The tour for former president Jimmy Carter’s controversial book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, is the subject of the new documentary Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains. As the title of his book suggests, Carter is in the relatively unique position (in the United States) of taking a strong stance against certain Israeli policies. As Carter said in an interview with The Diamondback and other press organizations at the Motion Picture Association of America in Washington Tuesday, “You will not hear candidates for president of the United States, any Republican or Democrat, saying anything I said on the book tour.”
Yet controversy seems like it should be the last thing associated with Carter when it comes to Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains. The deeply religious president comes off as humble and caring, and his down-to-earth, reasonable personality is the strength of the new documentary. But where the film fails is in its presentation – a dull film about peace in the Middle East should be damn near impossible, but here we are.
In the documentary, Carter speaks to everyone from Jay Leno to Larry King to Israeli television, and again and again, Carter politely corrects members of the press who all essentially jump to the same conclusion: that Carter one-sidedly blames the Israelis for a lack of progress toward peace. A number of these media members clearly haven’t read Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, but viewers never see Carter really lose his cool. Instead, he stays a gentleman, bringing to mind a more-political Mr. Rogers.
And the triumph of the documentary is that it simply makes you fall in love with Carter. Though Carter said he is “waiting” to see “whether I’ll be a villain or hero” because of the film, the latter conclusion seems far more likely. Viewers see Carter’s wife talk about how the former president kick-started the deadlocked Camp David peace process by signing pictures to each of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s grandchildren. The audience also sees Palestinians at book signings tell Carter how grateful they are someone is trying to speak out for them. The praise just keeps on coming.
Yet Carter is failed by Jonathan Demme’s (Neil Young: Heart of Gold) direction. Demme tries to spice up the film with an urgent handheld camera, close-ups, Alejandro Escovedo’s (Robbing Peter) gentle musical accompaniment and Brian Scott Benson’s (Hope and a Little Sugar) title graphics. But apart from those touches and a few archival videos, the rest is just Jimmy Carter talking. As a result, Demme’s film is at the other end of the spectrum from Michael Moore’s (Sicko) vastly entertaining but overtly biased documentaries.
This film is relatively objective, it isn’t emotionally manipulative and no one could legitimately call it propaganda. But by simply following Carter around as he talks to various members of the press, Demme has fashioned essentially a two-hour CNN special. It becomes visually monotonous, and if Demme and Co. had incorporated more archival footage, more forceful music or more energetic editing, it certainly could have been more engaging.
And that’s the disappointing part – that a film with such an important and relevant political message somehow comes off as dull. When asked what he hoped people would take away from the film, Carter said, “I hope that they take away the fact that this is one of the most important issues that the world faces, that it is being ostensibly ignored.”
Carter has valid points and is clearly well-informed, and his message that the Iraeli-Palestinian peace process will never succeed until Israel pulls out of Palestinian territory could have a real impact if taken to heart by Israel and the United States. But sadly, this message is likely to be lost because the film fails to entertain. If the success of documentaries such as Fahrenheit 9/11 taught us anything, it’s that to break out and reach major numbers of people, documentaries must entertain and provoke. It seems Jonathan Demme didn’t get the memo.
dan.benamor@gmail.com
