Jonathan Demme: Jimmy Carter. Man from Plains
The biggest part of this hommage to Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the US and nobel prize peace winner for his tireless international work for peace in the world, is about his promotion of the book ”Palestine. Peace not Apartheid”, that raised a lot of discussion and anger a couple of years ago as it was also seen as a strong criticism of the state of Israel.
It’s Carter in and out of cars, Carter signing books, Carter in the media, first of all in tv studios, Carter repeating the same argument again and again to all those who have not really read the book but maybe just the title… He is constantly followed by bodyguards and his pr agent, he is (at an age of over 80) very fit, and he is emotional on several occasions. As is his wife, Rosalynn, with whom he has been together for more than 60 years.
Some archive material goes back to when he was president and had Anwar Sadat and Menachim Begin meet and sign a peace agreement at Camp David, but otherwise there is not a lot about his time as leader of the country.
Purely positive to the main character, with ”sugar-on-the-cake” (for me) music from start till end (Demme has made great music films with Neil Young and Talking Heads but here it is bring in some flavour), the film and the special Jimmy Carter smile becomes boring to watch. But I still leave the film with a lot of sympathy for an honest and honorable man, who takes a very unamerican point on Israeli politics on the West Bank.
USA, 2007, 125 mins.
http://www.sonyclassics.com/jimmycartermanfromplains/
http://www.filmstransit.com/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0011VIO64/
