MOVIE REVIEW
By Jim Keogh TELEGRAM & GAZETTE REVIEWER
Remember that great scene at the end of “A Few Good Men” when Col. Jessep, played by Jack Nicholson, rages in a courtroom about how troops sometimes must do ugly things to keep Americans sleeping soundly in their beds and out of harm’s way? “You want me on that wall!” he shouts. “You NEED me on that wall!”
Ralph Nader possesses neither the bombast nor the malevolence of a Jessep, but he, too, could issue the same proclamation. From the mid-1960s on, Nader has been a warrior against Big Business and Big Government whenever he saw them trampling on the rights, even the very lives, of average Americans. Yes, his manner can be abrasive, his dour intensity off-putting. But when you buckle a seatbelt or file a request under the Freedom of Information Act or breathe relatively fresh air thanks to the Clean Air Act, you should know that before any of those things were possible Ralph Nader got beaten and bloodied in the public arena to make them so.
The documentary “An Unreasonable Man” traces Nader’s trajectory from those early days, when his best-selling exposés about auto safety “Unsafe at Any Speed” made him a nationally known name, to his run for the presidency in 2000, which many Democrats believe cost Al Gore the White House. As one interviewee notes, the scope of his rise and fall — from white knight to scapegoat — takes on an almost Shakespearean dimension.
For two hours, a series of talking heads, including Nader himself, dissect the guy with the bad haircut and mortician’s wardrobe, creating a portrait of someone so driven by his essential purpose — to protect the interests of the average man and woman — that he has virtually no inner life. The public Nader and the private Nader are one and the same. Even his closest associates (does he have “friends”?) can’t recall their monkish leader ever going on a date or expressing much interest in anything other than his work. Some insist he has a surprisingly refined sense of humor, though clips of his awkward hosting stint on “Saturday Night Live” don’t provide much proof that the blood of a comedian pulses beneath his pallid hide.
With little room left for armchair psychology, directors Henriette Mantel and Steve Skrovan stick closely to the public record. This much the movie does prove: Nader is an absolute original, and in many ways a hero. His advocacy and persistence led to groundbreaking reforms that improved the health and safety of U.S. citizens. He tilted at giant corporate and government windmills, had his lance snapped time and again, then renewed the charge.
The last third of the movie details Nader’s 2000 presidential campaign. When Gore narrowly lost, Nader was vilified by many Democrats from pulling votes away from their candidate. The film includes interviews with several critics, who angrily accuse Nader of being solely responsible not only for Gore’s defeat but, subsequently, for every George Bush initiative in the last seven years, including the Iraq War.
The director gives equal time to Nader and his campaign manager who make a compelling case that other factors — including Gore’s defeat in his home state of Tennessee — had more to do with his loss. The valiant attempt at back-and-forth even-handedness goes on for much too long — it’s like watching a five-set tennis match played with verbal hand grenades.
Nader comes across as maddeningly likable, a little obtuse and no less motivated in his core mission despite his advancing years. We’re fortunate that for much of his career, he was able to scale the wall rather than run into it.
Source - http://www.telegram.com/article/20070927/NEWS/709270434/1102
