Sarah Palin: The Undefeated (2011)

[dreadfulpenny00.livejournal.com]

Sarah Palin: The Undefeated (2011)
Written and directed by Stephen Bannon
With appearances by Andrew Breitbart, Tammy Bruce, Mark Levin, Tom Irwin, and more
Narrated by Sarah Palin (using audio from her book Going Rogue)



I like political movies (Primary Colors, Man of the Year, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington being a few of my favorites). I also enjoy documentaries. So when I noticed that Netflix was now streaming Sarah Palin: The Undefeated, I figured I'd give it a chance. I'm not a big fan of Sarah Palin. Looking at it from the outside, her political career was admirable, especially considering she's raised seven five children during the process. But there's just something about her demeanor that rubs me the wrong way. I put that aside and watched the movie with an open mind.

I have to be honest - The Undefeated is one-sided. As The Road We've Traveled is a butt-kissing tribute to Obama (and even the director admits as much), so The Undefeated is to Sarah Palin. There's various interviews with people from her career as both the mayor of Wasilla and the governor of Alaska, as well as supporters from her vice-presidential run (like Mark Levin and the late Andrew Breitbart). This is all intercut with archive news footage, newspaper clippings, and strange stock footage (for example, while talking about personal attacks made against her staff by her critics, there's stock footage of some ancient medieval battle with people dying on the field played against Palin's own voice -- eerie).

What's interesting is what ISN'T in the movie - not one mention of the "Bridge to Nowhere" or the investigation against her for the dismissal of Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, an investigation that determined Palin abused her power as governor and violated Alaska ethics legislation that she herself signed into law. No talk of her daughter's pregnancy while she touted abstinence education on the campaign trail, which many felt was a serious conflict. Why? It turns out that Palin approached her staff to contact Bannon (as she was familiar with his work) to produce a film putting her in a positive light and explaining her reasons for leaving office while touting her accomplishments for the purpose of laying a fondation for a future presidential run. In short, The Undefeated is a propaganda film.

This movie is basically for rabid Palin fans. For others, this might be more fluff than anything else.

x-posted from mividaloca99

Comments

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

I am not commenting on the movie itself because I haven't seen it. But to address some of your comments:

What's interesting is what ISN'T in the movie - not one mention of the "Bridge to Nowhere" or the investigation against her for the dismissal of Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, an investigation that determined Palin abused her power as governor and violated Alaska ethics legislation that she herself signed into law.

As far as I know, Sarah Palin was cleared of all the charges brought against her. If that is not so, please give me that evidence.

No talk of her daughter's pregnancy while she touted abstinence education on the campaign trail, which many felt was a serious conflict.

My understanding is that this is a movie about her political career? If so, I'm not sure why her daughter's pregnancy/personal life would be talked about much.

Also, 1) what do you mean by "touted abstinence", and 2) what conflict would that be?

[dreadfulpenny00.livejournal.com]

I think you're referring to the ethics violations that were reported against her after her VP run. Those were mostly brought on by bitter Libs looking to take her down (and one of them admitted it, too). The ethics investigation against her was brought on by Walt Monegan's dismissal and the results were published in the Branchflower Report (http://download2.legis.state.ak.us/DOWNLOAD.pdf).

The film discussed the stresses of the personal attacks, including the insane conspiracy theory that her son Trig isn't even her son. Bristol's pregnancy was part of the news during the campaign, too.

Palin talked about abstinence education on the campaign trail. There's also this from the L.A. Times, 9/6/08:
In a widely quoted 2006 survey she answered during her gubernatorial campaign, Palin said she supported abstinence-until-marriage programs. But weeks later, she proclaimed herself "pro-contraception" and said condoms ought to be discussed in schools alongside abstinence.

"I'm pro-contraception, and I think kids who may not hear about it at home should hear about it in other avenues," she said during a debate in Juneau.

When pressed about it during press interviews, Palin acknowledged her support of abstinence education.

What conflict? It's no secret people saw it as hypocritical for a woman who'd backed abstinence-only sex education to have unsuccessfully executed that policy in her own home. I'm not saying I'm agreeing with that observation as kids aren't around their parents 24/7 but you asked about the conflict, and there's the answer.

