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Summary: ESSENTIAL VIEWING to understand what's happened to America
Review: As closely as I followed events prior to and during the Impeachment this film captures all the nuances and little known events thru the research and writings of Gene Lyons and Joe Conason, two truly old school journalists who are fact checkers with multiple sources unlike today's scandal jocks who serve the rightwing corporate infotainment "escort" service. This film captures not only what happened to an American president but to the Constitution, Legislatures, Congress and Courts...we can easily see how our entire system has been subverted thru the concentrated efforts and strategies of the fundamentalist/rightwing/corporate/extremist operatives. Those who have been on the Mellon-Scaife payroll or who preach for a "moral" shift in the American justice system to further exclude dissenters, opposition, church-state separatists or any others who decry the naked grab for power by the ethically bankrupt such as Starr, DeLay, Olson, and the rest of that ilk. This is a brilliant encapsulation of the decade of "gotcha" politics..which has now realized their goal...in the election of 44. MUST SEE.
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Summary: Reading the book isn't enough.....SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: First of all, most Americans don't read books and will never read the scandalous story of the abuse of power conducted by Ken Starr and his minions. Therefore a more 'condensed' version is an important part of spreading the truth about what went on in this country in the late nineties when the Republicans found they had twice been voted out of the Oval Office where they believe they have inherited rights. It puts more of their current behavior into historical perspective, and explains why many Republicans of good faith could not support George II on his second run.
Second of all, it's important to support this type of documentary no matter what your politics if you want some sort of independent voice to survive in America. It's true that the movie cannot cover in detail all of the abuses documented both in the Conason/Lyons book or in the Jeffrey Toobin book. However, the interviews and story of Susan MacDougall alone are worth the time and the price of the film. MacDougall's sincerity and good faith come through starkely in this movie in a much more powerful fashion than through the written word.
Some of the pictures of the individuals involved speaking in interviews or on newsreels are much more powerful than on the printed page....a picture is definitely worth a thousand words, and this is a VERY convincing documentary with a great deal of power for those interested in the future of our democracy.
Even many who think they know a lot about politics will be surprised by much of the testimony in this documentary. I thought I had read everything about it and the audacity of those behind Ken Starr and Paula Jones still took my breath away.
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Summary: The Hunting of the President
Review: Here is where it all started. The big bucks take on a real American hero, President Bill Clinton. What a waste of money. The war on terror was impeded by the Republican machine. They don't care about us. Impeach Bush. [...] There is no liberal media. Watch this movie and you will know what I mean. [...]
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Summary: The Vasty Deep
Review: I have not yet bought the DVD, but I had occasion to see this film at a theatre in Little Rock, one of two such venues in the country. Less a vindication of Clinton than an indictment of the press, "Hunting" provides a timely commentary on the excesses of journalistic zeal that almost brought down a presidency. I was especially moved by the story of Susan McDougal, aka Joan of the Ozarks, who was treated like a serial killer during her near-two years in prison, after she ran afoul of nasty-minded Ken Starr and his minions. I also liked the brave and witty portrait of ex-Arkansas Governor Riley's wife, Claudia. The facts presented here may seem all too familiar by now, but we can thank authors Joe Conason and Gene Lyons for unearthing a good number of them. Students of history will long debate the merits of the Clinton presidency, but the incompetence of the press is now an established fact.
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Summary: Great story, lousy movie
Review: I'm really torn about this movie. On the one hand, it's an important story and I really feel it's something people should see. It does a great job of showing why the whole Whitewater "scandal" happened and what it was about and who was involved in making it a national issue.
On the other hand, I want to find the director of this movie and slap him upside the head for inserting all those "cute" clips that have absolutely nothing to do with the story being told. I assume those were supposed to be funny and entertaining, but instead they're just incredibly distracting. Fortunately, after the initial deluge of crap in the first half hour, the movie gets down to business and tells its story.
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Summary: The Importance of Being Bill...a Lesson in Political Survival
Review: Overlooked among the plethora of anti-Bush DVDs currently on the market before the election, this documentary takes an intriguing look at the purported plot to destroy the career of Bill Clinton by what Hillary claimed was a "vast right-wing conspiracy". Given that this was co-directed by famous "Friend of Bill" Harry Thomason, along with Nickolas Perry, one can hardly expect a completely impartial view of its subject. Consequently, it is unlikely to change the minds of any staunch Republicans out there already critical of the Clinton presidency. At the same time, the film does provide important context for a lot of the more unsavory details surrounding his case than some of the more conservative media would have you believe. The result is an intriguing examination of a President scrutinized with unprecedented zeal.
