Review:
"The Final Year"
Release Date: Jan. 26, 2018
Rating: Not Rated Running Time: 89 minutes It’s too easy to mythologize the Obama administration in light of the turmoil that surrounded and was created during the past year by the current occupant of the White House. It’s also unfair to compare an administration’s final year against an administration’s first year, when a newly elected president and his staff and political appointees are expected to learn on the job. Granted, President Donald Trump is unlike any commander in chief we had seen in our lifetime, so it’s entirely possible that the chaos that whirls around his administration today will continue until its final minutes. Unlike the Obama administration, which director Greg Barker’s documentary The Final Year depicts as the very model of civility and stability. Barker takes a friendly approach to his subject, which leaves him opens to accusations by those of a different political persuasion that The Final Year is a piece of fluff at best, a work of propaganda at worst. While The Final Year certainly won’t win or lose President Obama any fans, it does provide an invaluable look at the inner workings of how an administration on the clock tries to tie up loose ends while putting out multiple fires at the same time. Barker makes astute use of his exclusive access to President Obama and his foreign policy team to shed light on how the president pursued his international agenda—most noticeably on climate control—and handled in vain the Syrian war in 2016. Barker follows President Obama as he embarks on his remaining overseas visits while in office, with meaningful stops in Japan and Laos that finds the president addressing without reservation the consequences of the U.S. military action in the past taken against both countries. The documentary affirms what we already know about President Obama: he was an articulate, caring and compassionate leader who carried himself with dignity. Barker, though, doesn’t manage to get anything revelatory from President Obama during the handful of brief moment they share. While President Obama opens up about his passion for history and traveling, his comments border on soundbites. He also doesn’t get too much more out of the Secretary of State John Kerry, who is presented as a 72-year-old Energizer bunny whose dedication to peace and diplomacy serves as his driving force. On the other hand, Barker manages to coax two key members of President Obama’s foreign policy team into opening up more than anticipated. It would not come as a surprise if President Obama one day revealed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power was the beating heart of his foreign policy team. She comes across as passionate, empathetic, and ready to engage with the poor and downtrodden people she meets during her international visits. Barker leaves us with the impression that Power is the team member most emotionally involved in her job. And being an immigrant gives the Irish-born Power a worldview that clearly factors into the way she conducted her job. Then there’s Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, who seems calm enough in The Final Years but gives off an air of defiance that suggests he’s ready to throw down his gloves and engage in a loud and eventful verbal spar to defend his position. In fact, during one of The Final Year’s many moments that inevitably invite comparisons between the Obama and Trump administrations, Rhodes addresses being raked over the coals for his disparaging remarks about the D.C. press corps in a “New York Times Magazine” profile. Such insults seem quite quaint at a time when President Trump makes a sport of attacking the mainstream media. Oddly, though, it is Rhodes who seems the most defeated on Election Night 2016. He carries himself as a man who fears that the work he did for years would quickly be undone for all the wrong reasons. In hindsight, Rhodes was right. But Rhodes also expresses hopes that the Obama administration has inspired a generation of young people to achieve greatness for the United States and beyond. “Maybe there’s a different happy ending,” Rhodes wonders aloud. Amen to that. Robert Sims Aired: Jan. 25, 2018 Web site: http://www.finalyearfilm.com |
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