An Unreasonable Man

SCRIBE'S I SAW THIS SCREENED AT A COLLEGE REVIEW:

Its always been difficult to tell whether or not Ralph Nader is a complex man or exactly what we see on the surface. He’s always been a driven, passionate person whose strength of conviction is second to none. An Unreasonable Man attempts to resolve this conundrum.

Going back to the early days of Nader’s consumer activism, all the way through the heyday of “Nader’s Raiders” and up to the 2000 Presidential election, the film leaves us with answers and some new questions.

The title of the documentary is derived from the following quote: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) Going on this definition, Nader is most certainly unreasonable, often to the extreme frustration of corporate America. His struggles with General Motors and their failed attempts to try and create a sex scandal with a man who may very well be without urges is rather entertaining.

In fact, the majority of the film is compelling and defies its two and a half hour running time. Crammed with interviews and archival footage, this doc literally covers all of its bases when examining its subject. We see Nader’s rise to prominence during the Sixties counter-culture movement and how his works paid off in the Seventies before politics finally caught up with him.

And that is where the film takes a decidedly darker turn. When in the late Seventies Nader’s friends start working for the Carter administration, we see how quickly his efforts were reversed. Carter didn’t live up to his promises but the arrival of Ronald Reagan and his pro-corporate, anti-government approach is nearly the death-knell for Nader. Once the Democrats begin accepting corporate donations on the same level as their Republican counterparts, Nader becomes a liability who is cast to the side.

The portion of the film that deals with Nader’s reinvention as a politician is often painful. He’s clearly out of his depth but he doesn’t seem to know it. His naiveté and perseverance would be inspiring if not for the fact that he sincerely doesn’t understand why he isn’t reaching more people. Even Pat Buchanan admires his ballsiness. Those who blame him for the outcome of the Bush/Gore campaign won’t find a repentant Nader here. What’s interesting is the split the election caused within his own camp.

Ultimately, Nader emerges as an essentially unchanged man, still an activist, still “unreasonable,” and still fascinating.

***** out of *****

GREEN’S “EVERYBODY ELSE’S DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK” REVIEW:

Recently, when I asked Scribe what he wanted to do next for this blog, he said he wanted to do another documentary. I rolled my eyes and asked him to give me a list of suspects. This one seemed to be the most interesting of a list of titles I had never heard of, so that‘s what I chose. Then there was the matter of finding a copy of the DVD, as I have been (and still am) without any library access all summer. Thanks to Amazon Marketplace, I was able to find a new copy for under $7 including shipping charges.

I must admit that I was less than enthusiastic about watching this documentary. Even when I finally watched it, I had to stop a few times to get up and walk around to keep myself alert. Blood running through the veins is a good thing, I told myself.

Vice Principal Wolters: “Corvair?”
Glenn Holland: “Yeah.”
Vice Principal Wolters: “I take it you didn’t read Ralph Nader’s book.”
Glenn Holland: “Well, unless Ralph is willing to buy me a new car, I’m going to have to stick with this one until the wheels fall off.”
Vice Principal Wolters: “Well, you might not have to wait that long. Heh, heh. Have a nice day.”

Mr. Nader, for better or worse, you are now immortalized in American cinema, forevermore. We now can proceed.

The quote above is from the movie Mr. Holland’s Opus is of course referring to chapter one of Nader’s book “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile” which was published in the year that the film opens, 1965.

Thus begins the legacy of Ralph Nader and his rather sizable impact on consumer safety. Most of what he's done we don’t even realize and take for granted his efforts today as a matter of course.

I was surprised to learn how many organizations Nader helped to start and how many people he had working for him, at one time dubbed “Nader’s Raiders.”

You can hardly call this documentary objective in that the writers/directors are Nader's people. But that’s okay. This documentary is like Nader’s legacy piece. Something for future generations to understand what kind of man Nader was and what kind of passions drove him.

However, Darth Nader’s venture into politics as a third party candidate was an unmitigated disaster, even though the documentary puts a positive spin on it. Try as you might, you can’t solely put the blame of the failure of the Democrats losing the elections in 2000 and 2004 on Nader’s shoulders. But to deny his role in it is like denying that 2+2=4 or that the sky looks blue.

In this two party political system that we have in this country, in order to succeed within it you need to first conform to the rules before you can break them. If Nader had run as a member of either party first and won an election or two, who knows where his political impact would have been? Once you secure the nomination for an office, say that of President, then you can use your ideas and ideals to shape the party’s vision and focus. That a man of Nader's intelligence doesn't get this is baffling and amusing.

Watching this documentary, my respect for the man for his ideals, work, vision and impact has grown. I didn’t even have to watch the extra features on the second DVD to understand it. As well as the main documentary is assembled, I have no worries that the extras on disc 2 are equally as good and informative.

One thing that baffles me about the presentation of the first disc is that it contains deleted scenes. Why delete anything? It's not like these scenes were taking away from any dramatic effect. If you're going to invest two hours watching this documentary you might as well invest another 30 minutes or so. Length is irrelevant in a film like this.

***** out of *****

An Unreasonable Man (2006, NR, 122 minutes), starring Ralph Nader, Pat Buchanan, Phil Donahue, Howard Zinn, James Ridgeway, et. al. Written and directed by Henriette Mantel and Steve Skrovan.