When it comes to political documentaries I am quickly learning to stay away. Not only are the majority of the genre's films extremely biased, but the film's rarely offer anything new to the persona of the central subject.
For Nick Bloomfield's Sarah Palin: You Betcha! I was most disappointed with the people he chose to interview. From former political advisors to well known Palin haters the film failed to uncover anything that hadn't already been told countless times online and in the news.
At one point we have a man telling us how bad of a basketball player Palin was in high school. At this point I wanted to throw my hands up in disgust. If Bloomfield felt he needed to stoop to such a low to attack the former Alaskan governor, then he must have been running pretty thin on material - never a good sign for a documentary.
I will say that I was impressed that our director got in to interview both of Sarah's parents; though it should be revealed that nothing much comes of his conversations with them. Other interviewed Alaskans seem to have a bone to pick with the former governor. Whether they were fired by the state's leading lady or didn't agree with her actions once in office, the film does prove that she (like everyone else) has enemies.
But what the film didn't do (and what I honestly wanted to see) was gain access to new people who might have a look inside her childhood, her upbringing and her rise to power. We all know what happened from 2006 and on. I wanted to learn about the 90s.
As it stands the film is a complete waste of time and money. You can get the same information by google searching Palin's name or flipping on the television to MSNBC - and both of those options are much cheaper.
