follow Carter into his book signings and see the enthusiastic crowds that turn out to meet him.  We follow him across the country, from Plains to Manhattan to Los Angeles to the 9th Ward of New Orleans, where he helps build a Habitat for Humanity house for one of Hurricane Katrina’s victims.  At the heart of it, we see Jimmy Carter as a charismatic man who is not afraid of a little controversy, who is brilliant with people, and who has a point to make.  

The worst that can be said about Man From Plains is that it starts to feel repetitive after a while.  Another signing, another interview; before long Carter is starting to repeat himself.  The film is also too much of a love letter to really get into some of Carter’s problematic relationships, primarily his closeness to the late Yasser Arafat.  Nobel Peace Prize aside, Arafat was a stone terrorist who was responsible for some pretty unspeakable acts.  Lending any kind of legitimacy to someone like that seems, at the very least, intellectually and morally problematic.

But none of that is so much as mentioned in Man From Plains, and perhaps it doesn’t need to be.  Carter seems to be one of the few people in the U.S. who is willing to publicly say that maybe the Israeli policy towards Palestine isn’t exactly in line with any ideas about peace in that region.  This film, if nothing else, gives the president a stage to make his point without judgment, which doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else.


Video

Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains is presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format.  The picture is sharp, and the colors look as good as they can.  The picture looks completely natural, of course, caught in the act, and the transfer brings that to life nicely.


Audio

This DVD is presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital.  This film does not have the most complicated soundtrack; most of it sounds like audio that was captured on the fly.  The presentation is sharp, and all channels come through as clearly as can be expected.


Special Features

Commentary by Jonathan Demme: the director talks about working with the President and the nature of the shoot.  This is an interesting appendix to the film.

Bonus Scenes: ten scenes.  There is some interesting stuff here.  Carter talks about learning about the death of Anwar Sadat, more signings and more.

The Music Sessions: a look at the recording of the film’s music.


Final Thoughts

Less a documentary and more of a love letter, Jimmy Carter Man From Plains is nonetheless an interesting portrait of the former president.  A polarizing figure, especially lately, Carter shows himself to be a compelling figure regardless of your political bent.  The bonus material is so-so, but this is definitely worth a look.

VERDICT: RECOMMENDED

 

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Review posted on Apr 24, 2008 | Share this article | Top of Page

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