barackobama.com - A screengrab is shown from the trailer of “The Road We've Traveled,” live-streamed from barackobama.com.
“The Road We’ve Traveled” is an aggressively upbeat, 17-minute hit-parade review of President Obama’s first term. The film streamed online, live, Thursday night via the president’s savvy new-media reelection machine. Although it has been artfully referred to as a documentary, it is, of course, a piece of propaganda. Perhaps less pejoratively, let’s tweak that word and call “The Road We’ve Traveled” what it mostly is: docu-ganda.
This one is for the fans, and I think you know who you are.
More from PostPolitics
THE FIX | Washington simply can't walk and chew gum.
FACT CHECKER | Rep. Michele Bachmann claims the IRS will have control of a vast database with the most intimate health-care secrets of Americans. Not so.
“We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us,” the president said.
It was directed by Davis Guggenheim, who made the Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (as well as docs about education reform, electric guitars and the pop band U2). It is narrated by the ubiquitous Tom Hanks, who reads the script with “Apollo 13”-like sincerity. (“How do we understand this president and his time in office? . . . As president, the tough decisions that he would make would not only determine the course of the nation, but they would reveal the character of the man.”)
It is not sappy so much as it is busy, but there are moments at which it could be described as a moving tribute to American resilience during the Great Recession — that is, if one is able to be moved on the subject of this administration, which a lot of people aren’t. And as a sort of official opening salvo in the 2012 campaign, it is rich with all the things Obama’s harshest critics despise most: his charisma, his assuredness, his way with words. His fame.
In one way, the film is a masterful stroke — exactly the kind of thing you want to have around if you’re trying to persuade Americans to keep you in office, brought to you by Hollywood at a reported cost of at least $345,000, according to the Associated Press. Fact checkers and GOP campaign workers will no doubt pore over its content for the next news cycle or two, looking for places where accentuating the positive has edged closer to exaggeration. Still, some basic truths emerge and are duly touted, most notably the rescue of the auto industry, withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and the killing of Osama bin Laden.
It’s less of a bragging moment and more like a contractor’s bid for renewal. It’s a working résumé, a high-budget PowerPoint. As a hired gun, Guggenheim is tasked with cramming a lot into his short amount of time.
For the campaign, this has the beneficial effect of turning Obama’s first term into a litany of victories — adding “3.5 million jobs” to the private sector, appointing two Supreme Court justices, redirecting education reforms, addressing pay disparities between genders, forging ahead on renewable energy, confronting the mortgage crisis. But that haste — combined with the high-gloss commercial feel of the film — can also be overly concise, to the point that the entire struggle over health-care reform is winnowed down to a couple of minutes, spinning the resultant compromise into a win-win.
Obama supporters will find a lot to like about “The Road We’ve Traveled,” and some will no doubt see it as an overdue rallying cry, more cool than folksy. The narrowing of the Republican field has meant months of Obama-bashing, which the president has hardly engaged. At the same time, many of Obama’s 2008 supporters have drifted and expressed doubts. A hard-core Obama fan admires the president for taking the high road but often seeks refuge in the arms of Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow, or in Michelle Obama’s frequent appearances on talk shows and her late-night funnin’ around in the name of nutrition and exercise.
“Mike Darnell Votes Himself Out…Of Fox Broadcasting Company,” the network said Friday.
1369432243000
NBC to air Blake Shelton concert telethon to aid tornado victims
1369424273000
Michael Douglas plays the flamboyant piano legend in Steven Soderbergh’s depressing biopic.
1369409278000
What was really the most-watched program? NBC and CBS have different answers.
1369281900000
TV REVIEWS | Fox’s reality show forces employees to decide who gets the pink slip. Also reviewed: AMC’s sweet “Showville.”
1369266171000
Blitzer’s interview with a young mother proved to be a memorable exchange.
1369177382000
CBS had a hefty 4 million-viewer lead over its closest competitor this season.
1369176530000
They replace Britney Spears and LA Reid on the singing competition.
1369098720000
It would have been his TV directorial debut, but ‘felt he didn’t have gas left in the tank’ after busy year.
1369089060000
A repeat broadcast will run in the time period
1369088399000
“Dome” will debut June 24 at 10 p.m.; “Siberia” will launch the following Monday.
1369087775000
She becomes first woman to run a network news division in the United States,
1369087299000
That should put TV critics at ease, who hated his performance this year.
1369086967000
Five top moments from the 2013 Billboard Music Awards.
1369078337000The Post Most: EntertainmentMost-viewed stories,videos, and galleries in the past two hours
Loading...
Comments