Jimmy Carter Man From Plains | DVD Review

You don’t necessarily have to sit on one side of the Israeli-Palestinian or Democrat-Republican debate to enjoy this film, but you do have to love Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains is anything but a critical look at the ex-president and his latest book and, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, which speaks out against the Israeli occupation of the Gaza strip and West bank. More than anything, the documentary is a kind of road-trip saga, with director Jonathan Demme a clear fan eager to be on tour with Carter as he promotes his book and engages in Q&A sections at book readings. Carter himself is a deserved star of the show, clearly passionate and knowledgeable about the cause. Telling is Carter’s interview on Israeli TV, when the host claims he read the book and does not believe Carter’s beliefs to be as one-sided as the book’s inflammatory title suggests. However, there is very little critical engagement at all with the subject matter. Although there are many fervent detractors of the book at his book readings, only one informed and prolific critic of the book, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, is interviewed in the entire film. Questions about factual errors in the book are never directly addressed. The film is certainly more emotional than factual. The problem is, if Carter’s quiet charm isn’t itself a topic of interest for you, then it certainly won’t be after just over two hours of watching him sit pensively in various cars and planes for long daydreams while Demme’s fly on the wall constantly quivers and hums, taking it all in.

The film premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival with its widest release in 21 theatres, only in North America. It did not do bad or good at the box office when the extremely limited release is taken into mind, with a total domestic gross of $108,807 it received. Critics were mainly positive but uninspired by the film. All in all, Demme, famous for directing Silence of the Lambs but having always had a penchant for social activism and political in his films such as Swimming to Cambodia, Haiti: Dreams of Democracy, Philadelphia, and the remake of The Manchurian Candidate, it seems this is more of a personal project (or indulgence) than these previous films.


Commentary with director Jonathan Demme
The film can be watched with a commentary track by director/producer Jonathan Demme and producer Neda Armian. This commentary track is as unenlightening yet entrancing as most of its nature: the two spend most of their time speaking of their personal reflections on shooting and editing rather than providing insight into the material and topics presented. Demme did provide here his vision for the movie: “to discover and show what makes Carter tick,” revealing the reasoning behind highlighting Carter’s old-fashioned connections to the soil and country land as well as to peace between peoples.

Bonus Scenes
Ten deleted scenes all feature different vignettes that did not quite make it into the film. The best (or at least, oddest and most interesting) of these present the ever-religious Carter’s retelling of a childhood story that led to a belief in ghosts.

Soundtrack Recording Sessions
A making-of documentary follows the recording of the world music-influenced soundtrack over a three-day span. As the music was one of the highlights of the film, it is a joy to see the musicians in person, jumping from playing traditional bellydance music to variations on “This Land is Your Land” on ukulele… but not for the 20+ minutes this feature lasted. There was little dialogue, and the nature of film music recording led to fairly loosely structured jam sessions. Good for five minutes, but not any longer.

Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains is a mood-drenched homage to the ex-president. It is more about the man himself than any of the work he has done; or conversely, it tries to get at an appreciation of the aging but still extremely passionate man through a look at his current project.

Movie rating – 2.5

Disc Rating – 2.5