I'm not American so I'm not that interested in some low-tier American politicians. But I am interested in history and this 2 episode biography is seemingly overall well-liked so it enticed me. It's really not much. It's pretty dull and slow-paced just showing various talks and arguments by George C. Wallace to people around him.
These historical TV shows are always suffering from budget and access. It's hard to just go outside and film. You have to get 5-10 cars, 30 actors and clothes for them, find old buildings. Just finding settings is endlessly hard. Here they solve the problem by largely having it be set indoors in rooms where a single scene can last 2-3 minutes of arguments and dialogue. It's fine dialogue, but boring too. Wallace is doing something political or at times talking with his wives. That's it. No kids whatsoever, no parents, to outside family. He had 4 kids yet not a single one is shown for even a single second. Just this pretty dry man talking to people. At times we get a scene on a greenscreen or with a big old building in the background and that's it really. We don't really move from scene to scene. We just see settings. Indoors or in front of buildings for a few seconds.
We jump back and forth in his life . At first the old governor told him to keep the anti-racist line in Alabama. But as he loses the election he tries a new tactic: apartheid where Blacks and Whites have their own settings. He's elected and feels like this is now the way forward. Martin Luther King and other pro-Black protestors smell the big news story in this and right away create a bunch of protests there to get on the news. He's basically gifting them amazing TV exposure they couldn't get anywhere else in the country. Later he runs for president and sees that his Alabama ideas don't work outside his state. He totally changes his way and becomes progressive anti-racist as the rest of the politicians.
We also see how he gets shot and suffers from that. Very negative stuff that I didn't enjoy watching at all. It was already moody and depressive so this made it too much. And then his constant apologies were also too much. Today if you apologize for some cultural offense you are eaten alive so it will just invite more hate. "never apologize" is the popular slogan online among people who dislike the cancel culture. I guess times were different and you could easier apologize without getting even more hate for it. He stayed in regional politics at least. Basically, he adapts to whatever is around him. It's like any other politician, but he just got bitter and tried to appease a weird White subgroup. It worked for very few years and then he had to change ways.
We also see his 2 marriages. Nothing really that interesting as there are no kids around anyhow. And we have a Black butler who is a murderer serving the household. It's also pretty dry. The butler is extremely boring here. He just stands around. It's a character invented for the movie. Also, both Gary Sinise as Wallace and the butler have terrible old man makeup. That really takes away a lot from the movie.
Overall it's a slow and dry recreating of real scenes with Wallace where we see his life overall. There is nothing much here. I do like the political side of it and how he adapts to his voters. But it's way too long. We just jump around and never quite feel like he is solving problems or moving in a direction. We don't see him do anything political besides running for office or being pro apartheid. What about all the good he did for the state? Schools, hospitals, the police? Where is that stuff? Also, they use racist caricatures for many White people especially all policemen. It's the typical Hollywood stuff. I would have liked a bit less bias here. Show why they want to be in White groups. They could have shown crime differences or IQ differences to illustrate where the motivation comes from instead of just making them pure racist out of nowhere. But I'm getting better at ignoring these biases and tolerated it here for sure.
Skip it or don't, it's not a huge deal at any rate. But from news articles and TV shows I did think he would be some gigantic racist that remained racist forever. From this I don't see any racist action whatsoever. He seems very friendly towards Blacks and just politically a bit too smart. So I enjoyed learning that about him, but wish I was more entertained from it.
These historical TV shows are always suffering from budget and access. It's hard to just go outside and film. You have to get 5-10 cars, 30 actors and clothes for them, find old buildings. Just finding settings is endlessly hard. Here they solve the problem by largely having it be set indoors in rooms where a single scene can last 2-3 minutes of arguments and dialogue. It's fine dialogue, but boring too. Wallace is doing something political or at times talking with his wives. That's it. No kids whatsoever, no parents, to outside family. He had 4 kids yet not a single one is shown for even a single second. Just this pretty dry man talking to people. At times we get a scene on a greenscreen or with a big old building in the background and that's it really. We don't really move from scene to scene. We just see settings. Indoors or in front of buildings for a few seconds.
We jump back and forth in his life . At first the old governor told him to keep the anti-racist line in Alabama. But as he loses the election he tries a new tactic: apartheid where Blacks and Whites have their own settings. He's elected and feels like this is now the way forward. Martin Luther King and other pro-Black protestors smell the big news story in this and right away create a bunch of protests there to get on the news. He's basically gifting them amazing TV exposure they couldn't get anywhere else in the country. Later he runs for president and sees that his Alabama ideas don't work outside his state. He totally changes his way and becomes progressive anti-racist as the rest of the politicians.
We also see how he gets shot and suffers from that. Very negative stuff that I didn't enjoy watching at all. It was already moody and depressive so this made it too much. And then his constant apologies were also too much. Today if you apologize for some cultural offense you are eaten alive so it will just invite more hate. "never apologize" is the popular slogan online among people who dislike the cancel culture. I guess times were different and you could easier apologize without getting even more hate for it. He stayed in regional politics at least. Basically, he adapts to whatever is around him. It's like any other politician, but he just got bitter and tried to appease a weird White subgroup. It worked for very few years and then he had to change ways.
We also see his 2 marriages. Nothing really that interesting as there are no kids around anyhow. And we have a Black butler who is a murderer serving the household. It's also pretty dry. The butler is extremely boring here. He just stands around. It's a character invented for the movie. Also, both Gary Sinise as Wallace and the butler have terrible old man makeup. That really takes away a lot from the movie.
Overall it's a slow and dry recreating of real scenes with Wallace where we see his life overall. There is nothing much here. I do like the political side of it and how he adapts to his voters. But it's way too long. We just jump around and never quite feel like he is solving problems or moving in a direction. We don't see him do anything political besides running for office or being pro apartheid. What about all the good he did for the state? Schools, hospitals, the police? Where is that stuff? Also, they use racist caricatures for many White people especially all policemen. It's the typical Hollywood stuff. I would have liked a bit less bias here. Show why they want to be in White groups. They could have shown crime differences or IQ differences to illustrate where the motivation comes from instead of just making them pure racist out of nowhere. But I'm getting better at ignoring these biases and tolerated it here for sure.
Skip it or don't, it's not a huge deal at any rate. But from news articles and TV shows I did think he would be some gigantic racist that remained racist forever. From this I don't see any racist action whatsoever. He seems very friendly towards Blacks and just politically a bit too smart. So I enjoyed learning that about him, but wish I was more entertained from it.