11/8/16

I wen't into this doc without knowing anything about the people that filmed it, the people they observed, or any other information about what was covered other than the election. Now, there is no interaction with the observed people by the documentarians, which I respect, but it was pretty obvious there was a message being pushed, which is that there are much less Trump supporters than Clinton supporters and they don't have any real problems to deal with. The documentary follows somewhere between ten and fifteen Clinton supporters and three to five Trump supporters (I can't remember the exact numbers but that's close). Now, right off the bat, that is a flawed portrayal. The MSM will never admit it, but there are more Trump supporters than Clinton supporters when you subtract illegal immigrants (an estimated 2-5 million illegals voted in sanctuary city states like California and New York). Other than that, I didn't have a problem with it because there wasn't direct intervention by the filmmakers, which I can't stress enough as the best thing a documentarian can do.

Didnt bother watching this one but I still noticed something wrong with it none the less lol... They overlooked a mistake involving the image of the flag on the films cover/poster. When displaying the flag vertically rather than the traditional horizontal display the stars are actually supposed to be placed in the top left corner. However, you can see in the poster/cover of the film they got it backwards. Tsk, Tsk tsk... lol.... I couldn't care less by the way, I just found it amusing that a movie about the current state of our nation still missed that mistake. Lol

There is no doubt that the 2016 election was one of (if not the) most polarizing in the history of the United States. What "11/8/16" does is capture the initial, gut, visceral reactions of people on that day.

I really liked how the documentary tries to form a sort of narrative for itself by starting at the beginning of the day with all the families/people it profiles, and then following those people throughout the day as the balance starts shifting from "Hillary is going to easily win" to "this is going to be a tight race". This strategy really captures what it felt like on that day.

A lot of reviewers have mentioned the "liberal slant" of this documentary (and I think that's the reason for its very middling rating), and there is a definitive bias towards those who wanted Clinton to be victorious. However, I didn't feel that this at all ruined the experience. In fact, for the narrative of this doc to really work dramatically, it had to be focused more on that side of the story.

I enjoyed watching "11/8/16" because it was able to put me back into the whirlwind of emotions of that momentous day. Even though the candidate whose name I scratched on the ballot did not win, I'm fascinated by Presidential politics as a whole and thus am always interested in new perspectives.

This "documentary" was entertaining and I enjoyed listen to the various viewpoints. The problem is, the "documentary" viewpoints were overwhelmingly one-sided. The movie did show a few Trump supporters but the entire movie was edited and the questions asked were against Trump. In my opinion, a "documentary" should show an unbiased viewpoint and analysis on the topics discussed. I especially did not like how they made the couple from Michigan (if i remember correctly) look bad by only showing a small portion of the conversation they were having when they mentioned Muslims. Additionally, the movie shows the racism and how the Hillary supporters talked down about the other side. The "documentary" showed the producers opinion instead of an unbiased analysis. A problem our entertainment industry has.

Watching this doc in 2021 is somewhat like uncovering a time capsule containing moments of the past that I'd wanted to forget. But the more I watched, the more something shifted in me. It was seeing the very normal, very hurt people that voted for trump without the lens of the four years of his presidency. Seeing them before the long list of actions that would drive them to extremes of anger and violence. The film reminded me how much we ALL were tired of the American status quo, tired of politicians who came in with big talk of making things great or change we could believe in and not bringing the goods. America is poorer, more divided and angrier after trump but with 20/20 hindsight, I don't think anyone would have changed their vote.

Some people shake the world to bring about change. Some people shake the world to break it and the only ones who suffer are the ones hanging on to survive. The film captures the parenthetical moment before everything shifted . For some, the air was full of hope and for others (like me) the air was stale with resignation. No matter... for that alone, I'm grateful to be reminded of the time. An excellent piece of historic work.