Review of Jimmy Carter Man from Plains

It is no surprise that in the last few years President Carter has been vilified; called a liar, anti-Semite, plagiarist and a bigot just because he has the courage to speak out the truth. The anti-Carter rhetoric reached a crescendo with the launching of his book, "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid." This documentary can be seen as an answer to the unfair personal attacks on Jimmy Carter, the man of peace. The documentary follows President Carter on his book promotion trail, the numerous hurdles he has to overcome to get his point of view across (yes I am talking about a former US President) and the Zionist hawks like Wolf Blitzer and Alan Dershowitz who would waste no opportunity to sling mud on this distinguished politician's career. That being said, this documentary is not merely a documentary about Carter's personal battles it is much more than that. The documentary provides an important message and that of an issue like Palestine which has been until now selectively filtered through the American media with an undoubtedly heavy bias in favor of Israel. This documentary like the book brings this taboo subject to the forefront and it is during the last few minutes towards the end that we see when Carter is addressing the college students, that how important it is for the American public specially the young generation to see the both sides of the story of a conflict which has repercussions on the entire world and be the judge themselves. The documentary tries and delivers this message through the experiences of Jimmy Carter and some skillful direction from Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia). Some have criticized the documentary as long, complicated and boring. Carter may not have the charisma of Bill Clinton or the exciting narrative style of Michael Moore. Nor does he manage to deal with "hot" issues like global warming as done in An Inconvenient Truth. What he does is present an intelligent, honest and straight from the heart effort to spark a debate among Americans on how they can contribute in bringing an end to the present situation in the Middle East, specially the Israel-Palestinian conflict. I highly recommend every American to watch this documentary and be the judge themselves. As the famous saying goes "don't judge a book by its cover"! 10/10