Written by Bill Flanagan
Directed by Mary Wharton
Featuring Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks, Roseanne Cash, Madeleine Albright and Trisha Yearwood
Running time: 1 hour and 38 minutes
Unrated: contains discussions of drug and alcohol use

by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy

I was born in the first year of the Carter Presidency. I don’t really have many memories until Reagan took office. Once that happened, Jimmy was kinda a laughing stock. Reagan won the popular vote by nearly 10% and the electoral college was 489 for Reagan and 49 for Carter. The country had decided that they were not better off, did not have less unemployment, weren’t as strong and were not as respected around the world as they were before Jimmy Carter became president. I remember the joke being that his solution to the oil crisis was to wear a sweater. People exclaimed, “What a joke!” America decided that we wanted to fight to gain access to that oil. Why waste your time conserving non-renewable resources when we can just start wars and topple governments in an effort to gobble up every last drop?

But four years earlier, the country wanted something different. That election was much closer. By a 2% popular vote and a 297 to 240 victory in the Electoral College, we had elected a peanut farmer from a small town in Georgia that was friends with musicians that were known pot smokers and cocaine addicts (people always seem to forget he was also in the Navy and studied engineering). This was a devout baptist that worked diligently against segregation, wanting to help his fellow man and looking for the best in everyone.

Ostensibly, Mary Wharton’s documentary Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President is a more personal look at the man, as told mostly through his relationship to music. Growing up with gospel music in the church and the occasional Glenn Miller on the family’s battery powered radio, Carter moved on to country, later to rock music, and then folk music for it’s politics. He’s even been inspired to write some poetry of his own, which is featured in the film. Here are some excerpts from his poem “Itinerrant Songsters Visit Our Village” which was used in the film, that I feel speaks to music’s influence on him over the years:

When some poets came to Plains one night, 

two with guitars, their poems taught

us how to look and maybe laugh

at what we were and felt and thought.

…

I learned from poetry that art

is best derived from artless things,

that mysteries might be explore

and understood from that which springs

most freely from my mind and heart. 

The film opens with Jimmy quoting Bob Dylan lyrics at a campaign event in 1976 and then flashes forward to Carter listening to a Dylan record in 2018. His devotion to this music and its message has been a lifelong concern. Jimmy Carter has always wanted to do what was best for the most people and he felt that message was spread through the music of the time.

While the documentary focuses mainly on Carter’s relationship to music and musicians (Allman Brothers, Dylan, Paul Simon and, to a lesser extent, Charlie Daniels), it does highlight many of the good deeds he achieved during his tenure as President (namely, the Camp David Accords) and gives brief acknowledgments to his (at least perceived) failures (economy, gas crisis and Iran hostage crisis). I feel that the documentary could have, perhaps, made a better case for Carter’s overall worldview of reflection and introspection if a little more focus was given to these failures and how Carter was working towards a long game via “Soft Power” for greater peace and prosperity, but the American people just weren’t willing to wait. Alas, you’re left to your own knowledge and opinions on those matters to complete those storylines.

There is also a good amount of time spent discussing the Carter family’s many philanthropic efforts following his term as President. This further solidifies the case for his receiving the Nobel Peace prize in 2002 and the general esteem that he receives throughout the global, philanthropic community.

In the end, Wharton has created a nice, suitable retrospective to honor Carter here towards the end of his life. Unfortunately, it did not leave me feeling so good due to our current moment in time. It made me sad to see the America that Carter hoped to urge forward, leading the world in compassion and prosperity, was not quite where we were then and 93 million miles from where we are now. I think Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President will hold up better, when not viewed directly before an election like we are currently going into. Conversely, if you’re looking to see an example of goodness in the world, and won’t get too reflective about where we are now, you might enjoy checking this out.

Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President is available in select theaters now and will be streaming October 9th.