Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here.
Y’know, I’m not even sure this film ever screened here in LA. It must have played here at some point... I mean, if it played theatrically anywhere, I assume it would have been here. But I missed it completely. It’s one of those films that was easy to dismiss, too, when I was occasionally reminded of it. “What is it? A Jimmy Carter documentary?” It seemed like a film I would maybe watch but never spend any actual energy tracking down.
So of course, here I am telling you that it is worth the energy. Track it down. This is a great movie.
Jonathan Demme is a fascinating filmmaker, and I have a love/hate relationship with his work. I’m a big fan of his early movies, like HANDLE WITH CARE or MELVIN AND HOWARD or his mesmerizing Hitchcock riff LAST EMBRACE. His first step into documentary filmmaking was STOP MAKING SENSE, which still stands as one of the great concert films of all time. He also shot Spalding Gray’s monologue piece SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA around that same time, as well as a TV documentary on Haiti. As a narrative filmmaker, he was all over the map from day one. I find it hard to believe that the same guy who made CAGED HEAT also made MARRIED TO THE MOB or SWING SHIFT. Obviously SILENCE OF THE LAMBS was his biggest moment as a filmmaker, at least as far as the pop culture world is concerned, but it also may have been one of the worst things that could have happened to him as a director. Once you make an Oscar-wining Best Picture, people try to pigeonhole you, and Demme’s always been resistant to that. I prefer the Demme who followed up with COUSIN BOBBY, a sweet and kind-hearted documentary about his cousin, a white Episcopalian priest in Harlem, to the crass Oscar-bait of PHILADELPHIA. That movie felt to me like the sort of film he “had” to make after becoming an Oscar-winner, just like BELOVED. Phony prestige pictures. At the same time, Demme found himself doing a lot more music documentaries, like STOREFRONT HITCHCOCK or THE COMPLEX SESSIONS, and he followed up his worst film ever (the awful THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE) with one of his most intriguing, the documentary THE AGRONOMIST. Then THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE came out and tanked and he sort of vanished from view for a few.
As much as I liked his Neil Young concert film HEART OF GOLD a few years ago, I think it’s JIMMY CARTER MAN OF PLAINS that proves the fire is still burning for this quirky filmmaker. This movie manages to blend the folksy charm of some of Demme’s best early work with the keen social insight of THE ARGONOMIST, and the result is not at all what I would have expected in a film about the 39th President of the United States. This isn’t a film about Jimmy Carter’s whole life, and it’s not really a film about his background as a man from a farming family, despite that title. More than anything, this is a movie about anyone who has an idea that they are trying to impart in this media age, and just how hard it can be to get that idea across simply, effectively, and without anyone else’s agenda coloring it. You don’t have to like anything Carter says to enjoy this film, and you don’t have to remotely agree with him. Considering much of this film is about his views on Israel and Palestine, it’s probably a good thing that this isn’t meant to be a lecture on his views, a la AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. This is an intimate look at what happens when he writes a controversial book and then embarks on a media tour to try and get the message of that book out into the mainstream.
He chooses an intentionally provocative title, something he states several times near the start of the film. PALESTINE: PEACE NOT APARTHEID is no doubt a kick in the gut to many Israelis or even to Jews around the world, and Carter knows that it’s going to spark discussion of what he sees as a deplorable situation. What he’s not prepared for is the way people turn on him and begin to tear him down for simply questioning something he sees as wrong. Alan Dershowitz, who’s known Carter for years, goes so far as to call him anti-Semitic and challenges him to a debate. People start to challenge the accuracy of Carter’s text and even accuse him of plagiarism. He’s called a liar, a coward, a bigot. And little by little, as this 82-year-old man with this impossible energy and this indefatigable good will travels the country doing talk shows and lectures and book signings, he is worn down. Not because he believes he’s wrong, but because he is so personally wounded by these attacks on his credibility and his character.
Look, it’s hard enough for people to fess up in a public forum when they’re blatantly wrong about something, but when you genuinely believe you are right, and you’re still being torn down, it can be devastating to your very sense of identity. There’s a lecture Carter gives towards the end of this film that is moving and powerful because Carter doesn’t pretend to be impervious to all of this sound and fury building against him. He can sense how deeply hurt people are by his words, and we watch as the way he expresses his ideas evolves. He still holds the same core beliefs at the end of the film... but he’s figured out a way he can share those beliefs that includes, rather than excludes. He seems to realize that provocation is easy, but genuinely engaging someone in an exchange of ideas can be incredibly difficult. The grace and the wit and the passion with which Carter handles himself is what defines him as a public figure, and it’s a valuable lesson for anyone who wishes to debate others in a public way these days. I wish I had 1/10th the class and the strength of character that Jimmy Carter exhibits in this film, and I genuinely thank Jonathan Demme for reminding me why this man has been more relevant in the years after his Presidency than he was when he held that office. It’s a remarkable film, and well worth a look now that it’s arrived on DVD.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
