Jimmy Carter demonstrates that a real leader doesn't need a rose garden to maintain a bully pulpit.

| May 26, 2020

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 18, 2011

It's clear from the very beginning that Demme admires Carter. But the filmmaker's skepticism for authority manages to pop out occasionally.

| Apr 28, 2011

Follows the former President in heartfelt contemplation

| Aug 27, 2009

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 18, 2008

Jimmy Carter Man From Plains is a genuinely inspiring, well-made documentary that is well worth seeking out.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2008

This is a man it is impossible not to like, even if you think he was a weakish one-term commander-in-chief. At least he was not Nixon or Bush Jr.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 15, 2008

This portrait of former US President Jimmy Carter could come across as propaganda. Director Jonathan Demme clearly has an admiration for his subject.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2008

A heartening example of a reputation deservedly rehabilitated.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 15, 2008

Not ground-breaking cinema, but a reminder that Christians can be tolerant and politicians principled.

| Aug 15, 2008

Jimmy Carter may not be the most memorable ex-White House resident, but his post-presidency record as a battler for humanitarian causes takes some beating.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2008

Carter is more energetic than Demme's film that fires on all cylinders only when Carter calmly but persuasively faces down his critics or recounts his time as the most powerful man on Earth.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2008

Essentially a soap opera.

| Aug 15, 2008

Only belatedly, with the arrival of Alan Dershowitz, does Demme happen across anybody who might disrupt the air of non-confrontational niceness, but Carter ducks the challenge, and the film heads ever onwards into hagiography. A disappointment.

| Aug 15, 2008

Demme's fascinating documentary shows Carter on a US tour to promote the book. Perhaps Carter - and Demme himself - imagined this would be as trouble-free as Al Gore promoting environmentalism.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2008

Jimmy Carter Man from Plains is an affectionate and admiring portrait of a politician who, like Al Gore, became more idealistic and effective on the world stage once he left office.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2008

A great, misunderstood man forms the basis of a fine, easily misinterpreted documentary.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 15, 2008

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 7, 2008

allows us into Carter's life intimately enough to discern his character

| Original Score: B | Apr 11, 2008

Demme's scrutiny leaves us with the picture of a very respectable and admirable man.

| Apr 3, 2008