Doc Corner: Hulu's Four-Part 'Hillary'
Wednesday, March 11, 2020 at 1:30PM By Glenn Dunks (who is currently counting down his top documentaries of the decade over on Twitter. Follow along or swing by next week for the conclusion!)
It’s remarkable, really. Hillary—Nanette Burstein’s four-part Hulu biography of the woman who needs only one name these days—is so much like its subject, it’s just uncanny. Ambitious and by most conceivable marks of quality a perfect candidate for greatness.
And yet.
One almost has to admire the chutzpah of Hulu releasing Hillary when they did. Like Taylor Swift uploading her back catalogue to streaming services on the same day Katy Perry had a new album out, it feels like some sort of joke, even if it was more likely simply a smart and shrewd way of getting eyeballs in a tough market by utilising the political attention of another wild democratic primary race as cross promotional advertising...
But like Swift, Clinton will always be accused of ulterior motives, of having a hidden agenda, of being up to something. Between this and Miss Americana, two of popular culture’s most condemned female figures are at least attempting to silence their critics and set the record straight.
Despite its four-hour length, I don’t think this one achieves that. Clinton has been in the public eye for so long that people’s opinions are likely so entrenched as to be immovable—although you can’t blame her for trying. Burstein—an Oscar-nominee for On the Ropes, but probably best known for The Kid Stays in the Picture—probes, but Clinton appears to more or less stick to the script that her supporters heard long throughout her 2008 and 2016 campaigns. The film itself doesn’t help, attempting to cover her entire life in a way that means some interesting passages like her tenure as a New York senator are only naturally given short shrift. I may have blinked and missed it, but I don’t think there was even a reference to her being in the room when Osama Bin Laden was found, but there is one where she praises George W. Bush, so, thanks.
Perhaps with a closer focus on a theme or a particular slice of her career, there would have been more roomto breathe and a greater opportunity/desire for Clinton herself to sink her teeth into a topic. The very specific kinds of vitriol that she has had levelled at her is something that should make for fascinating viewing, yet Hillary is more pleasantly surface level. Similarly, a passage about her corporate speaking engagements with the likes of Goldman Sachs that catches her on the defensive is ultimately trivialised as something not worth engaging with. Furthermore, despite four hours of runtime and a hefty number of interview subjects, never do we hear from anybody outside of her circle. Considering how often history repeated itself across her career, it seems particularly miscalculated to only hear from those with positive personal connections.
Clinton herself doesn't come off badly at all. Especially when you consider her reputation in some circles as cold, uppity, a warmonger, a murderer and a ball-breaker. Hillary’s greatest segments are those that connect the linear telling of her life story as we go behind-the scenes of her historic run for President as the Democratic nominee. Edited from over 2000 hours of footage filmed during the campaign, these passages are a rare insight that the rest of the film rarely offers. Anybody who followed the campaign will recognise her from these portions—she’s smart and assertive, funny and extremely professional. Complaints that she wasn’t genuine seem even more imbecilic. It also helps that she makes so much sense in the face of Trump that it makes one misty-eyed for what we could all be doing right now rather than constantly following the latest insane rantings of the current President. We could have all taken a pottery class!
Elsewhere, the series is best when Clinton has something to say beyond generic platitudes. Her experiences of Bernie Sanders hold weight whether you agree politically or not (she shows genuine frustration rather than resigned acceptance), and her take on the Monica Lewinsky affair have an authenticity to them that speaks beyond her own experience and to something bigger. On the other hand, why do we spend so much time with her husband during these passages talking about his anxiety?
Maybe I’m accusing the film of what many criticised Clinton for: for being something it simply was never going to be. Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn’t owe anybody anything, it’s true, but why have a four-hour film if it’s pretty much all stuff we already know. Even D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus’ The War Room about Bill Clinton’s presidential run knew that the drama wasn’t necessarily in him, but rather the world, the sideshow, around him. The American political system is, to be perfectly honest, completely nuts and Hillary doesn’t really change my belief about that. What I wish it had done was offer a new perspective on why that is. As it is, it would probably make a great campaign launch. But let's not go there.
Release: Currently streaming on Hulu.
Oscar chances: After Made in America, the Academy changed the rules that productions screened episodically are (rightfully) no longer eligible. So even though Hillary could have easily been done just as a movie, it's not and so won't be competiting. Check for it at the Emmys, though.
Reader Comments (39)
She never lifted a finger for the gays.
