Recalling the lesson about bringing a knife to a gun fight, a British documentary filmmaker brings a spoon to a hatchet job in the film “Sarah Palin: You Betcha!”
The filmmaker/host, Nick Broomfield, proves an unsteady Michael Moore-wannabe as he zips around to Palin’s public appearances attempting to play gotcha. Intercut with these failures — one of which ends with Palin, at a lecture, swatting down his shouted question with a witty comeback — are lots of scenes of Broomfield complaining he can’t get many of her friends to talk to him, rehashing the alleged “troopergate” scandal that was disproportionately covered three years ago and interviewing Palin enemies who don’t offer much in the way of dirt. Palin texted and chewed gum during meetings — so what?
Broomfield also tries to convince us that Palin wasn’t that great of a high-school basketball player (though she did sink a free throw that iced the state championship match). A think piece this is not.
Broomfield isn’t above egging on Alaskans into speculating about Palin’s religious beliefs and making absurd statements about her ruthlessness (“Oh sure, she’d kill you like that,” says one foe, snapping his fingers for emphasis). His guilt-by-association tactics might work better if there were any actual association: Cue footage of signs brandished at a rally held by an anti-gay hate group that has nothing to do with Palin.