Product Description

Journeys with George ia an unprecedented, all access pass to candidate George W. Bush in the months before he won the closest and most controversial presidential election in history. The documentary looks unflinchingly at the built-in conflicts, contradictions and seductions of big-time political reporting - and the tactics used by candidates to win over reporters over the course of months and months of campaigning.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31048 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2004-02-24
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 79 minutes

Amazon.com
Culled from countless hours of video and originally broadcast on HBO in November 2002, this Emmy-winning "home movie" purports to provide an "all-access pass" to George W. Bush during the 18-month haul of his 2000 presidential campaign, but it's more accurate to call this a revealing portrait of camaraderie among the campaign's roving press corps. Armed with a camcorder and her own charming personality, NBC news producer Alexandra Pelosi (youngest daughter of California Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi) captures a "Dubya" we don't often see: casual, charismatic, and (with a mouthful of junk food much of the time) rather lacking in table manners. History has turned Journeys with George into a horror film that looks like a road-trip buddy comedy. The terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 and the subsequent war in Iraq were more than two years in the future, so this amiable cross-country jaunt now looks like a stress-free postcard from a more innocent time, enjoyable for its candor about the seemingly endless cycle of photo-ops and repetitive campaign rhetoric. What you won't get from Pelosi's video diary is any deeper insight into George W. Bush or the nascent workings of his imminent administration. As a lighter-side companion to The War Room, however, Journeys with George is must-see viewing for anyone interested in the relationship between jaded journalists and the man who would become the 43rd President of the United States. It's unlikely we'll ever see another film quite like this. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Great buy
A must see movie. If you are at all interested in the inner-workings of a national political campaign and if you would like to see Dubya letting his gaurd down, you need JWG. I think that the Bush supporters will like him even more after seeing this and the Bush-haters out there will hate him even more. This film is very well put together.

Great little movie
I hesitate to call this a documentary, it's more a well-edited video diary, and should be judged as such. George Bush is humanized to a great degree, in a way we heard about but rarely ever saw (or see) in the never-ceasing effort to mythologize the man.

The relationship between the Governor and Pelosi is kind of sweet and unpretentious. Their encounter over her California absentee ballot, where GWB2 gives her some really amusing politician schtick about why she should vote for him is a great scene. The "Newsweek Man" flirtation theme was also great. One gets the sense that a lot of this press pool was very young, fairly inexperienced, and not nearly as sophisticated as they thought they were. The segues with the Texas print reporters (who, I think, were later responsible for the critical Rove bio "Bush's Brain") were also interesting, they actually knowing something about politics and about Bush. One gives an impromptu monologue analogizing Republican campaigns with a baloney sandwich that is priceless.

One of the most noticeable features is the absence of much real journalism being practiced by the press pool. The closest we get to that is the late revelation of Bush's DUI, and we see Karen Hughes skillfully handling that. She is rarely in the film, but comes across as impressive, especially vis-a-vis Rove's pomposity. But in actuality, the press pool spent most of the time going through the motions, messing around, and being bored in an extended tour. I think a lack of curiosity became their most prevalent trait.

So really, as is seen from the evident relief of other reviewers, this isn't by any means a Bush-bashing movie. Pelosi's liberal pedigree is clear from the start, and actually shapes her friendship with the Governor. He's a lot quicker than she is too, and she knows it. While there is a lot of tongue-in-cheek sequences poking fun at Bush-as-campaigner, most of the irony is directed at the travelling campaign circus, and we get a sense from Pelosi that she thinks of Bush and herself in a similar way: as sort of accidental participants in a fairly surreal process.

So Bush Fans, ever wary of a devious liberal media out to persecute them, can rest easy. JOURNEYS WITH GEORGE, in the end, really critiques the pseudo-journalism of the press pool, and its evident mediocrity. If anything, it goes far to puncture one cherished myth, that the press is of some coordinated liberal conspiracy to destroy their heroes. That requires competence and will. Pelosi's only departure from utter docility was to question Bush about Texas executions, and she quickly retreated to docility after that. One reviewer below apparently sees this sheep-tendency of campaign journalists, "knowing their bounds," as their duty. I tend to think a press obedient to the powerful is anti-thetical to the whole profession, and Pelosi's diary here is one example of why hundreds of millions of dollars are used to run campaigns that the majority of the country is only dimly aware of.

Best documentary I've seen
This is a must see for Democrats and Republicans. Among other things, it gives incredible insight into what happens between a presidential candidate and his press circuit, and how that relationship can be manipulated to produce the candidate's desired results. This was well worth seeing when it first came out, and worth purchasing to share with others.