Sarah Palin: You Betcha!
Sarah Palin Takes It on the Chin in Unflattering Bio-Pic
Sarah Palin: You Betcha!
Unrated
Running time: 91 minutes
Distributor: Freestyle Releasing
Documentary
Directed By: Nick Broomfield
In Theaters: Sep 30, 2011 Limited
Film Review by Kam Williams
Excellent (4 stars)
Fair warning: This revealing expose’ is not for diehard supporters of
Sarah Palin. For the damning bio-pic essentially paints the former Governor
of Alaska as less of a Mama Grizzly Bear than a power-hungry witch who goes
to great lengths to crush her adversaries of any nature, whether political
or personal.
Sarah Palin: You Betcha! is directed by Nick Broomfield, who also stars in
the alternately humorous and eye-opening documentary. Like a British cross
of Borat and Michael Moore, he crisscrossed Alaska, including his subject’s
hometown of Wasilla, in order to sort the truth from fiction in terms of all
the ugly rumors.
What he found was that most of the natives were reluctant to appear
onscreen, ostensibly out of a fear of suffering reprisals for cooperating
with his project. As a result, most of the folks who were willing to talk
were those who had been so betrayed by Palin that they were not inclined to
mend fences.
For instance, John Stein laments how in 1996, when he was then the incumbent
Mayor of Wasilla, he was stabbed in the back by his prot g Sarah who not
only declared her candidacy for his job but proceeded to run campaign ads
calling to replace him with a Christian. So much for separation of church
and state!
In another sequence, her ex-brother-in-law recounts how at the top of her
agenda upon becoming Governor was to try to have him fired from the State
Police Force because he was divorcing her sister. Others testify that this
sort of vindictiveness was typical, as she exhibited an unusual interest in
matters which affected her family. Meanwhile, she ostensibly ignored the
business of government, often emailing and text-messaging instead of paying
attention during official meetings and hearings.
As for Sarah’s side of the story, the intrepid Broomfield is shown sticking
a microphone in her face in public on several occasions. And while she
politely agreed to a tete-a-tete at a more convenient time to talk, her
office apparently never returned any of his calls.
A hatchet job or an accurate portrait of a Machiavellian manipulator? That’s
apt to depend on whether you lean to the left or to the right.