How Hillary got Trumped
She’s the most admired and vilified woman in America. A Chicago-born Methodist Republican who became the wife of a Democratic president. Someone who has faced ‘‘a gauntlet of unbelievable obstacles’’ and, as she puts it, ‘‘the most investigated innocent person in America’’.
Now, the life and times of Hillary Rodham Clinton is the subject of a four-part, four-hour documentary.
Debuting at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Hillary (now streaming on TVNZ OnDemand) interweaves a chronological trawl through her backstory with fly-on-the-wall footage from her unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign. The result is a compelling portrait of a complicated life and a fascinating look, at least partially, into how Donald Trump ended up in the White House.
Director Nanette Burstein, whose previous subjects have included infamous Hollywood producer Robert Evans (The Kid Stays in the Picture) and disgraced skater Tonya Harding (The Price of Gold), here benefits greatly not only from an extensive, surprisingly candid interview with the woman herself, but also some terrific insight hindsight from members of her campaign team and journalists who covered the election.
Remorse is expressed over Rodham Clinton’s handling of the email server ‘‘scandal’’ and there are laments about the number of ‘‘tough days and ridiculous attacks’’ she faced on the trail. But she also admits she was a less-than-ideal politician, suffering as she did from the ‘‘responsibility gene’’.
‘‘Voters need clean, clear definitive answers,’’ one staffer analyses, recalling Rodham Clinton’s preference for long, considered responses that focused more on what was actually achievable, than lofty ideals.
But Hillary isn’t just about regrets and recriminations, it’s also an intriguing look back at a truly eventful life so far.
This is a woman who first achieved notoriety for daring to publicly respond to a Republican senator’s remarks at her college graduation, whose first foray into the legal world was working on the impeachment of Richard Nixon and who fell for one of her Harvard Law School classmates, ‘‘a charismatic, interesting man, I knew I never would have a dull or boring moment with’’.