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.