Read on Twitter:
"If Biden gets the nomination, which looks likely, then three of the Democratic nominees since 2004 will have been people who voted for the Iraq War. That's madness. People who voted for the war should be sitting in shame somewhere. No consequences for 1 million dead."
Hillary is a narcissistic career politician who has only ever feigned interest in serving the marginalized and oppressed when it makes her look good.
I hope she is remembered for what she is: a war criminal whose final act was to silence progressive voices out of spite.
I have no interest in watching anything glorifying her.
This review seems a bit unfair:
"but Clinton appears to more or less stick to the script that her supporters heard long throughout her 2008 and 2016 campaigns."
At some point, we have to consider that Hillary's "script" is just her, or her own perception of things.
I thought the film, especially in episode 2 which focuses on her time as First Lady of Arkansas, the 1992 campaign, and health care answers pretty definitively how Hillary moved from being a person to being a symbol for conservatives to cast blame on America. She was forward thinking and didn't fit the mold, and became an endless attack object. The film gets at the political circus by, smartly, showing how she became a symbol and was never able to control what she represented (unlike, say Clinton, or Obama, or even Sanders). American politics is fundamentally about images (see 1972's the Candidate), and Hillary, as a woman, projected one that was an anathema to the right, and one that could easily be exploited.
I also think keeping it in Hillary World was a good idea. It's far more intimate because we hear from the people who know her best. Seeing her laughing with her campaign staff on planes was surprising and refreshing. The editing and cuts between 2016 and her past was an interesting choice as well.
Not interested. I didn't like her at all as I felt something about her was off and I felt like the last presidential election was shit as voters had no choice to vote for either a giant douche or a shit sandwich.
I am glad that I voted for her in 2016.
Marsha P-
I wanted to see if facts backed up your clueless statement and what do ya know... hmm.
https://now.org/pac-dev/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/01/Hillary-record-for-LGBTQIA.pdf
Sounds like you might need a hug... who hurt you?
'Who hurt you?'
I absolutely despise this. You just invalidated your entire argument with that cruel, disingenuous taunt, used to mock and silence any opposing voices. Try engaging without the faux concern and pernicious self-righteousness.
Anyway, as a non-American, I can only say that from the beginning of her 2016 campaign, it was remarkably easy to see through the lies. She's an awful human being.
Joe Biden may be a real nice human being. But Hillary would have been a far more capable president.
Paul-
I suspect you are an equally awful human being. Taste is subjective.
The irony of a one person calling another 'self-righteous' while using the world 'pernicious' is not lost on me. What a pretentious bore you are Paul.
#TeamHillary
Bit of a stretch there, adri. The insult of 'who hurt you' is disguised as concern and used to invalidate an opposing viewpoint with condescension and spite.Try not to cherry pick my words in order to validate your assertion that I'm only a 'pretentious bore'.
Nice to see you making friends Paul. You’re certainly not Miss Congeniality are you? Lol
I've said this before, but it never ceases to amaze me how unfailingly anything related to Hillary immediately elicits toxic vitriol way, WAY out of proportion to anything objectionable she's ever done. I just don't get it. What did she do to any of you?
As with Hillary and Clinton, I don't think I'm ready yet to see this because it would make me sad and mad all over again.
*sigh* I tried
thevoid99 - YOU GOT TO STOP SWEARING!! None of the contributors swear in their essays. You can make your point without cussing. Children may be reading, too.
No one hurt me, beyaccount. She only supported gay rights when she saw the it wouldn't hurt her political career and yet SHE LOST.
Biden is the worst. We need a third party like crazy.
That thevoid99, so vulgar.
Americans always say that they want universal healthcare and then vote for candidates who will do anything to make it fail. What a hypocrite country!
"Americans always say that they want universal healthcare and then vote for candidates who will do anything to make it fail. What a hypocrite country!"
Huh? The ones who want universal healthcare are the ones voting for the candidates who will make that happen. The ones who vote against it are the ignorant portion of the population who still think the Commies are out to get them. Unfortunately, those people are deciding our elections.
70% of Americans support universal healthcare. Look at the polls.
Omigod what reactions. I am very sorry that she isn't currently President of the US. She was robbed, and your nation is worse off for it. Would be nice to have a smart and sane person in charge during a global pandemic...
I look forward to watching this documentary because she is one of most intelligent and (wrongly) vilified politicians I have ever seen in my lifetime.
Still with her.
Dear Coronavirus, take her not Tom & Rita!
