The Undefeated

People expecting to watch The Undefeated and see a polarizing, divisive Sarah Palin might be disappointed. The real Sarah Palin shown in this film is more about battling corruption than scoring cheap political points. Afterall, this is the woman who enjoyed a sustained 80% approval rating governing the state of Alaska, where more than two-thirds of the electorate are independent. This is the woman who turned in her state party chairman for ethics violations. He later received the largest ethics fine in state history.

Sarah Palin had high approval ratings in Alaska because she worked in bi-partisan fashion to pursue popular reforms, including a nearly unanimous and sweeping ethics law, a new system for calculating oil royalties, and the blueprint for a $40 billion natural gas line.

Since being picked as a VP candidate, this popular governor has been subjected to more bizarre scrutiny than any VP candidate in history.

I challenge skeptics to watch this film with an open mind to see the popular reformer who took on the special interests in her home state.

The trouble with Sarah Palin is most of us have already made up our minds about her and for the most part negatively. If Stanley Kubrick directed a positive film about her, and threw in all the spaceships, monkeys, atomic blasts and Alex's he could muster, we'd hate it still. We come to this film seeking comedy or horror. And Stephen Bannon is no Stanley Kubrick.

Bit of background. I'm an American living in Barcelona. The Europeans I've spoken about her with, those who've been paying any attention, either loathe her or are genuinely puzzled by her ascension. Bearing that in mind, a Catalan friend obtained a copy through some interwebz magic and invited myself and girlfriend to watch.

From the opening the room was filled with laughter. They were likely relying more on the subs and may have experienced a very different film from myself but our reactions were the same. Laughter, then boredom. A few more snickers then everyone turned their attention away from the screen and to the wine and the company.

Long story short, it was a campaign ad. A very, very long ad that only those smitten by Palin will likely watch.

I want to first off make it clear that I have no political axe to grind here. As far as I am concerned both the Dems AND Repubs are equally useless. That said, I want you to know that I review this "film" on it's merits as a documentary and not in critique of the (admittedly weird) political content.

This film was a hodgepodge of sound bites and glowing testimonials to the power of Sarah Palin, nothing more. There was very little in the way of followable narrative, and any and all opposing viewpoints where hissed upon as some kind of shadowy conspiracy from "the left" to destroy what they see as their biggest threat. It felt more like a dumbed down version of "Triumph of the Will" to me. And like Leni Riefenstahl's classic film, it left me with a sense of dread in knowing that so many people can be so easily swayed by melodramatic notions of patriotism and willful demagoguery.

And at least Riefenstahl could work a camera in a manner that didn't look like she was about to have an epileptic fit. The camera work in some of the interview portions makes it seem like someone is tickling the camera person. This may have been an attempt at making the scene look more "urgent" or "home brewed" I don't know, but it came across like someone skimmed through "An Idioit's Guide to Cutting Edge Documentary Filmmaking" the night before and didn't quite get it.

If Palin truly had aspirations for some form of national higher office, I really feel that she may have blown it by allowing this stinker to be released. It's a real shame too, because the US really needs a shakeup in it's political system. If you are a fan of Sarah Palin, do not watch this film as it may leave a bad taste in your mouth due to it's transparent attempt at being an extended infomercial.

This is so unspeakably dreadful, by my own assessment I should say no more.

This is not a movie. It's an infomercial and like most infomercials it is riddled with omissions, exaggerations and downright lies. From the erroneous title -- she was defeated twice, once in the Alaskan primary for lieutenant governor and, of course, as John McCain's running mate, through the over-the-top, ridiculous imagery of lions eating zebras, boxers, etc. and let us not forget the mushroom cloud, it would be a total embarrassment to anyone with the brains to know what embarrassment is.

I might have given it one point more if finally someone had told us the real reason the woman quit as governor.

With all the glowing reviews you'd think this film would have a rating over 8, instead of the dismal 1.6 reflective of some of the worst films ever made. This means the people who loved it (or love Sarah Palin) took the time to write a review, while the vast majority who thought it was complete garbage didn't bother. There is only one conclusion one could extrapolate from this: Palin supporters are a dedicated, but very much in the minority.

I don't think this was the worst film ever made, but let's be clear that this was a fluff piece for the main subject. Politically it's no more nor less one-sided than a Michael Moore doc, but at least Michael Moore brings awareness to a particular subject of topical interest rather than simply shameless self-promotion. Even as a bit of propaganda, The Undefeated is heavy-handed, too long, unsubtle, and lacks an engaging narrative structure.

I noticed that most of the positive reviewers also had never reviewed another film besides this one, suggesting they created a profile just to promote The Undefeated.

If you're huge fan of Palin, have $10-15 to burn, and want to spend 2 hours hearing about how wicked her detractors are and how awesome she is, then this documentary might be for you. Or you could just read some of the glowing 'reviews' here and get the gist of the type of person who would love it. Personally, I wish I had accidentally walked into the wrong theater and saw Captain America instead.