Based on her modest demeanor and record of budget, energy and ethics reform in Alaska, it’s easy to see her appeal to McCain, who called Palin while she was at the Alaska State Fair to ask her to run for veep. What “The Undefeated” doesn’t explain — in addition to the title “Undefeated” when Palin was, actually, defeated in 2008 — is how a woman whose early career had been dedicated to transcending partisan politics became such a ferocious political warrior while on the stump. Instead, Bannon sets Palin up as a victim — of liberals, of establishment conservatives and of the “lamestream media” that his subject has become so skilled at manipulating (a talent the filmmaker strangely neglects to mention).
With cheesy shots of a zebra being attacked by lions and staged sequences of angry crowds and wagging fingers, all backed by an increasingly ugly musical score that swerves from atonal dissonance to heavenly hymns, “The Undefeated” becomes less about Palin than about what her supporters so ardently want her to be. Especially vocal are such bloggers and talk-jocks as Andrew Breitbart, Tammy Bruce and Mark Levin, each of whom inveighs ad nauseam against anyone who at any time had anything less than hosannas to hurl at Palin’s feet. Levin, in particular, barks at considerable at length about how she’s the new incarnation of Reagan, a tirade that might tempt viewers to check their lapels for fingerprints when he’s finally finished.
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