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Journeys With George (2004)

Alexandra Pelosi , Aaron Lubarsky  |  NR |  DVD
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)

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Product Details

  • Actors: Alexandra Pelosi
  • Directors: Aaron Lubarsky
  • Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
  • Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.0)
  • 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: 76 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B0000YTOXU
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,398 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • Learn more about "Journeys With George" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Culled from countless hours of video and originally broadcast on HBO in November 2002, this Emmy-winning "home movie" purports to provide an "all-access pass" to George W. Bush during the 18-month haul of his 2000 presidential campaign, but it's more accurate to call this a revealing portrait of camaraderie among the campaign's roving press corps. Armed with a camcorder and her own charming personality, NBC news producer Alexandra Pelosi (youngest daughter of California Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi) captures a "Dubya" we don't often see: casual, charismatic, and (with a mouthful of junk food much of the time) rather lacking in table manners. History has turned Journeys with George into a horror film that looks like a road-trip buddy comedy. The terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 and the subsequent war in Iraq were more than two years in the future, so this amiable cross-country jaunt now looks like a stress-free postcard from a more innocent time, enjoyable for its candor about the seemingly endless cycle of photo-ops and repetitive campaign rhetoric. What you won't get from Pelosi's video diary is any deeper insight into George W. Bush or the nascent workings of his imminent administration. As a lighter-side companion to The War Room, however, Journeys with George is must-see viewing for anyone interested in the relationship between jaded journalists and the man who would become the 43rd President of the United States. It's unlikely we'll ever see another film quite like this. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

Journeys with George ia an unprecedented, all access pass to candidate George W. Bush in the months before he won the closest and most controversial presidential election in history. The documentary looks unflinchingly at the built-in conflicts, contradictions and seductions of big-time political reporting - and the tactics used by candidates to win over reporters over the course of months and months of campaigning.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Great buy January 7, 2004
Format: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.
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26 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Great little movie July 1, 2004
Format: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.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format: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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A PIECE OF HISTORY
I just re-watched this film and now that George Bush is out of office I think every voter in America should have to watch it. This is an artifact of a different era.
Published on April 17, 2009 by Michael Thomas
Send in the Clown
Future historians of our era will puzzle over George W. Bush. How did a man of seemingly modest gifts and achievements find himself at the helm of the world's most powerful... Read more
Published on April 17, 2007 by Doginfollow
mixed feelings
While it was nice to see the softer side of "Dubya" for the material you're watching, it ran a bit long I think. And it definitely shows the liberal bias of the media. Read more
Published on March 8, 2007 by J. Johnson
W stands for "wink wink"
At the end of the year-long tour, a vaguely depressed Richard Wolffe muses that the Gore press corps went a lot harder on Gore, their critical look at the candidate coming through... Read more
Published on March 5, 2007 by SMC
I loved it
Journeys with George is the first time I had the pleasure of viewing an Alexandra Pelosi documentary. Read more
Published on February 12, 2007 by mel white
The press attached to a political leader
This is a film mainly about the press corp attached to a political leader while he campaigns. I find it quite interesting how they follow the man around as he goes from place to... Read more
Published on December 2, 2006 by BernardZ
Thank you Alexandra Pelosi
I was delighted to spend 75 minutes watching Alexandra Pelosi's documentary.

Versus the alternative of wasting a year of my life to learn just the following. That U.S. Read more
Published on November 19, 2006 by Expat of
Great Movie for AP Government
I teach AP Government and Politics and this gives the students an excellent picture of what campaigning is all about. Read more
Published on November 9, 2006 by Deborah H. Meyer
"I Have Nothing To Say."
So says Alexandra Pelosi who is a particularly sensitive member of the mainstream media who decides to shoot a short narrative of the Bush campaign while on assignment from NBC. Read more
Published on April 4, 2006 by Bernard Chapin
one of my favorite political docs.
It's hard to think about George W. Bush pre-9/11 and pre-Iraq. Both of those events have had such a huge impact on his presidency that what happened before them seems like a very... Read more
Published on November 18, 2005 by Lee L.
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