“The Undefeated” Sarah Palin Documentary Full Synopsis With Spoilers
I highly encourage all of you to seek out Stephen Bannon’s excellent documentary of Governor Sarah Palin, “The Undefeated”, wherever it is playing near you while it is still in theaters. Watching the film with strangers, hearing their reactions to the Governor’s speeches and personal history, and having this chance to connect with other Palin supporters on the ground is a terrific experience — and a great chance to network with new friends you may just spend a lot of time with on the campaign trail next year.
The film’s official site is here, with an always-updated list of theaters where it’s playing.
After the documentary leaves theaters, it will apparently be shown on DirectTV and Pay-Per-View and will presumably be available in various formats at different Palin events or through SarahPAC itself.
For those of you who would love to see the film today, if it was within driving distance of you, but can’t for whatever reason, I’ve taken the time to put together this detailed synopsis — that is of course chock full of “spoilers”. Which, to be honest, aren’t spoilers at all for anyone who’s been paying attention to politics for the last few years. You know Governor Palin’s story if you’ve been a supporter of hers, so the film might not teach you much you don’t already know…but I think it’s a great chance to see favorite lines from the Governor’s speeches, remember the key moments of her political career, and feel inspired by the Governor’s decades-long battle against the Cocktail Party GOP establishment and the Left it enables.
The film is based largely on Governor Palin’s book “Going Rogue”, with much audio borrowed from the book-on-tape the Governor recorded a few years ago for that project.
“The Undefeated” opens with a bright light, and then the view from a car traveling along an Alaskan road, a forest on either side. Senator John McCain’s voice begins narration culled from his Dayton, Ohio speech in which he first introduced Palin as his running mate in 2008.
This was also the first time that many people in the nation had ever heard of or seen Governor Palin. She emerges on stage with her family, waving to the cheering crowd, before taking the mic and delivering the first of many classic speeches illustrating her belief in elected officials conducting themselves with servants’ hearts and dedicating themselves to constitutional principles while in office.
A Biblical quote next fills the frame, about a good tree bringing forth good fruit and a corrupt tree bringing forth evil fruit, with the beholder able to determine which produces which. This is followed by an extended montage showing media talking heads and Hollywood celebrities making negative remarks about Palin, including Matt Damon, Ellen Degeneres, Sharon Osborne, Joy Behar, John Clease, Madonna, Sandra Bernhard, Pam Anderson, and David Letterman.
Damon makes a fool of himself while trying to degrade the Governor’s intelligence. This is the same interview he gave for one entertainment show or another where he starts rambling about dinosaurs (quite possibly wanting to ride on them).
The clip of Bernhard is bleeped out where she starts talking about how she wanted black men to sexually assault Governor Palin. The other “celebrities” featured similarly use profanities, misogyny, and old-fashioned Leftist hate to attack the Governor…without really knowing anything about her.
This is followed by a montage of media attacks on Palin’s youngest child, Trig, because he has Down Syndrome. Images are shown illustrating the hatred directed at Palin and her family from those who oppose her — including people wearing tee shirts calling her the “c-word”, the person who hanged her in effigy in West Hollywood at Halloween in 2008, and other photoshoped pictures and crude visual attacks on Palin made my “artists” on the Left.
In short, it’s the films quick rundown of the Left’s attempt to make Governor Palin into the second coming of Anita Bryant…a boogeywoman capable of intense evil (in their delusions) who is an amalgam of all the things they hate about women, Christians, conservatives, and Republicans.
The next montage is of baby pictures of Governor Palin as the opening credits roll. The snapshots follow through Palin’s life, showing her as a pre-teen, in high school, in college, and into her early days as a mother in her small town home of Wasilla.
The baby photos are adorable — most of them not even included in “Going Rogue” itself. There are also a handful of home movies, showing the Governor as a child running around in the beautiful Alaskan fields and forests, riding horses, participating in sports, and enjoying time with her family.
If you have never wanted to visit Alaska before…you certainly will after watching how much fun the Governor and her friends had there when she was younger.
