The Final Year

Interesting approach, doesn't challenge but let's them talk and follows.

Samantha Powell, empathetic, humble, Africa, kids, nanny, Clash with Russian ambassador Ben Rhodes, smart, hard-working, doesn't love the media.

2016 Puff piece?

Very foreign focused Syria, ineffective Obama man who feels the weight of military action with no credible plan Ben Rhodes not another foreign war.

Frustration of getting politicians to candidly open up Well shot, well edited, natural feel.

Red line Soft power diplomacy Blindness trump dismissed over and over.

Speech writing 3 different views with Obama philosophy.

Climate.

Substance.

Intelligent, compassionate, empathetic Look at WhiteHouse how many people working there.

Liberal viewpoint. Leads to Clinton's election a forgone conclusion leading to a 37 women ambassadors to UN and Madrline A Break glass ceiling!

When evaluating anything of a political nature, the first thing I usually do is throw away any scale ratings of it. Just the sheer fact of Obama's face being on the thumbnail of this doc will affect opinions, much as, say, current President Trump would for other population segments. As such, I really tried to ignore what I found to be a pretty low rating and just go into "The Final Year" with no expectations at all. What I found was a doc that (smartly) expresses almost no political opinions of its own, and instead basically sets up a camera and lets it roll inside the last year/months of the Obama Administration (focusing on foreign policy).

Besides former President Obama himself, this doc most closely focuses on four members of his admin: John Kerry, Samantha Power, & Ben Rhodes. An insider's point of view is given on what their day-to-day life entailed in 2016 and how the entire administration really viewed that year as a race to cement the progress they felt they had made over the past seven.

What I found most fascinating about this documentary is how, sheerly because of what immediately follow its events (Donald Trump being elected President), it sets up an interesting contrast between styles. Though Trump's foreign policy administration is never covered here, it is fairly common knowledge that he proceeds with a much heavier hand than his Democratic successor, favoring threats of military force and personal bluster over in-the-trenches diplomacy. The Obama foreign policy team could not have been more different, as this doc shows how hard they worked (right, wrong, or neither) to patch up old historical wounds and deal with problems via words and accords instead of wars and threats.

Another thing I found to be interesting about "The Final Year" is that it is presented almost completely "without comment", so to speak, by the filmmakers. Never once do we get a moment where they sit down and pontificate on what is transpiring. Even those types of reflections are done on camera by the main subjects being interviewed. In this case, I really like that approach because it doesn't set out to "prove" or "disprove" anything. This is strictly what it sets out to be: A look inside Obama's last year as President through the primary lens of his foreign policy decisions & actions...take it or leave it.

I very much enjoyed "The Final Year", but also confess that my political beliefs lean more "blue" than "red" in the first place. However, trying to be objective for a moment, I honestly don't think there is anything in this doc that is outrageous or untruthful. Whether or not you agree with the ideas being espoused is up to you. The filmmakers are just giving you the option here.

This is pretty much a cheerleader, promo piece. And I was once an Obama fan, and contributed heavily to his 2007-2008 campaign, enough to get invited to the inaugural. By 2011, I was disgusted and not only did I stop giving contributions, I quit the Democratic Party. But as for the film itself, it's little more than a long infomercial. I'm sorry I wasted my time.

This film was fascinating because it uncovers, through a number of candid moments, the vulgar pride of these brash young intellectuals. It made my skin crawl to actually see and hear them in the flesh (or at least on a big screen...). These young idealists, including President Obama, could perhaps have done something productive for our country if they had been able to get a proper education in their youth. Tragically, they weren't - and the shallow education (or perhaps more accurately, indoctrination) they did receive has led them to operate on a shallow and incomplete set of moral principles, leading them to make short-sighted policy decisions that ultimately hurt our own people, and people around the world, in the long-term. They just aren't able to grasp the context of their decisions in the grand scheme of things. Our nation's leadership under Obama is a story of misplaced intelligence.

I liked this documentary but felt like it was a little slow paced at times. It was very interesting to watch them get closer and closer to Donald Trump becoming president and kind of heartbreaking at times.

All in all an ok political documentary, interesting to watch, would recommend it if you want to see the details of the Obama admin and what they were working on.