Lady Edith -- responses to pieces like this have taught me that America is probably past having sane leaders. Because people are by and large (and i hate to argue "both sides" but in this case its true) c-r-a-z-y when it comes to politics and the size of their love AND hate for various figures. Hillary would have been 10,000,000 times as capable and less dangerous for the world than Trump and yet ppl come in here like she's Hitler or like she isn't just one of 99.9% of politicians who took a long time to come around to gay rights.
people are irrational when it comes to poliitcs.
#StayTheFuckHome
The Senate Republicans are going on recess instead of taking up the Coronavirus bill (universal paid emergency sick leave, free testing, food assistance, assistance for health care workers) passed by the Democrats in the House.
Please come back here again and tell us how the two parties are the same.
Tomilika: My guess is that not all of that 70% is actually casting a vote, and if they are, they're doing it without full knowledge of the candidates they're choosing. Hence, ignorance.
jules -- you're right. pelosi will cut funds with a smile.
You don’t hate to argue both sides as constantly proven, it’s a go-to of yours actually,which in itself is irrational. But in this case you are one hundred percent correct.
LadyEdith and Nathaniel: Right there with ya. She may not have a perfect record (who does?!) but she's still a phenomenally smart, accomplished woman I find not only admirable but immensely relatable, who's persevered in building a remarkable career in public service despite 20+ years of vicious character assassination. And yes, she would have been a million times better and more competent President than the creature we have now - there's just no comparison.
It just frustrates and exhausts me beyond belief that so many people have so bought into the myth of "evil, corrupt, dishonest, Machiavellian Hillary" that they can't see her at all, only the monstrous creature they've created out of their own projections. It's to the point I can't read or watch anything online relating to her unless I'm able to avoid the comments, because there is ALWAYS this kind of toxic garbage. <end rant>
@Lynn Lee So true! I love when she stood by her man while he was getting fellatios in the oval office.
Saw this last weekend and, as a woman, was absolutely drained by the end of it. The level of abuse and character assesination a barrier brwaking woman has to face under the american sistem is just sickening. And then this whole week happened and it has been so upsetting, seeing Biden win states she lost against Bernie and seeing the numbers clarify once and for all that it never was about politics (Biden is actually a lot of the things Sanders's left accused her of being) but about her being a woman (statics showing white males in rural areas -the "economically anxious" bunch- shifting from Bernie to Biden) just makes me so angry. There are no women left in the democratic field when most of them were far more competent than the current septuagenarians running and we are still perpetuating the "she is just not likable" bullshit. Just *UGH*. And now this awfully handled coronavirus crisis just wants me want to scream at some members of MSM who couldn't bring themselves to talk about anything but emails and how Hillary being "overprepared" was somehow bad back in 2016.
Now, about the people who get to talk in the documentary, I read the director reached out to several Republicans (including Newt Gingrich) and all of them refused to participate which, considering the state of politics RN doesn't surprise me at all.
I understand if it didn't change anything for you, but it did have a big impact, couse I had never really gotten over her making the decision to stay in her marriage after the scandal and episode 3 and 4 made me realize how fucking awful I was for judging her for it, how it was mostly projection and judgment (it was me sort of assuming I had the monopoly of moral high ground) but above all, it made me realize I don't have ANY idea of how very much that hurt her and how it has sort of define her life. She really does not owe us shit regarding her personal choices, and at this point, she is also past the point of caring and being careful about expressing her grudges against people who smeared her and treated her like shit. I saw a lot of people on the Bernie camp upset about the timing of this and frankly tought "fuck off, she doesn't owe you shit".
So yeah... I don't know if it's different from a Male perspective but it caused a lot of strong emotions within me even though I already knew most of the story.
Also forgive all the typos hahaha, I wrote this raging after reading the comment section lol.
Thanks Bergman - your reaction was much more in line with what I expected. I have seen clips and reviews but Hulu is not available in Canada. (I will see it when it goes to itunes)
In spite of the comments, I still hold out hope for you guys. Hang in there Nathaniel and Lynn Lee, no matter how discouraged you are. In the coming election I believe things are going to change for the better. :-)
Btw. We use paper ballots up here and so should you - good luck and take care.
Jesus. Haven't we all fallen short of the glory of god? What a dump!
Barf !
Bergman, I am glad you got more out of it than I. The female perspective of its director was certainly appreciated in the parts that I really liked.
(otherwise, I knew I was right to avoid looking at the comments here until now. yikes)