'You Betcha' is the latest documentary from Nick Broomfield, one of Britain's top documentary makers. In the past Broomfield has looked at people such as Margaret Thatcher, Biggie & Tupac, Aileen Wuornos and controversially Kurt Cobain & Courtney Love (controversial in so much as he all but accused Love of plotting the death of her husband and father to her daughter). Now, this film concentrates on Sarah Palin, America's answer to Boris Johnson, but much much scarier. This is a woman who worked her way up the political ladder very quickly, despite a basic lack of knowledge in areas such as foreign policy or even where her state was situated on a globe. She is a hateful woman who belongs to a church which claims you can 'pray away the gay', and famously lied about 'Obamacare' claiming that it would set up death panels to decide on when your elderly relatives would die. In short she is the political opposite of my beliefs... and in my opinion, a little insane. So it with a heavy heart I admit that whilst I enjoyed this documentary, it is too flawed to make it objectively very good.
Let me explain. The documentary begins very well, Broomfield manages to interview Sarah Palin's parents, some of her friends, and it gets a little background on the early life of Sarah Palin. Who knew for example that she owes the start of her political career to a winning basket in the state final basketball tournament? everyone? oh well... But anyway, the first half is informative, objective and paints Sarah Palin in a fairly positive light, at least from a personal standpoint. She seems driven and friendly. The second half of the film however is where I lose it a little bit. Whilst I enjoy seeing a woman who I so despise, being ripped to pieces, I do question the validity of some of the people Nick Broomfield interviews, and perhaps his reasoning for doing so.
For example, whilst the first half of the film was a fairly even mix of both supporters and detractors of Palin, the second goes for an all out onslaught, interviewing people who seem to live to slag her off. At points in the film it is insinuated that people in Wasilla were afraid to speak ill of the Palin's for fear of what may happen to them. However, Broomfield has somehow managed to find plenty of detractors for this film. It also emerges throughout the film that Palin, whilst previously agreeing to do an interview, has become quite elusive and won't talk to them. The more annoyed Broomfield seems to get with this situation, the harsher the comments about Palin become.
Now again, I have to say, I quite enjoyed seeing the woman talked about in this way, as she is obviously a nasty person, something I base on her political beliefs alone, however, for a documentary maker to be so blatant in their incredible bias against a subject does make it a little trickier. It has been argued that the same thing happened in Kurt & Courtney, that the more elusive Courtney Love became, the more wild Nick Broomfield's accusations too became.
In my opinion a documentary should be there not to reinforce your views on a subject, but to teach you something new, or open your mind. In this respect the film fails, its target audience are people who wish to see Palin ripped apart, all of these people will already have preconceived notions of her, and they will be reinforced by the end of the film. I was also disappointed to see that Broomfield has resorted to showmanship and stunts you usually see in a Michael Moore Documentary, such as bringing a bullhorn to a Sarah Palin rally to ask questions, it just didn't work.
So in short, it's enjoyable fluff, that teaches you very little but does at least entertain us for a little while.
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