Tuesday, July 19, 2011

TRIUMPH OF THE WILL

Grizzly Mom is back. Once again, Sarah Palin, the defeated vice-presidential candidate, has rewritten history--this time her own--in a self-glorifying hagiography, "Undefeated," now playing in a theater near you. What are the critics saying about the film?

"A troop-rallying campaign infomercial as imagined by Michael Bay: hero-worshipping, crescendo-edited at a dizzying pace, thunderously repetitive and its own worst enemy as a two-hour, talking-points briefing."
- Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

"Less a documentary than a glowing two-hour infomercial for Sarah Palin, Presidential Candidate To-Be."
- Anna Merlan, Village Voice

"Slickly produced and blatantly manipulative, Bannon's hagiographic tribute is a celebratory cavalcade of career highlights and glowing testimonials that doubtless will please Palin's devoted followers, appall her fiercest critics -- and, perhaps, occasionally surprise the undecided."
- Joe Leydon, Variety

"Once you realize the film is just going to be a string of encomiums against a backdrop of frantically edited archival material in which few shots are allowed to stay onscreen longer than three seconds, it's clear that no meaningful analysis of the woman's career or political agenda will be forthcoming."
- Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

"The film adopts one of Palin’s favorite points of view: that throughout her political career she has been the victim of vicious attacks from political enemies and the media. Among other melodramatic imagery, the movie shows frothing attack dogs and a lion killing a beautiful zebra to symbolize the way Palin has been treated at the hands of the press."
- Gardner and Rucker, The Washington Post

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a zero percent rating.

No matter. In Sarah Palin's hermetically-sealed world view, critics are probably a liberal plot anyway. For fans who can't get enough of the "mavericky" maybe-candidate, the reviews won't affect them, either, and they can be expected to buy tickets and fill the megaplexes with their hoots and hollers. Well, maybe. This was opening weekend and turnout was dismal even among the True Believers. Are you going?

We're unrepentant liberals so we're going to skip this idiotic mess, but don't let us influence your decision. Watch the trailer and decide for yourself. From the looks of it, this movie would make Leni Riefenstahl blush. But, hey, it's your money.

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