“S & TLG Review `The Undefeated’” or “WHAT?!”

posted at 7:52 pm on July 16, 2011 by Sarjex
[ Entertainment ]   

Last night TLG and I caught the 7:00 showing of The Undefeated in Orange County. This morning I was chatting a little with Ed today before his NARN show and was telling him about my impressions. As I went on and on, he chimed in.
“Sounds like you should write a review.”
So I did, but I thought it would be interesting to get TLG’s take on things since she is not only NOT a Palinista, she considers herself to be on the left side of the aisle. I wondered what she would think of the documentary and she was gracious enough to also write a review.

Please be respectful of her and if you have any questions for her or me, leave them in the comments.

Sarjex’s review:

Last night I took TLG with me to Orange County to watch The Undefeated.

Disclaimer: I am an unabashed Sarah Palin fan…TLG I’m not exactly sure what she thinks about The Hockey Mom from Wasilla. I have taken TLG with me to see a few openly conservative flicks…from the dreadful An American Carol to the poorly paced and no character arcs whatsoever but looked like a million bucks Atlas Shrugged. I like taking TLG with me to these because knowing that someone who tilts left is sitting right by me helps me view them with a bit more of a critical eye.

I know Palin’s story pretty well. I’ve read her book, watched her speeches and I’ve caused family upsets because I refused to allow a family member to get away with a “she’s so dumb AND she’s a QUITTER” comment. I didn’t think this movie would change TLGs political ideology but I hoped it would help sell to her why I admired Palin so much.

The crowd was polite and anticipation buzzed. I’d say it skewed a little older but it’s hard for me to say…pretty much the only thing I see in theaters anymore is animated so I’m used to a much younger set. A man handed TLG a slip of paper as we walked in promoting Organizers for Palin. She didn’t even glance at it as she handed it to me. I didn’t tell her I had already been to their website.

Up and down the conservative blogosphere, the reviews have been effusive with one sole exception and it was an opinion I really valued. The lights dimmed, the trailers played and then the movie began. “Please be good!” I thought. “Please, please, please be really GOOD.”

The beginning of the movie is well known… Politicos, Hollywood and Media elites snarking on Palin calling her everything from a well trained parrot to images of detractors wearing shirts proclaiming Palin is a C***. The hatred and ruthlessness has been well documented but a feeling of trepidation filled me as the movie advanced.

As the celebrities talked a music track played underneath I guess to help sell the emotion of the vitriol… but I found it distracting and unnecessary. You don’t need to force the idea on the audience! I thought. Let their own words convict them.

The movie is LOUD. Not just LOUD but it’s completely unbalanced. Every bit of audio…the dialogue, the music, any sound effects have all been given the same level of importance, ratcheting the sound up as high as it will go to the point that it is meaningless. Shortly into the movie TLG leaned over and handed me some bits of Kleenex so we could stuff some into our ears and help dull the pain.

It wasn’t just the ear splitting wall of sound, it was the obnoxious quick cut, jump here, jump there editing. It works well for a fast paced 30-90 second political ad, but even 5 minutes of it is exhausting.

I hoped things would slow down and the filmmakers would let this story breathe after the high energy opener but my heart sank as the movie finished the prologue and went into the first segment and continued its breakneck pace.

What’s so frustrating for me is amid all of the jump cutting and audio extremism, lies a kernel of a GREAT story. Palin’s story is remarkable… from the PTA to Mayor of Wasilla which she helped turned from an economically depressed little bit of podunk to Alaska’s boomtown. There is time spent on the corruption of Anchorage and the “Corrupt Bastards Club” and her time spent fighting her own party in the primary to get the nomination for Governor and the mind bogglingly transformative first 20 months of her Governorship.

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any sense of pacing in The Undefeated. Each segment is treated as if it is The. Most. Important. Segment. Ever. The music is intrusive and distracting, some of the imagery, while fine for a political commercial seemed a bit jarring and out of place for a serious documentary (seriously? Lions taking out a zebra? Knights on horseback? Shadowy figures in smoke filled rooms?) The editing is exhausting so by the time the film reaches what SHOULD be the climax with RNC speech and later the Tea Parties there is no sense of the journey…it feels like more of the same.

I was glad they spent time on her Governorship after returning home from the McCain campaign and clearly outlined the harassment hit job jihad against her but again, found myself frustrated. It’s one thing to have talking heads talk about all of the frivolous ethics lawsuits…but at least TELL us what some of them were! You can’t just tell the audience that they were silly and they were all dismissed (they were) but not detail out some of the more the ludicrous charges.

There are definitely cheer worthy points in the movie…and my sold out audience did. When the movie decides to settle down and just let people talk it works well. It’s very unsubtle pointing out the similarities between Palin and Reagan (who elicited some wistful awwws when he appeared on screen) and Mark Levin does a masterful job at sweeping away the poorly constructed revised history of the Reagan revolution pointing out that just like Palin, the Republican establishment despised him.

There’s so much that’s good about this documentary, showing what a remarkable executive she was in Alaska, how electrifying she is in person and her Gipper like ability to connect with `plain ol’ regular Americans’ but it’s lost in the obnoxious editing and wall of sound.

Is it worth seeing? Yes, but bring earplugs. Can she be elected? Is she even running? I don’t know but I don’t think this is the vehicle to change perceptions. You’ll have to ask TLG.

TLG’s Review:

When Sarjex told me that she wanted to see a movie, I could tell by the little smile that she wasn’t talking about Harry Potter. “Would you like to go with me?” I always try to be open minded and have ventured with her to see several “conservative” leaning movies, so yes, I’d go see Undefeated with her.

I really enjoyed all the previews, and leaned over to whisper my interest in seeing a few of them. Then the movie started. They showed numerous examples of Palin being bashed and slandered. While the examples were all valid, I couldn’t help but think that there is just as much evil spewing, and “Us vs. Them” from both sides. I’m sure a movie about Obama could have at least as many horrible examples of people calling for violence and spitting venom.

The movie is put together in 3 main “acts” and started out with “The Seed” explaining how she had her first sparks of political interest when the Exxon Valdez impacted Alaska. The acts followed her progression from PTA hockey mom, to Mayor, Governor and VP candidate, and the aftermath.

As Sarjex has said, they certainly “pumped the volume” in the theater. I started off plugging one ear and quickly realized the volume wasn’t decreasing as the plot line moved along. I fashioned ear plugs from kleenex and shared with Sarjex. (I want her to be able to hear me in our old age.) The ear plugs definitely let me be able to pay attention to the movie without being needlessly worried about my hearing. I agree completely with Sarjex’s note about the music not pushing emotion and just flowing through everything.

My next complaint was about the people they had who were telling the story. Each person had their name and who they were flashed on screen the first time the spoke. This happened for anywhere from half a second to two seconds. If you were not paying attention because you were, say for example digging in your bag for Kleenex, then you had no idea who the person was who was talking.

I agree with Sarjex that they didn’t cover the ethics violations questions especially well. There were a few things I had heard about and for them to simply say that there were 14 ethics lawsuits which were all dismissed didn’t fully cover it. I found myself wondering if some of the things I’d heard were the lawsuits or if they were other side notes that weren’t ever “lawsuits”.

Overall I’d say the movie did leave me with more positive views of Palin. I could truly see that she got into politics to make Alaska better for ALASKANS and not for her own glory. She really did some great things in Alaska, and I wish that more politicians would work with big oil to benefit their states instead of just selling out or profiting personally. I’m not sure that I’d vote for her, but you’d never see me wearing a shirt calling her a c***.

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