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'An Unreasonable Man' movie review |
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Written by Terry Lawson, MCT
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Tuesday, 22 May 2007 |
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AN UNREASONABLE MAN
3 stars
Not rated; nothing objectionable
Running time: 2 hours, 2 minutes
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Though the title refers to what was, to Democrats at least, the unpardonable sin of putting George W. Bush in the White House — if Ralph Nader given his support to Al Gore instead of remaining in the race as an independent candidate, Gore would almost assuredly won in the electoral college as well as by popular vote — it is ultimately meant to be a compliment.
By being "unreasonable" Nader was also able to alter the auto industry's policy of selling sex (via design and speed) over safety, embed consumer safety in the public consciousness and, through his Nader's Raiders organization, form citizen action groups that got hundreds of pro-environment, pro-consumer and clean government bills through state legislatures.
Among the many talking heads testifying to Nader's good works and intentions in "An Unreasonable Man" is Phil Donahue, who gave Nader one of his first forums on his original local talk show in Dayton, Ohio. Donahue notes that while "regular folks" sympathized deeply with Nader's mission and admired his ascetic lifestyle, he was never interested in making anyone like him.
After codirectors Henriette Mantel and Steven Skrovan spend more than an hour detailing Nader's good works and corporate America's attempts to silence him — General Motors had to apologize after it was learned they used private investigators to tail him — they are compelled to address the 2000 presidency campaign that turned many of his most ardent supporters against him.
Jimmy Carter, who in his own presidential campaign publicly aligned himself with Nader, is heard telling the Democratic convention that Nader should go back to investigating "car bumpers."
Here, the nays begin to outweigh the yeas, with the Nation writer Eric Alterman becoming especially overheated: "Thank you Ralph, for the Iraq War. Thank you Ralph, for the destruction of the Constitution."
Still "An Unreasonable Man" allows others to mount a defense of Nader's candidacy and his argument that a lesser evil was still an evil. Nader's central message — that the Democratic and Republican parties are beholden to the corporate interests that finance their campaigns — is in keeping with the nature of his lifelong crusade. That is of little solace, though, for those who believe a reformer should be more than a spoiler.
The movie also makes an argument, not intentionally, that someone as unrelentingly self-righteous as Nader has become is not temperamentally suited to be president.
And while it was made before the success of "An Inconvenient Truth," it can't help but remind us that the man Nader prevented from becoming president has since been more instrumental in the war on environmental pollution than any other public figure. Irony abounds.
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