Product Details

• Actors: Alexandra Pelosi
• Directors: Aaron Lubarsky
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• DVD Release Date: February 24, 2004
• Run Time: 79 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000YTOXU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,287 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Journeys With George" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

JOURNEYS WITH GEORGE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great buy, January 7, 2004

By 

Michael Benoit (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Journeys With George (DVD)

A must see movie. If you are at all interested in the inner-workings of a national political campaign and if you would like to see Dubya letting his gaurd down, you need JWG. I think that the Bush supporters will like him even more after seeing this and the Bush-haters out there will hate him even more. This film is very well put together.

26 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great little movie, July 1, 2004

By 

Nichomachus - See all my reviews

This review is from: Journeys With George (DVD)

I hesitate to call this a documentary, it's more a well-edited video diary, and should be judged as such. George Bush is humanized to a great degree, in a way we heard about but rarely ever saw (or see) in the never-ceasing effort to mythologize the man.

The relationship between the Governor and Pelosi is kind of sweet and unpretentious. Their encounter over her California absentee ballot, where GWB2 gives her some really amusing politician schtick about why she should vote for him is a great scene. The "Newsweek Man" flirtation theme was also great. One gets the sense that a lot of this press pool was very young, fairly inexperienced, and not nearly as sophisticated as they thought they were. The segues with the Texas print reporters (who, I think, were later responsible for the critical Rove bio "Bush's Brain") were also interesting, they actually knowing something about politics and about Bush. One gives an impromptu monologue analogizing Republican campaigns with a baloney sandwich that is priceless.

One of the most noticeable features is the absence of much real journalism being practiced by the press pool. The closest we get to that is the late revelation of Bush's DUI, and we see Karen Hughes skillfully handling that. She is rarely in the film, but comes across as impressive, especially vis-a-vis Rove's pomposity. But in actuality, the press pool spent most of the time going through the motions, messing around, and being bored in an extended tour. I think a lack of curiosity became their most prevalent trait.

So really, as is seen from the evident relief of other reviewers, this isn't by any means a Bush-bashing movie. Pelosi's liberal pedigree is clear from the start, and actually shapes her friendship with the Governor. He's a lot quicker than she is too, and she knows it. While there is a lot of tongue-in-cheek sequences poking fun at Bush-as-campaigner, most of the irony is directed at the travelling campaign circus, and we get a sense from Pelosi that she thinks of Bush and herself in a similar way: as sort of accidental participants in a fairly surreal process.

So Bush Fans, ever wary of a devious liberal media out to persecute them, can rest easy. JOURNEYS WITH GEORGE, in the end, really critiques the pseudo-journalism of the press pool, and its evident mediocrity. If anything, it goes far to puncture one cherished myth, that the press is of some coordinated liberal conspiracy to destroy their heroes. That requires competence and will. Pelosi's only departure from utter docility was to question Bush about Texas executions, and she quickly retreated to docility after that. One reviewer below apparently sees this sheep-tendency of campaign journalists, "knowing their bounds," as their duty. I tend to think a press obedient to the powerful is anti-thetical to the whole profession, and Pelosi's diary here is one example of why hundreds of millions of dollars are used to run campaigns that the majority of the country is only dimly aware of.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best documentary I've seen, March 29, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Journeys With George (DVD)

This is a must see for Democrats and Republicans. Among other things, it gives incredible insight into what happens between a presidential candidate and his press circuit, and how that relationship can be manipulated to produce the candidate's desired results. This was well worth seeing when it first came out, and worth purchasing to share with others.