Tweet
Released by: HBO
Released on: December 11, 2012.
Director: Jeffrey Roth
Cast: George Bush, Barbara Bush
Year: 2012
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Jeffrey Roth's recent documentary on George H.W. Bush, the 41st President Of The United States, attempts to be more than just a political biography - it gives its subject some genuine personality. As you'd expect, the movie is made up of archival clips from throughout the former President's career as well as some newly shot footage recorded with him in his summer home in Kennebunkport, ME, a location very dear to him given that he's spent some time there each and every year since he was a kid.
It's here that he basically tells us his story in his own words. As he explores the grounds of the estate by way of a golf cart (accompanied by his dog) he basically narrates his own biography. We learn over this ninety minute period not just about the history of the home but also what Bush feels were the high's and low's of his political career. He discusses appearances he's made since leaving office, the onset of Parkinsons and its effect on his legs, and how age may have slowed him but not completely taken him out of the arena. At eighty-seven years of age and he wife Barbara enjoy spending time with the family but Bush obviously does get some pleasure out of recounting past glories, sharing old family photographs, personal film clips and quite a bit more.
Bush actually gets far more personal here than you might expect. He talks about serving his country during the Second World War and shares his thoughts on military action encountered while he was President. He talks about losing a three year old daughter and the pain that it brought about and he does go into territory you don't necessarily expect him to. Yet then, he'll go right back into talking about the history and importance of the summer home, and we wind up starting to lose interest.
Bush also avoids going into a whole lot of detail in regards to some of the more sensitive issues that arise. We can see that he was genuinely upset when he didn't win a second term but he skirts the issue and fails to really let us in nor does he elaborate on how he felt about what Clinton did when he won. He admits to being proud of George W. Bush but skirts the many controversial aspects of that Presidency as well. Bush doesn't 'go there' and the interviewer leaves it be - while it's understandable you'd want to give a President a certain amount of respect, when you're making a documentary that's supposedly going to allow us to really get to know its subject, 41 doesn't offer up a whole lot that we don't already know about George H. W. Bush. As a primer on its subject, it's fine and it is well put together in how it uses pertinent archival clips to illustrate various points but it never scratches below the surface, and that's a shame as, like him or not, Bush is an interesting man who has lead an interesting life. Too bad we don't learn very much about it here.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is made up almost entirely of archival footage taken from various sources, some of it in considerably better shape than others. For the most part the disc is well authored in that there are no problems with compression artifacts outside of what was inherent in the clips used. The newer material looks fine, some of the older stuff looks like the shot on VHS material that it is - you can't really fault the documentary for that though. For the most part, it's all watchable enough just keep your expectations in check moving into this one, it's not a release tailored to the videophiles out there.
The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track, the only one on the DVD, shares the same pros and cons as the video. Some of the archival clips are flat sounding or have some audible hiss but the newer material sounds fine. Again, this is what it is and overall it's perfectly acceptable.
Outside of a static menu and chapter selection there are no extras on this DVD.
The Final Word:
41 should have been fascinating, and instead it's merely occasionally interesting. It is well put together but Bush doesn't seem particularly interested in really opening up nor does the interviewer seem all that interested in trying to get him to do just that. As such, we wind up with a technically accomplished documentary that offers only a casual glance into what makes Bush the man he is and why he did what he did while he held office.
