Jimmy Carter Man from Plains
- Posted: 25th Mar 2010
- Category: Reviews
Almost fifty years after Primary by Richard Leacock, Jonathan Demme handholds a camera to follow a political man in campaign in the pure tradition of “direct cinema”. This time though, it is not the young Kennedy but the old and active Jimmy Carter, who sets out on a US tour to promote his controversial bestseller Palestine, Peace not Apartheid.As a “portrait in motion” - to take up Jonathan Demme’s words - Jimmy Carter Man from Plains is an achievement. The film succeeds in going beyond the perception most people have of Jimmy Carter, considered a dinosaur crowned with the Nobel Peace Prize, negotiator of the Camp David Agreement in 1979 but still failing as a President because of the weakness of his decisions on issues related to domestic policy. Far from this rigid and fixed painting, Jonathan Demme introduces Jimmy Carter as an active humanist endlessly working for peace, struggling to impose through his book another point of view on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and as a bright counterpoint to the pro-Bush United States.
Nevertheless, the film doesn’t resolve itself to becoming a road movie following the 39th President of the United States giving interviews and defending himself against all kinds of criticism from columnists, academics and politics. What Jonathan Demme offers is much more comprehensive as his film skilfully combines archival images of official events as well as more private scenes with the former President. This intimate and unofficial aspect of the portrait is certainly what makes the documentary so fascinating. The film begins with archival documents showing Jimmy Carter’s mother praising her son for never criticising her, followed by footage where he is going for a walk through his land and explaining how much he is attached to his “familial legacy”. This might be one of the main reasons why he is so committed to the Palestinian cause. The idea that people can’t have any access to the outside world and are deprived of their own land is for him unbearable, a proper mutilation.
All these kinds of personal details on Jimmy Carter are neither gratuitous, nor incidental. Without stating any definitive truth, Jonathan Demme plants clues which permit the audience to grab traits of the personality of the former president and understand his values (his deep faith in religion, family, land) and political convictions. Demme also subtly criticizes the work of American journalists who tend to hastily deliver information and easily misinterpret, truncate and twist ideas. Most of them content themselves with reading the title Palestine, Peace not Apartheid and possibly the back cover to pronounce a judgement and pounce on the theories defended by Jimmy Carter. In an interview given to Israeli television, the journalist says that most people obviously haven’t read the book. The same idea is expressed in a scene where someone is offended by the expression of “so called” holocaust used by Jimmy Carter. Deprived of their context, the words seem shocking but are in reality rehabilitated by the whole meaning, as it is explained.
Objectivity doesn’t exist: every single film corresponds to a specific point of view, to a very singular shooting and editing. Demme always minds to display the filmic equipment during the interviews, and images tremble because he doesn’t want to fix his subject and make it an object: he first wants to understand. Nevertheless, one could sometimes regret the brusque movements of the camera as they hinder understanding of what people are saying.
Despite this subtle reserve, Jimmy Carter Man from plains is an accomplished and moving portrait, following the example of this great man who has played and is still playing an important part in history. It must be seen, disregarding the opinions you may have on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Dir. Jonathan Demme, US 2007, 120 mins