Customer Reviews

Left of the Dial

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This HBO documentary about the early days of Air America Radio is a pretty amazing piece of work. It's a real edge of your seat film with plenty of twists and turns to keep your attention. It's a total roller coaster ride with internal meltdowns, allegations of fraud, very funny political on-air stuff and loads of drama. Even if you're not a fan of Al Franken, Randi Rhodes and Janeane Garofalo (which I am) you'll find this behind the scenes documentary really compelling. The stuff with Randi Rhodes in particular is awesome -- she's a total revelation in this film. For anyone interested in re-visiting the political passions of 2004 this film is a must.

Highly recommended.

I've been a listener of Air America (esp. The Majority Report) from Day 1 but missed the broadcast of "Left of the Dial" on HBO. Thank goodness they released the DVD!

As mentioned by reviewers, Randi Rhodes is THE surprise of the film. I find her radio show to be fun and energizing...but only in small doses. She can be rather shrill & grating to my ears but I was very glad to see her in a more intimate light.

The DVD has two audio commentary tracks, #1 with Randi and Marc Maron, #2 with filmmakers Farrelly and O'Callaghan (BOTH TRACKS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!) but sadly, no subtitles/close captioning of any kind. There are several excellent special features: Deleted Scenes, Interviews with Randi, Chuck D, and Janeane Garofalo but the 20-minute Q&A segment with the filmmakers at the Jacob Burns Film Center is a special treat.

The film and commentaries revealed some of the massive internal problems - deception, infighting and clash of personalities / philosophies - which, by all accounts, should have sunk this venture. The fact that Air America is very much alive and growing is a testament to the passion and commitment of the staff, and to the very real need that they serve in an America with policies and doctrines that Thomas Jefferson would neither recognize nor approve.

(4-1/2 Stars)

This is the real deal story about the founding of Air America Radio with no punches pulled. Even though you get to see the non-stop crisis in the first few months it's also a very inspirational story about how the people who worked there managed to overcome huge obstacles to build the progressive talk radio network. I had a lump in my throat watching the presidential election night when the Air America folks realize that Bush is going to win again. Fans of Marc Maron will love this film. He is hilarious and completely crazy and it reminds you what a huge loss he is to Air America.

The story of Air America is really an amazing one. Before it ever launched, right wingers were saying it would never make it. A few days after it was on the air you had Bill O'Reilly saying "Is that still on?" And Ann Coulter saying "Nobody listens to Air America." The company had very poor management in charge and ended up losing Los Angeles and Chicago. It looked like Air America was going to flop. But because of the on air talent, most notably Randi Rhodes, it survived. People may tune in initially to hear Al Franken, but it's Randi that keeps people coming back day after day. The company is nearly two years old and it's already got over 70 stations. It's ratings are still far behind Rush Limbaugh's but he's been on for over 20 years and broadcasts from over 600 stations. So when he talks about Air America's ratings just remember that the company is still a baby but this baby is already on it's feet walking.

I had the pleasure to attend a live broadcast of Al Franken's show in Los Angeles (AM 1150) and the venue was jam packed full of people. So Air America has an audience and it's growing every day.

Fascinating doc on the early days of AAR, and it's a compelling program on its own, but probably the best reason to pick this up is for the commentary track featuring Rhodes and Maron. It's catty, open, funny, honest, and very revealing. Thank god AAR survived their financial troubles (yes?) to continue battering the evil that is neoconservativism, carving them up with the TRUTH.

I have been listening to Air America almost from its inception when I discovered that I could stream it on my computer. This documentary does a great job of showing us how Air America got started and it's great to see the radio personalities learning this new (for some of them) craft. It was Al Franken and his book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" that brought me to Air American, but it has been Marc Maron and Sam Sedar who make me stay (and keep me sane!). With this DVD, there is the added plus of listening to the commentary of Randi Rhodes and Marc Maron as well as the filmakers themselves, and they all offer some nice tidbits from behind the scenes. Hopefully Air American will become stronger and the local radio stations (KQKE in my area) can broadcast nothing but progressive/liberal talk radio that will ultimately make our country and the world a better place.

