The cutting in this is so frenzied! If any talking head is on the screen for more than literally (literally!) 2 seconds they're applying a quick succession of different color filters, extreme zooming, jump panning, etc. The talking head intro text is presented only once per head and so briefly that if you aren't Evelyn Wood on speed you'll almost certainly miss their name, position, or both. Why don't they properly introduce these obscure people who are yakking my ear off for almost two hours? Youth wants to know.
I had to close my eyes to the visual cacophony in order to keep from hurling, and to actually be able to listen to what those heads were saying - which was very little beyond an incoherent presentation of universal love for their unjustly and inexplicably persecuted Sarah, on top of a continuous wash of super annoying and pointless background music. Did they watch the final cut and think to themselves that it needed something more to mask their largely bankrupt presentation? I learned almost nothing from the two hours, it could have easily been cut down to an hour (or less) without losing any info whatsoever. They played very fast and loose with stock and manufactured footage e.g. the close-up of the screaming angry mob was obviously staged. You really need to label the fake stuff in a purported documentary if you want to be taken seriously.
The movie starts by showing us all the scary liberals who were frightened to death Sarah would get in and what big meanies they were (hey, she's a public persona who seems to enjoy the spotlight). This sets the quite defensive seeming tone for the entire movie, to the point where it almost completely subsumes the puff angle. Even if the central figure was a total stranger, I'd have to wonder why everyone (except for a handful of relatively unknown talking heads) was so terribly against everything she did and what she represented.
Anyway, on to shots of oil soaked animal carcases from the Exxon Valdez tragedy with voice over from Sarah talking about what at tragedy it was. Shortly after this we hear how she championed - and got the public to pay for - yet more drilling and pipelines, there's environmental activism for you! But the state running a dairy farm is big government running amok so she had to close it down? She got a ton of big box stores to open locations in Wasilla, but she's for the little guy? That must have destroyed their local downtown economy.
I find it incredibly ironic that the producers of this apparently tried unsuccessfully to adopt many of Michael Moore's methods to elicit outrage, given all the glowing reviews here of people who hate MM. This movie is likely the very best the big money lackeys, grifters, and hangers-on can crank out - they're either talentless hacks or their hearts just aren't in it (or both I suppose).
Watch "Going Upriver" for an example this genre done right.
I had to close my eyes to the visual cacophony in order to keep from hurling, and to actually be able to listen to what those heads were saying - which was very little beyond an incoherent presentation of universal love for their unjustly and inexplicably persecuted Sarah, on top of a continuous wash of super annoying and pointless background music. Did they watch the final cut and think to themselves that it needed something more to mask their largely bankrupt presentation? I learned almost nothing from the two hours, it could have easily been cut down to an hour (or less) without losing any info whatsoever. They played very fast and loose with stock and manufactured footage e.g. the close-up of the screaming angry mob was obviously staged. You really need to label the fake stuff in a purported documentary if you want to be taken seriously.
The movie starts by showing us all the scary liberals who were frightened to death Sarah would get in and what big meanies they were (hey, she's a public persona who seems to enjoy the spotlight). This sets the quite defensive seeming tone for the entire movie, to the point where it almost completely subsumes the puff angle. Even if the central figure was a total stranger, I'd have to wonder why everyone (except for a handful of relatively unknown talking heads) was so terribly against everything she did and what she represented.
Anyway, on to shots of oil soaked animal carcases from the Exxon Valdez tragedy with voice over from Sarah talking about what at tragedy it was. Shortly after this we hear how she championed - and got the public to pay for - yet more drilling and pipelines, there's environmental activism for you! But the state running a dairy farm is big government running amok so she had to close it down? She got a ton of big box stores to open locations in Wasilla, but she's for the little guy? That must have destroyed their local downtown economy.
I find it incredibly ironic that the producers of this apparently tried unsuccessfully to adopt many of Michael Moore's methods to elicit outrage, given all the glowing reviews here of people who hate MM. This movie is likely the very best the big money lackeys, grifters, and hangers-on can crank out - they're either talentless hacks or their hearts just aren't in it (or both I suppose).
Watch "Going Upriver" for an example this genre done right.