(:)(:)(:)(:) for An Unreasonable Man seen tonight. I found this to be a balanced overview of Ralph's career, showing what made him who he is, with lots of air time for his critics.
Clearly the world is crying out for a great Nader date movie. Bill and I and the other Sacramento couple who used to work for Ralph Nader's Public Citizen, Nancy Drabble and John Sims, represented roughly 25% of the crowd at the film's opening night this evening at our huge beautiful old-fashioned Crest Theater downtown.
We couldn't stick around to compare notes with the Drabble/Sims, but we liked the film. However I can't begin to pretend to be objective about whether it's a good movie. For me this was closer to watching home movies than a documentary--Bill and I no doubt annoyed the people around us by keeping up a running whispered commentary,
"oh my God, is that Bob Fellmuth in the 60's?"
"Which one?"
"That one?"
"No. That's not Fellmuth."
"I can't believe that's what Ridgeway looks like. The number of times he's interviewed me over the phone, I never saw him in person."
"Oh my god, is Gene Karpinsky gonna tell is 'there's the hard core and then there's the spouse core' Ralph quote again?"
"He is!"
"he's telling it again"
"Jesus Christ, is that Joan Claybrook or Abby Hoffman?"
"Ralph and Joan are still having the same argument about air bags they had 30 years ago"
"Where's Russell Mokiber and JR? How could they have a movie about Ralph without Mokiber and JR?"
"Shit, they're not going to let Harvey talk about Proposition 103! Oh god, they are."
And so forth. So no. I'm not objective. But listen. The one thing I wish they'd done differently, is explained more about the Clinton administration, and what it did to Ralph's policies. I really think that every Democrat who hates Ralph for running for President in 2000 and 2004 would understand at least the 2000 race if they really knew what Clinton did to turn back the clock on food safety, auto safety, worker safety, the environment. If people understood that Clinton worked with a Democratic Congress to undo laws enacted primarily with the help of Ralph Nader, that Republican Presidents since Reagan had tried unsuccessfully to get the Democrats to repeal, they'd know why Ralph ran.
But hey, it's quite possible that no one but me cares. I still love and respect Ralph Nader and always will. And I'll defend him with my last breath. As this film shows, he's human. But he's also the ultimate citizen, and the ultimate American. He loves this country's promise of Democracy and its legal system, and he has tested both like no one else. And while he may be slightly Messianic, he's far from megalomaniacal--his fights have never ever been about Ralph, they've been about the future of this country.
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