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

You're making the very common mistake of confusing parents' good intentions with kids' free will. It's not about "executing a policy," as if enforced obedience were something a parent could sign into law. Parents can teach what they want, but they can't physically force their children to obey, and that means among many kids, there's going to be disobedience. (Or else every mom who tells her kid "No, don't grab that!" is a hypocrite when the kid grabs it anyway.)

My parents taught us abstinence at home: I've practiced it all my life; my sister had a baby while unmarried at 21. That wasn't my parents' fault. She was responsible for her own actions.

(Also, Palin has five children, not seven.)

[pat-t.livejournal.com]

Exactly! And while I've noticed many people pointing fingers at Sarah for saying she supports abstinence and Bristol getting pregnant as the great hypocrisy, they fail to note how many parents teach birth control and end up with pregnant kids.

I took my daughter to planned parenthood when she was 15. Not because she was having sex, but I was of the semi-liberal mindset that if she was going to have sex she was going to. This way I would be a smart mom, give her all the information and make sure she was at least practicing safe sex. She got pregnant at 17. No, it wasn't planned .How about that failure? No one wants to speak to that side of it.

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

That's just it. In the popular narrative, when people teach abstinence and the kids end up pregnant, it's a failure on the part of whoever taught them abstinence; when people teach birth control and the kids end up pregnant, it's nobody's fault, just one of those things that happens. It's a huge double standard.

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

More accurately, the narrative is that because people sometimes fail at practicing abstinence even though they may believe in it, the standard of abstinence itself is a failure and needs to be done away with. (As well as the parents or the persons themselves being failures.)

It's a lie, but an effective one. It's done deliberately, in order to marginalize and ridicule the standard as well as anyone who holds it, in an effort to get rid of the standard entirely.

What we must do is not get defensive about how people are sometimes weak or how kids often don't listen, but rather point to the standard itself.

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

Hurried reply before my power goes out AGAIN -

Branchflower link doens't work, but from the little I saw, apparently there was controversy over that finding as well. I'd have to sit there and look at the entire case, which I obviously can't do at the moment.

Still not clear on your comments re: her stance on abstinence, but I'l let it go since I can't use my computer much at the moment.

My main point is that there's no inherent conflict between a view that says abstinence is the best option for teenagers (because it is) and your daughter getting pregnant. Why people keep bringing this up is beyond me.

[farchivist.livejournal.com]

It turns out that Palin approached her staff to contact Bannon (as she was familiar with his work) to produce a film putting her in a positive light and explaining her reasons for leaving office while touting her accomplishments for the purpose of laying a fondation for a future presidential run.

I'll skip then, as I skip everything that is put out like that.

[dreadfulpenny00.livejournal.com]

Gee, what do you think the OP is?

[thekindone.livejournal.com]

That icon isn't exactly appropriate for civil conversation.

Mod Post: Warning

[modernelegance.livejournal.com]

To keep in compliance with what was expressed in my former mod post (http://therightfangirl.livejournal.com/1482201.html) to everyone in the community, please refrain from using that icon (or others similar to it) in conversations from now on. There was no reason to be so snarky to amazements and I will not tolerate treating other members in that way no matter what side of the political spectrum they fall on.

[dreadfulpenny00.livejournal.com]

Fine, but will something be added to the community rules to inform other comm members in the future that even certain icons won't be tolerated?

[dreadfulpenny00.livejournal.com]

The person I replied to was modernelegance, not you.

[modernelegance.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

As of yet it is a rare occurance that members use their icons to insult others, so there is no need to address it to everyone in the community. If it becomes an issue then I will most certainly call attention to it being a problem.

[dreadfulpenny00.livejournal.com]

I'll keep this in mind for future reference. Thanks!

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

Good piece here (http://amac.us/game-change-tries-to-rewrite-palin-and-fails) from Jedediah Bila.

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's a page debunking the lies, thanks! I will have to check that out at a later time.

The saddest thing is that there are so many lies (and such complex ones, as with the legal cases) that it's nearly impossible to sort them out, at least quickly/easily.

The story has been set in stone. It's nearly impossible to change in the public perception now. People really do believe most of these lies. Even some conservatives and Christians believe them. Nothing will change their minds now.


Most of all, I'm amazed there are people in the world called Jedediah. And girl?! Wow.

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

Well, I was familiar with the biblical name for a male, but after looking it up it seems there are a couple of them that sound or are spelled similarly, and are used for male and female.

So I learned something new!

(2 Kings 22:1, 2 Sam. 12:25)