By the People: The Election of Barack Obama (2009)

Fantastic!

Admirable film.

A lot of fun.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This is a behind-the-scene of Barack Obama's Presidential campaign. It starts with him watching the mid-term election in 2006. He would announce a few months later. This follows the campaign all the way to the night of victory.This is in the same vein as the great documentary "The War Room (1993)" which followed Bill Clinton's campaign. It is inferior in a couple of ways. It's been done before. It's now more or less a historical document at this point. I would have loved one for W. The other problem is the limited drama.This one follows more with people further down the food chain. "The War Room" followed James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. They were great characters near the top of the food chain. This one is a lot of (to quote Palin) Hopey Changey thing. It follows organizer Ronnie Cho who is representative of the ground troops. The upper level stuff is never quite so compelling. It feels like we're just outside of the war room. It might also be Obama's calm persona injecting into his campaign or that everybody is tapping away at their Blackberry. This is a nice recount of the campaign. I can't help but wonder if Hilary's campaign has a more compelling behind-the-scenes movie.

Regardless of your political views, this documentary is awesome. Being a moderate in today's politics seems eerie. It seems as if you have to be part of the "fringe" or you don't "fit in". Anyway, The film takes you on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs of the campaign (mostly up).I wasn't a particular fan of the President but still voted for him because he seemed to convey the hope that we can come together after the previous disastrous administration. Very little of this mans charisma comes through in the film though,which was a disappointment.Overall the film is entertaining for anyone interested in politics or the President himself. He could be one of our greatest if given the chance and the hard right will work with him.I would have rated this film higher,albeit not enough about the Presidents essence and demeanor.

This documentary was thought provoking and had great insight into a process most of us only get to see from the outside.I loved seeing the emotional aspect of a campaign, most of the time you only see the "campaign face" of the people who are running and the staff behind them. I thought it was great to see the interaction of Obama's family, including his sisters. This movie showed how hard they worked and the impact it leaves on their whole lives; sleep deprivation, long hard hours for years, families that get put on hold, and relationships that are formed. Seeing the road to victory behind the scenes was great and seeing Obama's candid reactions to wins, losses, family, and various topics brought that human quality to him.I wish they could have shown more, though as you will see in the movie, if you watch the extras, they had a very hard time getting access throughout the years of filming, so what they did wind up with was a bunch of amazing clips that were cut short and left you wanting to see more. I understand that it was about Obama's election, but it would have helped (especially future generations) to see how other candidates won and lost, if only a few explanations here and there, not a main focus. Since I followed this election enthusiastically I can see the ups and downs in my mind, but after a few years and other generations come, people will be wondering; What the heck happened? How did he defeat McCain? In a way I wish we could have seen a little more negativity instead of just people being nice, everyone knows there is infighting and way more drama then just tears in a campaign. I felt that was a crucial missing part and left out big gaps.Overall this was a great documentary, especially since you get to see it from before he even put his name in the hat to run. They saw something in this man and early on (even earlier then they got to film and got approval) and followed this historic election all the way to the White House. Watch the special features on the DVD, they are Great too, even the commentary added that you can listen to the two women explain throughout the movie how everything came together and went down. Extra scenes help explain a lot and were great as well. I was always an Obama supporter and this just reinforced my views. Seeing any! behind the scenes footage is a great treat and well fought for and sought after.

The HBO documentary was broadcast here one day after its US premiere and one year after Election Day which brought Obama to the White House. There was certainly inspiration and and an amount of risk taken by HBO to put a whole team to follow Obama's campaign starting with 2006, as his election was not really in the cards from the start. This is maybe one of the reasons for which I expected more from this documentary than I really received.We do see the team since it's start, and actually we see more of the team then of Obama himself. We are introduced to some of the key participants in the campaign, all true believers, all deeply involved not only at the political and professional but also at the personal level. We see the crowds gathering, especially on the Democratic side, and on Obama's side within the Democratic Party - and the film does not try to keep any balance on reporting and does not show too many articulated opinions of the other camps. The arguments are most of the time emotional rather than rational, rhetoric rather than analytical. It's the story of the campaign, well told and well filmed, in chronological order - it happens under our eyes, and it is assumed that we know why it happened. Maybe in the future the documentary value of this story telling will increase, right now it's too new for us to have forgotten it already. There are no big surprises, no real scoops for people trying to learn more about the secret of Obama's victory. I expected some more information about the well conducted campaign on the Internet, or about the efficient money raising which was a key part in the success - there is no mention about this. There is also almost no mention about the international dimension of the campaign, or how the big policies issues were answered by Obama and what differentiated it relative to the other candidates on the Democratic and Republican side, leading eventually to victory. The film addresses more the emotional side, whoever looks for extended information or deep analysis will not find it here. The best moments are those in which we get a glimpse of the human dimension of the Obama family, or of the people who were involved in the campaign. For some viewers this may be enough, for other not. Depending upon the expectations 'By the People' can be satisfying or disappointing to the same extent.