Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President

Truly great show for a truly great man. Excellent vintage video of some of the greatest musicians of the time. Finding out they they liked Jimmy makes me like Jimmy even more.

Excellent quality production from CNN and leaves one wanting more.

Jimmy Carter a great president with bad luck Itnis amazing to see how well he did. The hostage crises costed him a 2nd term, but see how gracious he leaves the oval office .... not like in 2021

Mary Wharton's entertaining Documentary on the 39th President is certainly the first Presidential bio-pic that takes a music approach to its subject. Carter's election is usually framed around his famous "I will not lie" slogan as a response to Watergate, but, Wharton shows that another part of his appeal was to a younger generation through his open admiration of popular music.

All previous Presidents during the rock era never had any real attachment to modern music. Even the youthful JFK wasn't much different musically from Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford and LBJ, even if he had a performance of Chubby Checker's The Twist in the White House (it would have been interesting to see how Kennedy would have reacted to The Beatles). Carter was clearly different from the outset as he used old friends like Willie Nelson and the Allman Brothers not just as signals that he was 'hip' - but, even employed them as fund raisers at concerts. He also had a habit of quoting lyrics in his speeches and press interviews. Carter's southern roots showed not just in his rock taste (he also palled around with Marshall Tucker, Johnny Cash, Charlie Daniels and others), but also his appreciation of folk, country and jazz.

Wharton has collected an impressive collection of clips to illustrate her doc (and, in the correct aspect ratio!). One amusing segment shows Jerry Brown swooping into Maryland as part of a last ditch effort by more progressive democrats to "stop Carter" from getting the nomination. Briefly, it became a battle of the bands with Brown lugging along The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt while Carter and his southern brigade continued its march towards the White House. A startling clip from Carter's Inauguration gala has Mr. Republican, John Wayne, wishing Carter good luck from the "loyal opposition" - can one imagine such a thing today??

Jimmy Carter is front and center in interviews conducted in 2018 (he is noticeably more vibrant here than in some of his recent public appearances). He tells his story warmly and well. Wharton also gathered some terrific interview guests including Nelson, Paul Simon, Jimmy Buffett, Nile Rogers, Garth Brooks and, in a real coup, extended original footage with the usually circumspect Bob Dylan.

When the Doc ventures into politics, it's a bit less steady. Details are often sketchy as if Wharton just assumed that viewers would be familiar with the events from over 40 years ago. One could say that there's something to be said for knowing one's target audience, but, as political history, its lacking. The Doc also never really does a great job of showing how a new generation reacted to Carter's appeal to youth via Saturday Night Live, movies and even his notorious Playboy interview (which is never mentioned). Fortunately, Carter's personal journey is well detailed making up for those weaknesses. Carter may not truly be "Rock & Roll", but his embrace of all kinds of music certainly did help create the humanitarian spirit and soul of the man.

Don't be fooled: the film is about 90% Jimmy Carter and 10% Rock & Roll. It's also a hagiography: if Carter has any flaws, or even lacks any known human quality, you won't learn about it from this film. If you are not a fan, I'm sure this will probably irritate you no end. But if, like me, you think that from a moral standpoint he towers over the people who preceded and succeeded him as President, then you'll find plenty of evidence here to support that view.

I thought in the end Rock & Roll got the short hand of the stick. All the necessary talking heads are present, but you are left without much of a feeling that Carter's palling with rock stars was a significant factor in his character, views, rapport with the American public, or even the 1976 election campaign; the only real tidbit comes from the recollection that when he first appeared on stage with the Allman Brothers Band, they were more famous than him. Fine, but then what? Well, he had Aretha Franklin and Paul Simon play at his inauguration, and he had an all star jazz band play for him at the White House, and lots of others came and played, and they all like him - but so what? Perhaps it would have been helpful to take the spotlight away from Carter a little to ask whether musicians in the late 70's were still relevant to the attitude of young US adults towards politics, as they most definitely had been ten years earlier, then speculate on how that might have influenced the 1976 and 1980 elections.

What's most satisfactory is Carter himself - through plenty of footage and long excerpts from recent interviews, he comes across as a man whom you would like to meet, at any age.

Pres Carter stopped a war before it happened between Egypt and Israel through negotiation at Camp David, a fact that many people overlook when they remember him. . He has been a visionary in a dark world. Carter reoriented U. S. foreign policy towards an emphasis on human rights. He believed in working with people and solving problems together. In 1978, the Administration completed the process begun during the Nixon Administration and normalized relations with mainland China. Since his presidency, the Carter. Center has almost eliminated two diseases that took the lives of many people in a list of countries; those diseases had caused tremendous suffering. He diid so by demonstrating principles he exemplified, working together with people, organizations and governments to educate and send medical care to those suffering and put programs in place to prevent and eliminate diseases that afflicted so many people. He led in a spirit of cooperation and goodwill, working for the best solutions he could find.