Truly Dreadful Film

Powerful

Absolutely Brilliant!

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The cutting in this is so frenzied! If any talking head is on the screen for more than literally (literally!) 2 seconds they're applying a quick succession of different color filters, extreme zooming, jump panning, etc. The talking head intro text is presented only once per head and so briefly that if you aren't Evelyn Wood on speed you'll almost certainly miss their name, position, or both. Why don't they properly introduce these obscure people who are yakking my ear off for almost two hours? Youth wants to know.I had to close my eyes to the visual cacophony in order to keep from hurling, and to actually be able to listen to what those heads were saying - which was very little beyond an incoherent presentation of universal love for their unjustly and inexplicably persecuted Sarah, on top of a continuous wash of super annoying and pointless background music. Did they watch the final cut and think to themselves that it needed something more to mask their largely bankrupt presentation? I learned almost nothing from the two hours, it could have easily been cut down to an hour (or less) without losing any info whatsoever. They played very fast and loose with stock and manufactured footage e.g. the close-up of the screaming angry mob was obviously staged. You really need to label the fake stuff in a purported documentary if you want to be taken seriously.The movie starts by showing us all the scary liberals who were frightened to death Sarah would get in and what big meanies they were (hey, she's a public persona who seems to enjoy the spotlight). This sets the quite defensive seeming tone for the entire movie, to the point where it almost completely subsumes the puff angle. Even if the central figure was a total stranger, I'd have to wonder why everyone (except for a handful of relatively unknown talking heads) was so terribly against everything she did and what she represented.Anyway, on to shots of oil soaked animal carcases from the Exxon Valdez tragedy with voice over from Sarah talking about what at tragedy it was. Shortly after this we hear how she championed - and got the public to pay for - yet more drilling and pipelines, there's environmental activism for you! But the state running a dairy farm is big government running amok so she had to close it down? She got a ton of big box stores to open locations in Wasilla, but she's for the little guy? That must have destroyed their local downtown economy.I find it incredibly ironic that the producers of this apparently tried unsuccessfully to adopt many of Michael Moore's methods to elicit outrage, given all the glowing reviews here of people who hate MM. This movie is likely the very best the big money lackeys, grifters, and hangers-on can crank out - they're either talentless hacks or their hearts just aren't in it (or both I suppose). Watch "Going Upriver" for an example this genre done right.

If you are a typical leftist who has bought into the media-manufactured image of Sara Palin as hateful and ignorant then you will not like this. If you like Sara Palin then you will like maybe love this movie. It is unapologetically a conservative and Pro-Palin perspective. But guess what there is nothing wrong with that. It does not try to present itself as anything but that. That said, even if you don't like her or are ambivalent but are not a mindless lemming so indoctrinated by MSNBC, Keith Olbermann, Bill Maher etc that the mere mention of Sara Palin causes you to cringe then you would probably like this.One reviewer said that it was as biased as a Michael Moore film (which it is) but then condescendingly wrote "...but at least Michael Moore brings awareness to a particular subject of topical interest rather than simply shameless self-promotion." What an absurd comment. Of course it's self-promotion. It's about her life. Her life is the topic so it's also absurd to suggest she has no awareness of the topic. Now unlike Moore she does not have to resort to making things up and misrepresenting the facts.The film is divided up nicely in three sections; her years as mayor, her years as governor and her VP campaign and the post-campaign years since then. What I found most insightful was the more in-depth accounting of what she accomplished as mayor and governor and what she was up against and the issues that were so peculiar to Alaska. I also really appreciated hearing about why she resigned as governor. Suffice it to say, it wasn't quite as simple as most of the media portrayed which was basically that she wanted to leave Alaska and be famous.Is it self-promotion? Yes. Is it factual? Yes. And given how she is attacked and misrepresented by most of the media it was nice to see something positive about her. She had an approval rating of 88% right before McCain called her. You don't get an 88% approval rating by being ignorant and hateful. There is nothing wrong with self-promotion if you can back it up and Sara Palin can.

I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the information on Gov. Palin. The commentary by friends and co-workers was very enlightening and helped to reinforce some of the impressions that I already had.But the Production was just AWFUL. The director or producer, for some reason, felt that they had to insert video scenes of really odd stuff to reinforce what was being said. Things like lions eating their prey, or a plant bud rising out of a the soil. Just a lot of stupid stuff. Its like the director felt that we could not understand the oral information that was being provided so they provided dramatically graphical images. It was so annoying that I think the show would be much better with the picture turned off and done in audio only.I am a big supporter and big fan of Gov. Palin and I could hardly watch it. If this movie was to support her I think it probably had the opposite effect.

This movie tells the true story about Sarah Palin's record as governor of Alaska. She not only took on the big oil companies, but she also took on the corrupt politicians within her own Republican party. Her campaign for Governor is the very definition of grass roots. She went to the people and was able to connect with them. The very things that Sarah Palin dealt with in her home state are what needs to be dealt with in Washington. She is not afraid to take on any politician no matter what party they are affiliated with. Whether you like Palin or not, this documentary is worth the watch. It gives the viewer insight into the life of a woman who is obviously very polarizing in the political spectrum.