Game Change: HBO’s Sarah Palin Movie

I just sent a former co-worker a note simply saying “Sarah Palin is” then continued with the name of a well known former TV newsie.

I just finished watched the Sarah Palin HBO movie, “Game Change.” Wow. Scary. Palin is portrayed as a woman of strong convictions and weak understanding. Not that she isn’t smart. Running for national office demands things she’d never learned.

I wish I could tell you I never worked with telegenic anchors or reporters who could grab an audience by the force of their charisma, but were really intellectually empty. I have. Even a few are too many.

I just sent a former co-worker a note simply saying “Sarah Palin is” then continued with the name of a well known former TV newsie. Sorry, I’m not talking.

I choose to believe the movie is mainly true, but immediately headed to the extremely conservative Breitbart.com for a differing opinion. Stacy Drake writes their defense of Palin against the movie.

“I’ve seen the entire movie, so don’t mind me while I go ahead and judge this piece of high-dollar propaganda.”

Her “10 Lies” were mainly small or dwelled on inconsequential details. Stacy’s Twitter home page lists “Conservatives 4 Palin” as her link. Sorry. Not persuaded.

As stated in the movie neither Lincoln nor Jefferson couldn’t be elected today. Sad. In the 21st Century you must connect via TV (or whatever comes next). We have to hope there’s substance beneath the charisma.

Julianne Moore is amazing. I believed she was Sarah Palin.

Moore was on with Jon Stewart earlier this week. He asked a softball question about prep and she opened up. It was impressive to hear her explain how she went about ‘learning’ Palin and what nuances she learned.

Ed Harris, someone I dislike on a personal level&#185, was excellent as John McCain. Harris didn’t do as much of a McCain impression as Moore did of Palin, but his personality rang true to the John McCain I’ve watched over time.

Does McCain throw the “F” bomb around that much?

From an entertainment standpoint it held my interest. From a historical standpoint it confirmed my fears.

&#185 – I met Ed Harris at the junket for Apollo 13. There were dozens of reporters passing through for interviews and he acted like a jerk when it was my turn. I hope it was just a bad day. He’s a fine actor. He wasn’t a nice man. Ask Helaine.

13 thoughts on “Game Change: HBO’s Sarah Palin Movie”

  1. It has always been apparent that Palin definitely wasn’t smarter than a 5th grader. My own grandchildren could have passed the vetting. Why not make one of them VP? They made all A’s in geography. If Palin physically looked like the very talented Susan Boyle, Palin who in her own mind thought SHE was at the top of the ticket and was running for president would have never been picked. For ANY thing. So Sarah, how did those mini-skirts, winking instead of debating, Star Of David bling bling, stripper high heels work out for ya so far? Jealous of Michelle much?

  2. I was reminded watching this of a political discussion/lecture I had in college some years ago regarding the Russian leadership and elections they take very seriously the image of their presidents back to 1917, and this all has to do with hair. Lenin was bald, Stalin had hair, Nikita Khrushchev was bald and so on alternating through to the last leader Putin who is bald. I say this because I came to a conclusion thinking about past presidents of the united states. There seems to be an alternating trend of presidents between Style and Substance. Obama you would say was elected on his Substance and Bush on his style. Just these two got me thinking. so if you take Clinton as substance, Reagan as style. To me it looks like the electorate will elect someone whether it’s 2012 or 2016 to have style over substance. And just watching something like this makes you quite scared as to who that someone may be.

  3. I found it interesting that at several points I felt sympathy for Palin as portayed, but ended up feeling the way I do in real life, that she is a dangerous person to send to Washington. Oh, and Geoff, in the scene I worked with Ed Harris (big woop, over his right shoulder as an extra, two shots, total 3 seconds screen time) we exchanged several quips between the dozen or so takes. At that point he was funny, personable, and relaxed. Either you hit him on a bad day as you said, or I did on a good one.

  4. Game Change made me actually feel sorry for Palin. She was in so far over her head and had no idea what she was in for. It really was the fault of McCain’s staff. On another note, my sister-in-law had bad experiences with Bill Cosby and Leonard Nemoy. Neither were pleasant or nice in their behavior.

  5. Don’t know how accurate the whole story was portrayed but… Julianne was so good in this role I forgot I wasn’t actually watching Sarah Palin.

  6. I love you Geoff and I will not comment upon your personal review of the movie or your political statements vis a vis the same…however, don’t mess with Ed Harris! I love him. He is one of the finest actors I have ever seen on the screen! His performance in the biographical movie about Jackson Pollock was breathtaking, as were all his others!

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