Al Franken: God Spoke, 2006. Directed by Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus. With Al Franken, Franni Franken, good sport Henry Kissinger, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved, and Walter Mondale (all as themselves, obviously).
Now showing at the Uptown Theater. Franken will appear tonight after the 7 o’clock show for a Q and A.
There are a number of very telling moments in the documentary Al Franken: God Spoke that should raise red flags for us liberals. At a speech in Minneapolis following the 2004 election Mr. Franken mumbles “I’m… thinking of, uh, running in 2008 against Norm Coleman.” Despite facing a crowd of enthusiastic supporters, Franken can barely look up from the podium and sounds as if he’s telling his neighbor that his cat just killed their parakeet. On other occasions Al is outgunned by the likes of Anorexic Ann Coulter and Michael Medved the Movie Critic. In fact, Al Franken: God Spoke seems to accomplish the very opposite of what its makers surely intended. For the film gives us an Al Franken who is shrill, arrogant, often misguided, and who might just be the worst candidate for Senator in Minnesota come 2008.
Al Franken: God Spoke begins with Franken the bestselling author and follows our intrepid comedian/pundit as he helps start up his radio show, on whose shoulders the beleaguered network Air America rests. From here we go back to the hell that was the 2004 Presidential Campaign, made even worse because Franken believes, seemingly wholeheartedly, that Kerry’s going to whomp Bush. The film then follows Franken as he wades into the political tidepool and thinks about running for Senate. Then we get our man and Walter Mondale eating lunch and solemnly discussing just how dastardly the Republicans will be against brave old Al.
The worst thing about God Spoke is its utter tedium. For a film that is about a former comic with a political bent, it is surprisingly short on good jokes or humorous moments. Mostly, it’s a campaign film: it is the second film this summer to serve as both a warning and an early political ad for two candidates with the same first name. There’s a fine moment when Franken impersonates Henry Kissinger… for Henry Kissinger himself (who looks baffled). But, for the most part, we get footage of Al as Saddam at a USO function, Al on a book tour, Al at the Republican Convention, and Al on the radio.
As the film progresses, and begins to address its much more serious task of revealing the future Senatorial candidate, difficult questions begin to arise. Al Franken stands for… what? He certainly hates Bill O’Reilly, and God Spoke does a stellar job of giving that loathsome creature ammunition. In fact, it makes you wonder if, in the interest of being fair, the filmmakers gave O’Reilly, Hannity, and Coulter some choice barbs against Franken and left our hero looking flustered. In debates the guy starts slamming his fist on desks, demanding apologies, performing his jujitsu (as he calls it) by tossing out a barrage of facts that he can barely articulate without rambling. But the film succeeds only in making him sound like the aforementioned Al Gore . Which is not a good thing.
So Mr. Franken has a strong position on… what? Al Franken hates the right-wing pundits. So do a lot of us, but here’s some news: Norm Coleman is not a right-wing pundit. In fact, like it or not, Coleman is doing a moderately decent job of not appearing to be entirely in the President’s front pocket (as opposed to Mark Kennedy, who is doing a lovely job of sailing his ship into icebergs) and will make a formidable candidate in the next election. We know Franken hates Bush, and dislikes Republicans. Is this enough? Is it enough that Coleman is a jerk, a whiny bastard who only sits in his Senate office because of the death of the beloved Wellstone? That’s lousy, sure, but why would Joe Schmoe vote for Al Franken? Why would anyone in a primary against legitimate Democratic candidates? Because he hates Coleman more than anyone and has a radio show? That’s hardly enough.
In God Spoke, Franken and company exist high in the political stratosphere. We see him schmoozing at the Capital City Grille, hanging out with Hillary Clinton, making senators laugh, drinking wine in Newsweek’s wine cellar (who knew?) and being on the air with Michael Moore. We learn that his parents were staunch Republicans who became staunch Democrats when Barry Goldwater was the nominee in ’64. They did so because of Goldwater’s refusal to support the Civil Rights movement. It is interesting that, for a guy who brings this up as often as Al does, he is surrounded almost entirely (if not entirely) by whites… and if this were a film about, say, Norm Coleman, we’d certainly be braying about his ‘lily-white’ entourage.
Al Franken believes passionately about… what? The movie never really says. He is a comedian, a smart man, and a pundit. He has a crack staff of fact-checkers that put the right-wingers to shame. But does he have a history of public service? What does he think about education? About Iraq? About terrorism, health care, you name it. It’s not enough to just assume that there are left-wing answers to these concerns and that Al Franken is a better man than Norm at addressing these issues. Will the guy actually do his job? Introduce legislation? Or will he just gripe all the time… kind of like he does right now.
So what does Al Franken believe? Perhaps Al Franken believes that he is the liberal response to the Republican’s Hollywood onslaught. Maybe he sees that the right has successfully co-opted the movies and politics, giving us the right honorable Ronald Wilson Reagan in the performance of a lifetime, and now A. Schwarzenegger as the California Gov. They’ve raised the curtains on Fred Dalton Thompson and Fred Grandy (oddly enough, both guys are from Tennessee). Conservatives have learned the lessons from the media, from television and radio and the movies; now perhaps we have learned and are serving up a likeable face of our own.
But is this a good thing? Is it enough to simply detest a candidate and be amused by another? Isn’t it better to feel as though your man or woman has a vision, like Wellstone’s, someone utterly comfortable wandering amongst the crowds, maybe even someone who’s accomplished more than just acting like Stuart Smalley and barking into a microphone. Even if his facts are correct.
So when watching Al Franken: God Spoke it’s entirely fair to wonder just what Al Franken stands for as a candidate. And then to ask: can’t we do better than this?
