Carterland
**Seen at the 2021 Atlanta Film Festival.
One of the things I’ve always heard about Jimmy Carter as President is that he was weak and feckless. After watching “Carterland,” and thinking back on the entirety of the last 40 years of presidencies after he left office in 1981, I cannot help but think we were robbed of the type of leader we should have. That doesn’t mean we deserved more of him, though.
For their directorial debut, Jim and Will Pattiz look at the presidency of Jimmy Carter, and while it feels a lot like sanctioned mythmaking, at times (the world premiere was at the Carter Center, after all), it also does make the case as to why Carter was not really suited for the White House, and politics. A peanut farmer from Georgia, who had never held office for much of his life, we look at his political career, first as governor of Georgia, then as President, and the individual we have gotten to know well over his four decades since losing to Ronald Reagan comes out in what we see in terms of his stances on equality and social justice. Coming out of the Nixon and Ford years, it’s honestly easy to see why he was elected. When we see him in office, and what mattered to him- as well as how he went about it- it’s also easy to see why he went out of favor by his re-election. We get nothing about his post-Presidency.
It’s always been easy to respect Jimmy Carter as a man, and as a humanitarian because of his service- primarily in Habitat for Humanity- after his Presidency, but “Carterland” gives us a Presidency we can admire for the way he tried to handle himself. For him, the power of the office was never the point; it was always the service. When he brought on Paul Volker to raise interest rates as inflation exploded, he knew it was going to sink him politically, but it had the desired economic impact, paving the way for the Reagan ’80s. He saw climate change as a threat to us as a country, and his conservation efforts for the country were the most expansive in US history, even outdoing Teddy Roosevelt. And when the hostages were taken in Iran, rather than meet them with force, all but assuring their deaths, he went the diplomatic route, and brought every one of them home, just in time for him to be routed by Reagan. For the younger generation, who may only know Carter for Habitat for Humanity, “Carterland” is an essential look at how the greatest power in politics doesn’t have to corrupt; it can be used for the betterment of a nation, even if it’s not for your benefit personally. I can’t think of a better message right now.
