State Legislature

One of Wiseman's 3-1/2 hour opuses, this one settling in to the Idaho State Legislature for another round of inquisitive and patient observation. Two juxtapositions stood out in particular. One began with a confrontation between a state senator and a Latino man arguing for immigrants' rights. The two become stuck on a long loop of assertion and have nothing resembling a conversation. The senator's message is predictable. Several scenes later we see a bunch of little Mexican girls doing a hat dance in the atrium of the legislature - a security guard looks down at it and almost imperceptibly shakes his head. The second comes toward the very end, when there is a debate on whether to pass a motion opposing same-sex marriage. The motion is defeated, with each person giving their reasons, and with rationales almost exclusively based on procedural precedent and differing priority. This scene comes between a quiet conference between the senate speaker and two businessmen coming to seek advice, and a prayer-and-bagpipe ceremony for a deceased colleague, and this plus this plus this made me think that Wiseman was proposing a new wrinkle on the church-and-state conundrum - for these people, the forms and practice of government ARE their religion.

State Legislature was a very insightful movie. I recommend this movie to anybody who wonders if the average citizen could do what a politician does. This documentary shows the good and the bad of a legislative body composed almost entirely (if not entirely) of citizens. The viewer is exposed to many committees and inner workings of Idaho's state legislature.

At some point, you realize what someone says in the beginning: that these people who are legislating policy for the state are just average people with a concern for their community and state. These people are not "experts" or paid policy makers. While they have every resource at their fingertips, it seems at though they start out on whatever issue it is they are doing with about as much knowledge on that issue that you or I have right now. It is only through listening to and reading all the sides of an issue from constituents, experts, lobbyists, and everything else that these people start to get a feeling as to what, in their minds, is or would be best. They draw from history as well.

Some parts of this movie are slower than others but the viewer is rewarded by quite a few surprises and changed minds from the legislators themselves….quite rare in this day.

This documentary is obviously not for everybody. Even those in government might find it a bit boring. But for those who enjoy watching the process and are curious about the "what ifs" of their state legislature, this is the movie for them. Sometimes scary, other times fascinating, and still at other times funny, this movie can really help one understand a little bit about what it is to be a citizen-politician.