11/8/16

I watched this whole thing. As the day progressed, they showed dramatic, and rare, examples of people who thought they needed HRC to win. The Trump supporters were shown as stupid or self-centered. As it became obvious that Trump would win, the slant to the left tilted way further. The ending comments were actually offensive if you voted for Trump.

Waste of time- that's 105 minutes I can never get back.

A surprisingly compelling, even thrilling look at how the events of Election Day 2016 in the USA unfolded, following many people who all have distinct personalities and beliefs that become apparent to you as a viewer very quickly.

I think this was excellently constructed, and truly liked the diverse, multiple viewpoints it showed throughout. The editing and pacing was top notch, with a satisfying building of tension even when you know what the result is going to be.

Maybe could have done without the self-represented guy who ended up with quite a few votes. Also, I don't think it's fair to mark this down because there are people in it that you may find annoying- it captures and presents people who are right, left, and everywhere in between, and there may be an urge to get angry about the viewpoints that you don't agree with.

It may be fair to be frustrated by such people, but I don't think it's fair to mark the film down for that reason, because this seemed to me like a documentary that just said: "hey, here's how stuff went down on that day, in case you don't live in America, or in case you do and want to remember, for whatever reason."

Would also recommend Fahrenheit 11/9 (at least the first 1/3 or so) and Trumped (2017) for anyone else who enjoyed this.

I wen't into this doc without knowing anything about the people that filmed it, the people they observed, or any other information about what was covered other than the election. Now, there is no interaction with the observed people by the documentarians, which I respect, but it was pretty obvious there was a message being pushed, which is that there are much less Trump supporters than Clinton supporters and they don't have any real problems to deal with. The documentary follows somewhere between ten and fifteen Clinton supporters and three to five Trump supporters (I can't remember the exact numbers but that's close). Now, right off the bat, that is a flawed portrayal. The MSM will never admit it, but there are more Trump supporters than Clinton supporters when you subtract illegal immigrants (an estimated 2-5 million illegals voted in sanctuary city states like California and New York). Other than that, I didn't have a problem with it because there wasn't direct intervention by the filmmakers, which I can't stress enough as the best thing a documentarian can do.

For those of you who wonder why Trump won, the answer is clearly in the people the producers of this documentary chose to exemplify the candidates' supporters. Clintons supports were people on the fringe of society, be it illegal immigrants, non-conformists, or people who see themselves as powerless victims or were associated with the media or the government. Trump supporters were hard working families with children who don't expect government entitlements to make their lives successful. And not a single Midwesterner All American type of person was even bothered to be profiled. Real America fought back on 11/8/16. As one liberal said...Trump spoke the language of the people and what America wants to say to the world.

Watching this doc in 2021 is somewhat like uncovering a time capsule containing moments of the past that I'd wanted to forget. But the more I watched, the more something shifted in me. It was seeing the very normal, very hurt people that voted for trump without the lens of the four years of his presidency. Seeing them before the long list of actions that would drive them to extremes of anger and violence. The film reminded me how much we ALL were tired of the American status quo, tired of politicians who came in with big talk of making things great or change we could believe in and not bringing the goods. America is poorer, more divided and angrier after trump but with 20/20 hindsight, I don't think anyone would have changed their vote.

Some people shake the world to bring about change. Some people shake the world to break it and the only ones who suffer are the ones hanging on to survive. The film captures the parenthetical moment before everything shifted . For some, the air was full of hope and for others (like me) the air was stale with resignation. No matter... for that alone, I'm grateful to be reminded of the time. An excellent piece of historic work.