I'll try to make sure I review the actual movie here. The story, as I'm sure anyone reading this already knows, is of the start of Air America, an effort to combat what its creators saw as domination of the talk radio market by conservatives. The film does an adequate, if uninspired, job of capturing the early efforts of the startup network, but there could have been so much more here. The struggles included losing two of the three largest affiliates, Chicago and Los Angeles, money troubles that led to the employees losing their health insurance, a primary investor who disappears, and, perhaps most devastating of all for the film's subjects, the 2004 re-election of George W. Bush.

Against all these obstacles, there had to be intense soul-searching, anger, and frustration. These personal stories, however, are largely absent from the film. Instead, we get a sort-of fly-on-the-wall view of the efforts to get the network on the air and then keep it there. There are times when the film comes close to personal stories, notably with Janeane Garofalo and her father (a Bush Republican), but even there, the one face-to-face debate between the two is cut short.

The shame is that here was a film with the potential for so much more. The odds were certainly against the network, and the passion of those who stuck with it through truly trying times would have made for compelling viewing. (Documentaries such as Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens, and Mr. Death: The Rise & Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr. are examples of movies that succeed because they do get personal, regardless of whether one sympathizes with the subjects.) The best part of the disc is the commentary, when personalities really do emerge, especially that of Randi Rhodes. The film itself, though, did not impress me.

But how can you not love Air America. Who would have thought originally that Randi Rhodes would have been in debt to become the voice of Air America? Who would have thought that the great Randi Rhodes went under the radar UNTIL she interviewed Ralph Nader? While Al Franken went on to build Air America, there are other personalities that shine as well and do their job with finesse. Unfortunately, the original owner of Air America played a finanial game and was deceptive. Buy this immediately if you love Air America Radio as we all do. [...]. Lets go Dems!

This documentary is basically a lot of raw footage of the behind-the-scenes going on at Air America during the launch phase and through the first financial crisis ending with the election of 2004. The editing is skillful enough so that I could follow the story with only a few little slides along the way to serve as chapters markers along the way.

It certainly isn't necessary to be a fan of Air America radio to enjoy this documentary, but it might help. Liberals at least get the pleasure of watching their heroes in action during the whole thing, while I suppose conservatives will enjoy this more for the "train wreck in slow motion" kind of entertaiment.

One thing I got out of this is how to not start a radio network. First, don't rush the setup phase. Radio broadcasting technology is more complicated than one might think given that it's an almost century old type of media. Second, hire talent that's talented in radio. From what I remember only one of the original Air America personalities (Randi Rhodes) was a career radio talk show person. Third, keep your eye on the money.

Another thing I got out of this was an inadvertant insight into what makes a lot (not necessarily all) of liberalism tick. Toward the beginning there is some footage of Air America personality Mark Maron explaining why he joined Air America. He said (and I really tried to get this right):

"I've always spoken my mind. I've always been somewhat of a y'know reactionary person, y'know not always for the right reason y'know general y'know just authority problems but y'know if you focus those it looks a lot like y'know y'know uh ideological revolution."

And y'know, I think he's "right on" with that. A lot of "progressives" seem to be just people with authority issues who somehow focus their anxiety, rage, etc. just enough to make it all look and sound as some sort of ideology, one they believe is fit to run this great republic/democracy of ours.

Finally, I couldn't help but smirk a little bit at the end when I got to see "progressives" doing what so many of them seem to do best, and that's use the "f word" over and over; in this case while they watched the 2004 election results. The conservative viewer might consider this the happy ending, but the documentary provides a happy ending for the Air America fans out there too. So, everyone can be happy when this is over.

I live in Europe where the process of semi-fascist radio and television programmes has not occurred (thank God), but as one who has more or less followed the careers of druggie Rush Limbaugh, shrieking terrorist Ann Coulter and the like, I often wondered why the left was so quiet. This documentary answers the question and shows what happened when Air America was first set up -- lots of hope, lots of talent ... but not lots of lefty money, and so the whole gig almost went belly-up just a few days after it went on air. This is a very interesting documentary film, and it is enriched, of course, by the delightful antics of Jeanne Garofolo and Al Franken. Loved this documentary!