Although the film begins with Clinton's early days in Arkansas state government, its focus is on two of the more damaging episodes in his political career, the Whitewater scandal and the attempted impeachment trial based on his sexual escapades before and during his White House years. Many of those involved in both scandals are featured here through news clips with a few of them newly interviewed. Surprisingly the events do not reflect an overly biased perspective, thus showing a warts-and-all portrait of a flawed man though a reconstruction of sorts. Whether or not you agree with what is presented, the filmmakers do a convincing job of backing up their portrayal with some less than flattering footage of the Clinton years. The use of dramatic re-creations and clips from a variety of Hollywood movies sometimes undermines the film's seriousness, but they don't minimize the points raised. Some of the higher profile personalities in the anti-Clinton camp come off poorly but according to the evidence presented, justifiably so - Paula Jones is seen as a fame-seeking narcissist, while Kenneth Starr is portrayed as a ruthless opportunist obsessed with his agenda and indifferent to the damage his tactics incur upon his duty in serving the public trust. On the other side, former Clinton advisor James Carville sums up accurately the documentary's main question, i.e., how much money should be spent on a clearly partisan effort to pull a virtual "coup d'état" against an elected American president? Probably the most telling moments belong to Susan McDougal, whose refusal to cooperate with Starr on the Whitewater case led to her serving two years in a maximum-security prison. She recounts her prison experiences with piercing and often horrifying detail.
Unfortunately, the Monica Lewinsky affair is given short shrift in the film, a sad omission, as this was the one development that expedited Clinton's fall from grace. Nevertheless, the film also illustrates his amazing resilience in rising above the political fray. In fact, Clinton himself provides clear evidence of this in an interesting supplement to the DVD, a videotaped segment that shows him introducing the documentary on stage at its premiere. For 45 minutes, he discusses with candor and a sense of humor, the historical context of the events that take place in the film as well as their impact on him. Highly recommended as a fascinating record of a most unusual presidency.
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Summary: The Lenghts that some people go to...
Review: smear the name of a prominent individual, in this case, Former President of the United States William J. Clinton. IT'S A FACT, HE DID IT, HE LIED ABOUT IT TOO! But who cares, there are preist, our allegedly most trusted and holy people in our lives that do much worse and get a slap on the wrist. To think that millions, 65 million exactly, was spent on trying to undo Bill Clinton's presidency. The film was slow to start and after the introductory 15 minutes, accelerated to a steady, pulse raising pace filled with information, insight and intrique that only a democrat could love...I am an independently registered voter. The film was well directed and wonderfully coherent.
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Summary: We have been Warned.
Review: The abuse of power portrayed in this film is absolutely despicable and should be a lesson to us for the future. Even if you despise Clinton, you owe it to yourself to see what was done to the innocent people around him all because of a partisan fight for washington. The film is NOT an apology for Clinton; the film is a civics lesson, especially the speech at the end in the special features. If more people don't see the truth of what happened with the office of independent council and how horribly the constitution was trampled on, it will happen again. ...in fact, the next one could be you or me. Wake up!!
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Summary: Good cause, bad movie.
Review: The content is good, Susan McDougal is a hero. Some good footage but this is a poorly made movie with campy ganster movie footage and stuff from old westerns spliced in to mock and provide a little movement. Its good to recount the whole whitewater thing but so much is left out. Connections and personalities are missing. This movie will really make you understand how good of a filmmaker Michael Moore really is.
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Summary: Superb documentary version of a great book
Review: THE HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT is a documentary version of the outstanding book by the same name by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons. Although the film starts by indicating that it is based on the book, this is only very loosely true. A great deal contained in the book is left out in the film, and the film contains a surprising amount of content that is not in the book. In the end, they complement one another marvelously. The film begins with a shot of the United States Capitol with former Senator Dale Bumpers memorably defending Pres. Clinton during his impeachment trial. When he asks how it was that the president was being impeached for lying about what was merely a private wrongdoing the film cuts back to the earliest days of the Clinton administration, and goes through the various trumped up and absurd charges made against Clinton during the nineties, from Whitewater to the ridiculous charge of the murder of Vince Foster to Troopergate to the allegations of Paula Jones (which not even her lawyers believed). Like the book, the movie excells because it shows in great detail the lack of concern with truth that the Right displayed throughout all of this, and the extraorinarily organized and partisan nature of all the opposition to Clinton. As an Arkansan, I especially appreciated the way in which the film explains the various Arkansas characters involved in the story. As a former student of Ouachita Baptist University, I knew Bob Riley (one of the finest and most fascinating individuals in Arkansas history, as highly decorated war hero, professor, and politician), whose widow is interviewed extensively in the film. I did not know Jim McDougal. His wife, Susan, emerges in the film as one of the great symbols of the affair, as she is crushed by Kenneth Starr's inhuman prosecution machine because she refuses to lie about either Bill Clinton or Hillary. Her dedication to truth is so great that she goes to prison (where she is housed with child murderers instead of the general prison population, by Starr's orders) rather than lie. She emerges as one of the few heroes in the tawdry persecution of Clinton, and one of the most innocent victims. Like the book, this documentary is essential viewing for anyone wanting the understand the Clinton years. It is also a cautionary tale, because the Right wing machine that mindlessly and irrationally attack a moderate Democratic president in 1993 will unquestionably do the same with a new Democratic president in 2005. All Americans should find such politics of division reprehensible and utterly opposed to the commonweal.
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