The Good

If you don’t know anything about Ralph Nader or you are unclear on what he represents… you need to see this film.

The Bad

Why didn’t Nader do a commentary track on this film?

An Unreasonable Man is a 122 minute look at a man some people love, some people are terrified of, and other people (both on the Left and Right) hate.

There are three key points in Ralph Nader’s life that are shown in this comprehensive film. The first one is when Nader took on General Motors because they were making unsafe automobiles. This led GM to think they could muscle Nader and try and hurt his character. Not only did he get them to change how they designed certain cars, they proceeded to pay him compensatory damages for invasion of privacy. He eventually had a group form around him titled Nader’s Raiders and they fought for consumer’s rights.

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The second big moment of his career came when Jimmy Carter (as well as some other former Nader’s Raiders), didn’t pass a safety bill that they should have passed. It marked Nader realizing that “there wasn’t a dime’s bit of difference” between the Republicans and the Democrats. So we get the the Green party into the political theater. Nader continued to campaign, continued to call big business on the carpet and he had the support of many of the influential Left, namely celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore and Bill Maher. This would ultimately come into the play with the third most important aspect of his career. In the 2000 election, he made an impressive bid for President. Moore, Sarandon and everyone else came out and stumped for him. Then it was a close election and many saw a vote for Nader really being a vote for George W. Bush.

So now, he the Democrats have royally turned on him. All his supporters (Sarandon, Moore, Maher, etc…) have come out against him. As if everything they did and said before never meant anything. Nader points out how in the 2004 election, John Kerry should have beat Bush by a landslide but that the Democrats had no strategy to defeat him. At the end of the day, this documentary really shows how right Nader was on consumer issues, domestic policy and that there really isn’t any difference between our friends on the Left and Right.

Features

Deleted Scenes

There are 7 deleted scenes on this DVD and they have titles like The Congress Project, Big Boys/Flint and Prop. 103. Essentially, this is more of the same types of footage that we have already seen. With a run time of over two hours, I am glad that they have didn’t include this footage in the movie simply because things were already at a healthy length. Also, I like deleted scenes but I sort of don’t feel that they are necessary for a DVD. After all, haven’t we already seen the footage in its best form in the actual film?

Featurettes

Like the Deleted Scenes the 7 featurettes shown here are basically continuations of footage that we have already seen. I think that the Featurettes might be more worthwhile to watch than the Deleted Scenes. I feel that way because of the subject matter. These featurettes have such relevant titles as “What Happened to the Democratic Party?,” “Ralph Nader on the Iraq War,” and “A Debate on Corporate Power in America.” These were all great to watch because so much of this movie speaks to American today. I mean, how in the world did our country revert back to where we were in the 1970s? If anything, these featurettes will get you thinking.

Video

Widescreen Version. Presented to preserve the aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition. Enhanced for widescreen TVs. Comprised of all sorts of video footage (some of which might even have been film), there really isn’t much to say except that everything looks amazingly good. When one considers how comprehensive this piece is, mixed in with the various formats that were shot to obtain the look of this movie, overall I was really impressed. I also had the chance to watch this DVD on a bigger screen and the picture was nicely composed the entire time, no matter what the format I was viewing.

Audio

Dolby Digital. Language: English Stereo Surround. Subtitles: English and Spanish. Once again, when you realize how many different formats were employed to tell this story, all the location footage used, the different places that interviews were captured, it is incredible how leveled the audio is. I didn’t have to mess with the sound that much and only a few times I put the subtitles on. However, those times were rare and for the most part the audio was quite solid.

Package

Ralph Nader, set up with a gaze that seems like he’s staring into the future, is shown on this front cover. Behind him is a probable listing of all the names he’s no doubt in been called. The back has a shot of him riding in the back of a car as well as sitting with Jimmy Carter. There is a description of what An Unreasonable Man is about, a Special Features listing, a cast list and technical specs.

Final Word

I knew very little about Ralph Nader before I saw this movie. As a lifelong Democrat who has often felt a little sold out by his own party, I eventually flirted with being a Republican simply because I was so fed up. However, I now realize that the Green party exists for a reason. Also, one must project into the future. Yes, we currently have a two party system of Republicans and Democrats in this country. However, we have somewhat ceased getting anywhere with it. If more people accept that things like having a Third Party are going to take a lot of time, and that no matter what the candidate in office is basically the same person (if all we have is Republicans and Democrats), I think we might get more kinds of parties into the political landscape of this country. History has often shown us that the stalwarts, the “unreasonable men,” are the ones who usually end up being right after all the dust has settled.

Now, I am not saying I am going to switch parties, all I am saying is that next time we have another Presidential Election in this country, I am going to be that much more informed. Isn’t that what film is supposed to do? Enlighten as well as entertain. An Unreasonable Man should be mandatory viewing for all.

An Unreasonable Man was released January 31, 2007.