Man From Plains: The Film That Might Make Jimmy Carter a Movie Star
By Adam Howard, AlterNet. Posted November 5, 2007.
Man From Plains is a moving, redemptive portrait of a president and a presidency that has been unfairly maligned and reduced to a punchline for far too long.
There's a memorable moment in Man From Plains, the acclaimed new documentary starring former President Jimmy Carter, which takes place on a commercial airplane. In the middle of the flight, Carter makes his way down the aisle, greeting and shaking the passengers' hands. The audience in the theater thinks this scene will quickly dissolve or that Carter will eventually go from recognizing each person to simply waving. But instead the camera lingers long enough to show that Carter intends to meet every single passenger on the plane. They seem stunned, flattered and elated that such an important man would take the time out just to say hello.
Earlier in the film, as Carter watches one of the interns from The Carter Center deliver a speech, his face beams with his trademark toothy grin. When she finishes and Carter reaches the podium, he begins to tear up as he thanks the interns, genuinely moved by their enthusiasm and dedication to the causes he holds dear.
Man From Plains is filled with touching, lovely scenes such as these, and the film succeeds best when it attempts to be a character study of Carter. Directed by Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia), the film follows Carter during his media tour for his infamous 2006 book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. The film touches on the uproar the book's title caused and the former president's passionate feelings about the crisis between Israel and Palestine. It also weaves together anecdotes and footage from Carter's triumph at the Camp David Accords in 1978.
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