Product Details

• Actors: Rosalynn Carter
• Directors: Adriana Bosch
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: PBS (Direct)
• DVD Release Date: March 7, 2006
• Run Time: 180 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000E1MY1S
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #75,232 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Years after his failed presidency, Jimmy Carter remains a fascinating bundle of contradictions. Arguably one of the most ineffectual of recent presidents, he has also achieved a stunningly effective post-presidential career as an international peace negotiator. In the first part of this 160-minute documentary, Carter shows equal parts humility and hubris as he starts his military career at Annapolis, meets Rosalynn, leaves the military to run the farm after his father's death, fails in his first gubernatorial bid, succeeds in his second, and is whisked into the White House. The second part follows the rapid disintegration of his presidency with the Bert Lance scandal and inflation, concluding with failed attempts to free the Iranian hostages. Linda Hunt narrates and an impressive series of public figures--Rosalynn and son Chip, former Press Secretary Jody Powell, Walter Mondale, even the disgraced Lance--add their two cents. Carter's acceptance of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize is noted in a printed postscript. --Kimberly Heinrichs

Product Description

Jimmy Carter ran for president on a wave of post-Watergate disaffection with Washington politics. But inexperience, inflation, recession, and the Iran hostage crisis, derailed his presidency dramatically. His crowning achievement, the Camp David Accords, created a framework for Middle East peace, inspiring his life since. The film traces his ascent from Plains, Georgia, to the Oval Office and explores the role of religion in his career.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding piece of dynamic historical reflection, July 2, 2004

By	Charles Ashbacher "([e-mail])" (Marion, Iowa United States([e-mail])) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Jimmy Carter (American Experience) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Of all the men who have been president of the United States, Jimmy Carter is clearly tied for first place in the "in the right place at the right time" category. After the assassination of John Kennedy, the failed involvement in Vietnam and the associated lies of justification by Lyndon Johnson; the scandal of Watergate and the uninspired leadership of Gerald Ford, the American people were looking for someone else. In keeping with the "Mr. Smith" tradition of the upright and honest citizen legislator, the relatively unknown Georgia governor Jimmy Carter succeeded in capturing their gaze and narrowly defeated incumbent President Ford. Given Carter's lack of experience and name recognition, it is clear that absent these preconditions, he most likely could not have been president.
On the other hand, Carter is also tied for the lead in the "being in the wrong place at the wrong time." In keeping with the American political tradition, the incumbent is blamed for all the problems, independent of how long they have festered. As one of the commentators points out, the expenses of the Vietnam War were never properly handled, and the consequences finally arrived when Carter was president. What is often overlooked is that the process of wringing inflation out of the American economy was begun in the Carter administration under the leadership of Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. Carter planted the seeds of the economic recovery that occurred during the Reagan administration.
Americans were accustomed to cheap gasoline and when the prices rose as OPEC began to increase in strength and the Arab nations started to assert their national interests, the blame fell to Carter. The chaos in Iran after the Shah fell and the drop in oil production served to push oil prices even higher. Carter happened to be president at that time, when the consequences of America leading the coup that installed the Shah in the early fifties finally arrived.
There is no question that Carter was inept and ineffectual as a leader, seeing him giving his infamous "malaise" speech again was not pleasant. I watched it live and simply could not believe that he would give such a terrible speech. There were many times when his religious faith got in the way, and in this case it was a mild catastrophe. He sounded like a schoolmarm, scolding her students for not wanting to learn their lessons and misbehaving. In my opinion, it remains the worst presidential speech that I have witnessed, and since I go back to the speeches of Lyndon Johnson, the sample size is large.
However, Carter was also the architect of the major American foreign policy success in the last forty years. I watched when Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat went before the nation and announced the Camp David accords. The United States almost had a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union during the Yom Kippur war in 1973 and everyone agreed that the most likely place for such a confrontation was still the Middle East. This treaty changed all that. The peace treaty between Egypt and Israel meant that Israel could not possibly be defeated by the remaining Arab neighbors in a conventional war. Therefore, this more than anything else, meant that Israel would continue to exist. When watching those events again, I was reminded how significant an event it was.
Jimmy Carter's administration will be forever linked to the Iran hostage crisis, which was a national obsession. He appeared to be ineffectual, although as is correctly asserted in this tape, there was really nothing he could do. Carter press secretary Jody Powell reminds us that the cold war was not over and all possible options had to be tempered with the knowledge that Iran shared a border with the Soviet Union. I was reminded of the later event when a Soviet fighter shot a commercial airliner out of the sky and cold warrior and hard liner Ronald Reagan did almost nothing, even though over 500 people were murdered.
As I recently told a much younger co-worker, Carter is a much better ex-president than he ever was as a president. His work in causes such as Habitat for Humanity, supervising elections in dangerous places, lecturing Fidel Castro about human rights, and convincing dictators to leave is very impressive. The scene where Castro is visibly fidgeting while Carter is telling him to lighten up is one not easily forgotten. It takes courage and conviction to do that. Contrary to the opinions of some conservatives, who continue to ridicule him, he very much deserved his Nobel Peace Prize. He is a good, honest man, and his failure as a president says much about how valuable those skills may be in a president.
This tape captures the man, his enormous ambition, his intelligence and his personal integrity. Given the lies mouthed by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, I found that integrity to be refreshing, all the while acknowledging that it hurt him politically. His work as a force for good in the world is a model for all other politicians once they are out of politics. Other ex-presidents have made a lot of money on the lecture circuit, he chose to do something constructive. The tape is an extraordinary lesson in recent history and how time is needed to accurately judge the accomplishments of a president.

0 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Jimmy Carter, January 18, 2008

By	S. C. Palmer - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This DVD was supposed to arrive in 3-5 days, but it took over 3 weeks. So I couldn't give it as a Christmas gift. I will never buy from Amazon again.

0 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worse Than George W..., July 18, 2008

By	John W. Schlatter (Grand Junction, Colorado) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Never has there been such an ineffective President this century (at least Bush has prevented any more terrorist attacks on our shores and his tax cuts gave us a strong ecnoomy until the Dems took over Congress)..Carter has been an apostle of appeasement, endorsing dictators like Castro, Chavez and endorsing the murdering Hamas...
He gave us double digit interest rates, unemployment and inflation and made the world think we were a paper tiger...The film doesn't discuss why the Iranians let hostages go the DAY THAT REAGAN BECAME PRESIDENT..I wish that the film exposed Afra'fat's behavior after Carter cloaked him with undeserved respect..I also wish the film had illustrated the state of education after Carter created the bureaucratic friendly Department of Education....His anti American attitude is what got him his undeserved Nobel Peace Prize..Someday, someone will tell the entire truth about him but this is not such a film