11/8/16

There is no doubt that the 2016 election was one of (if not the) most polarizing in the history of the United States. What "11/8/16" does is capture the initial, gut, visceral reactions of people on that day.

I really liked how the documentary tries to form a sort of narrative for itself by starting at the beginning of the day with all the families/people it profiles, and then following those people throughout the day as the balance starts shifting from "Hillary is going to easily win" to "this is going to be a tight race". This strategy really captures what it felt like on that day.

A lot of reviewers have mentioned the "liberal slant" of this documentary (and I think that's the reason for its very middling rating), and there is a definitive bias towards those who wanted Clinton to be victorious. However, I didn't feel that this at all ruined the experience. In fact, for the narrative of this doc to really work dramatically, it had to be focused more on that side of the story.

I enjoyed watching "11/8/16" because it was able to put me back into the whirlwind of emotions of that momentous day. Even though the candidate whose name I scratched on the ballot did not win, I'm fascinated by Presidential politics as a whole and thus am always interested in new perspectives.

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.

Didnt bother watching this one but I still noticed something wrong with it none the less lol... They overlooked a mistake involving the image of the flag on the films cover/poster. When displaying the flag vertically rather than the traditional horizontal display the stars are actually supposed to be placed in the top left corner. However, you can see in the poster/cover of the film they got it backwards. Tsk, Tsk tsk... lol.... I couldn't care less by the way, I just found it amusing that a movie about the current state of our nation still missed that mistake. Lol

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.