Has anyone seen the Wellstone movie, yet?

[question everything]

Movie review: 'Wellstone!' captures senator well
Kristin Tillotson
Star Tribune
Published October 15, 2004

For many people in Minnesota, the emotional wounds from the October 2002 death of Paul Wellstone have barely begun to heal. The movie "Wellstone!" is likely to inflict fresh abrasions, as a reminder to those people of how much they lost the day a plane crash killed the senator, his wife and daughter, and five others 11 days before a closely fought election. It is also a fine tribute to a passionate, tenacious politician, and an inspiration to those who would follow his path.

Clip after clip shows how Wellstone combined the idealism of Candide with the infectious energy of a terrier to deliver messages such as "politics is not about money and power, but the improvement of peoples' lives."

(snip)

The trip down memory lane includes the making of the famous "gotta move fast" commercial by ad whiz Bill Hillman and clips from the finger-pointing debate with incumbent Rudy Boschwitz on public television's "Almanac." There are touching interviews with former neighbors in Arlington, Va., where Paul and his wife, Sheila, were high-school sweethearts. Old friends tell a few stories on Paul, calling him a "high-maintenance husband."

Narrated by actress Jane Kaczmarek ("Malcolm in the Middle"), the 90-minute film features well-edited reflections from a cross-section of Wellstone friends and colleagues -- including Iowa senator Tom Harkin, financial supporters Sam and Sylvia Kaplan, writer/radiomeister Al Franken and Jeff Blodgett, a student of Wellstone's at Carleton College who became his campaign manager and who now heads the political-activism training center Wellstone Action.

(snip)

Wellstone!

*** out of four stars

What: A documentary about Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, by Laurie Stern, Lu Lippold and Dan Luke.

When: 7:15 & 9:15 p.m Sun. thru Oct. 28, plus 5:15 p.m. Sat.-Sun. (Also playing noon Sat. as part of Central Standard Film Festival at the Heights Theatre, 3951 Central Av. NE., Columbia Heights. $8. 612-343-3390.)

Where: Bell Museum, 17th & University Avs. SE., Mpls.

Tickets: $7 ($5.50 students, seniors). 612-331-3134 or http://www.mnfilmarts.org.

Kristin Tillotson is at [e-mail]

[AlFrankenFan]

1. Will they sell copies of it on the web?

Unfortunately I don't live in Minnesota...(though some day I will!) but I'd really, REALLY love to see this!

[DFLforever]

4. WELLSTONE available on DVD now.

link: http://www.carryitforward.org/

[DFLforever]

2. I saw it Sat at the Heights Theatre as part of the film festival.

I loved it. It was well-made, well-paced, well-edited and although very touching at points, not sentimental. But I laughed and cried. It starts in the beginning with his early neighbors, his family, high school and meeting Sheila.

Then they track his political development and history, organizing in NC and Minnesota, e.g., the power-line struggle. They spend much time on his first Senate run when he upset Boschwitz. They emphasized how Paul combined idealism and effectiveness in office. It ends not with his death but with Paul's influence on the future through Wellstone Action and other progressive efforts he's inspired.

It will be shown in the TC area at various venues. It's also scheduled for showing in Oregon, NY, and a few other states. The filmmakers haven't yet got a national distributor.

[Thegonagle]

3. Wellstone was a beautiful man. I will make time to see this.

A real people's politician, he once personally visited the VA medical center to cut through some paperwork that was holding up a life-saving treatment for the grandfather of one of my friends.

I cried at his campaign HQ in 2002 as I read the messages posted on the wall and fence outside. At one point I noticed that KSTP TV was filming me from the side with tears running down my face. (I wonder if they aired it--me, a 27 year-old man crying in public for somebody I had never met.)

I don't normally subscribe to conspiracy theories, but I don't discount the possibility Wellstone's flight was tampered with on that fateful morning in 2002.

It felt such a waste then, and it feels the same way when I reflect on it today.

[Eric J in MN]

5. About how long is it? NT

NT

[DFLforever]

6. It says 90 mins (thread post above).

[Krupskaya]

7. Gawd, Tillotsen is such a crap writer.

n/t