Review: 'Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President' doesn't quite make the case for Carter's musical connections
Alas, the documentary “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President” plays out much like Carter’s one term in office: Carrying lots of promise in the beginning, but becoming muddled and unfocused as it goes.
The movie begins with Carter’s acceptance speech at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, when he became the party’s candidate for president. In it, he quotes Bob Dylan — the first time a major political candidate quoted a pop musician positively.
As noted by several interview subjects — a list that includes President Carter and his son, Chip, several former aides, and many musicians who are Carter’s friends — it was more common in the ‘70s for a candidate to decry the evils of that demon rock music. Carter, on the other hand, befriended musicians and asked them to perform at fund-raisers for his campaign, starting notably with a show by The Allman Brothers Band in Providence, R.I., that kickstarted Carter’s still-fledgling campaign.
Through the primaries, the upstart Carter faced opposition from the establishment Democrats, and Carter often used rock music as his ace in the hole. Campaigning in Oregon, Carter got Jimmy Buffett to perform an acoustic show at a Portland rally. Willie Nelson performed for Carter several times, and so did Johnny Cash and June Carter — with the candidate joking that he and June were distant cousins.
One sign that the music was having an effect: California Gov. Jerry Brown tried to counter, by asking his then-girlfriend Linda Ronstadt to perform in Maryland, along with some of her friends: The Eagles. Political experts say Brown’s efforts were too little, too late.
Once Carter was in office, it was up to First Lady Rosalynn Carter to organize entertainment for White House events. She arranged a series of concerts on the White House lawn, featuring country, folk, gospel and jazz artists — often with legends. (One of the funniest clips in the film shows Dizzy Gillespie and his band performing their hit “Salt Peanuts,” with Carter, once a peanut farmer, doing the odd vocal.)
Alas, director Mary Wharton (a veteran of VH1’s “Behind the Music” series) runs out of observations about music’s influence on the Carter years — even with interview subjects like Nelson and Dylan commenting. So the rest becomes a fairly straight-forward account of the Carter administration, with particular attention to the Camp David accords with Israel’s Menacham Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, and the Iranian hostage crisis that derailed Carter’s term and opened up Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory in 1980.
The movie also pays rightful attention to Carter’s post-presidential humanitarian work, and interviews more musicians who have met Carter through those efforts — including Bono, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.
All of it is quite nice, and some of the musical interludes — like Bono singing “Pride (In the Name of Love)” at an event honoring Carter — are fun to hear, almost as fun as hearing country singer Larry Gatlin quoting Shakespeare (which he does both accurately and in a fitting context, so there).
The best thing about “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President” is the reminder that it’s possible to have a president with an inner life, with an appreciation for something besides the mirror, and a sense of a bigger world beyond himself. To have a president like that again would be music to America’s ears.
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‘Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President’
★★1/2
Available Friday, September 11, in the Salt Lake Film Society’s virtual cinema, and opening at the Megaplex Gateway (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably PG-13 for language and mature themes. Running time: 96 minutes.