Participant Productions, the same studio that heralded An Inconvenient Truth into theaters returns with an insider's look into former president Jimmy Carter's book tour as seen through the eyes of director Jonathan Demme. Using an experimental approach, the camera follows the promotional tour and subsequent reaction to the ex-head of state's controversial tome Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which theorizes a Middle East peace solution and how Israel's staunch stance has negatively effected the
region. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
It won't utterly rewrite Carter's history, and it won't convert anybody in this divided country, but Man from Plains will remind us that principle, humility and intelligence have a place in image-is-everything American politics.
Moviegoers might initially find the inside peek into a media book tour fascinating. But the tedium of trekking from hotel to car to interview and back to a waiting limo can wear down one's resolve.
From the open-air stroll he took down Pennsylvania Ave. on his inauguration day, to the sunny-coloured cardigans he wore when addressing the nation, president James T. Carter always seemed like a guy who wanted people to remember he was one of them.
Regardless of your feelings about Carter's presidency or his 21st century views, you have to be amazed and impressed by his energy and his spirit and his commitment to the world.
An intriguing document of a man's public and private life and has yet further value as the first significant film ever made about a former U.S. president.
Jimmy Carter may not be the most memorable ex-White House resident, but his post-presidency record as a battler for humanitarian causes takes some beating.
Carter is more energetic than Demme's film that fires on all cylinders only when Carter calmly but persuasively faces down his critics or recounts his time as the most powerful man on Earth.
Only belatedly, with the arrival of Alan Dershowitz, does Demme happen across anybody who might disrupt the air of non-confrontational niceness, but Carter ducks the challenge, and the film heads ever onwards into hagiography. A disappointment.
Demme's fascinating documentary shows Carter on a US tour to promote the book. Perhaps Carter - and Demme himself - imagined this would be as trouble-free as Al Gore promoting environmentalism.
Jimmy Carter Man from Plains is an affectionate and admiring portrait of a politician who, like Al Gore, became more idealistic and effective on the world stage once he left office.
Demme is clearly a Carter enthusiast, and his film paints a vivid, involving picture of an informed and passionate man whose impact is still being felt worldwide.
Jonathan Demme's excellent documentary of Jimmy Carter's struggle to balance on the razor's edge between equal advocacy for both Palestinian liberation and for Israel's right to a peaceful existence. In addition to being "accused of being a liar, bigot, and anti-Semite" -- as if that wasn't enough of a
challenge -- he's also accused of being a plagiarist with Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, his book that generated all this controversy two years ago. An incredible story about an incredible man.
The best documentary I've seen in ages from one of the most brillant,humane,and principled men ever to occupy the oval office of the United States Presidency.
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