The first section of the documentary focuses on Governor Palin’s early political career, after she decided to run for the Mayorship of her small town. This was after the Exxon Valdez disaster of March 24th, 1989 when Palin watched the oil spill destroy much of Alaska’s commercial fishing industry, including the business owned by her husband’s family. Governor Palin’s own voice narrates this section, with audio provided by the book-on-tape version of “Going Rogue”. In her own words, the Governor notes what inspired her to seek public office — her desire to serve Alaskans after watching them suffer through the financial impact of the Valdez spill, with Exxon fighting Alaskans in court trying to avoid paying damages awarded in various cases.
The Governor was not a politician, but a mother who saw suffering in her community and decided at her kitchen table she was determined to do something about it.
The documentary includes many longtime friends, supporters, and Palin confidants who talk about her early years running for political office for the first time and what she achieved as the Mayor of her home town. The Governor’s former press secretary Meg Stapleton, her family lawyer Thomas Van Flein, her former Deputy in the Oil and Gas Department Kurt Gibson, her presonal friends Kristan Cole and Judy Patrick, and other Alaskans are featured heavily in this first part of the film.
Archival footage of the Governor delivering her speeches or news reports discussing her are interspersed with new interviews with people associated with Governor Palin, explaining the events that shaped her as a politician.
An illustratin is made of just how large Alaska is and how alien this northernmost state is to most Americans.
Emphasis is made that when Governor Palin was growing up in Alaska in the 1970s and 1980s, the towns she was raised in had very little in terms of infrastructure and development. In fact, most of Alaska was as developed as the Midwest was in the 1920s and 1930s. Wasilla in particular had little to boast of, besides being the home of the Iditarod.
When Palin decided to run for Mayor, the sentiment of most officeholders in Wasilla was to waste public funds on “fun and fluff projects” they could slap their names on, whether the citizens wanted or could afford any of this fluff or not. Governor Palin — then just a hockey mom — decided to approach governing with a “kitchen table economics” approach. When she decided to run for Mayor, her first priority was to establish the priority of ensuring government benefitted all residents and helped set conditions for sustained economic development of Wasilla. That meant focusing on the non-fun, non-fluff projects like roads, water, and sewer so the town could grow (something ignored by her predecessors, who just wanted big fancy things named after them).
Governor Palin quickly used “a sharp knife” to slash the city’s surfeit spending and focus on the necessities for encouraging growth. Wasilla became a boom town as a result, with major stores like Fred Meyers and Home Depot soon setting up shop. These big anchors encouraged other development and Wasilla soon had not only a traffic light but a shopping strip and a huge influx of jobs and new residents — all because of Governor Palin’s forward-thinking and resolve to do what was right, not what egrandized herself.
From the very beginning, her success in office resulted in jealousy and hatred aimed at her from the various fools and Cocktail Party GOP establishment idiots who didn’t like the fact Governor Palin rocked the boat and ended business as usual.
The hatred directed against the Governor has always been as irrational as it has been volcanic. Even way back then, the Cocktail Party crowd she defeated tried to bring her down, but she sailed to victory in a landslide for another term as Mayor of Wasilla. Her opponents commented on her beauty, claiming she wasn’t intelligent because she is so pretty. They called her a Spice Girl and caricatured her as a “Nordstrom Girl” interested in shopping, which wasn’t the case. They did everything they could to marginalize and ridicule her…but none of it worked because her results and record spoke for themselves with voters.
The Cocktail Party GOP establishment and the Democrat Left were foiled again.
After her terms as Mayor, the Governor was placed in charge of Alaska’s Oil and Gas Department, which had also largely been controlled by fools and Cocktail Party GOP establishment idiots in the past…all of whom were interested mainly in lining their own pockets and doing whatever lobbyists promised would win them the biggest kickbacks.
The Governor and six other reformers in the Department became known as “The Magnificent Seven” because of their efforts to take on the Cocktail Party GOP establishment at every turn and end business as usual in Alaska.
Alaska had a long history of institutionalized corruption thanks to the Cocktail Party GOP establishment, which had made itself very comfortable being wined and dined by lobbyists in a vancy suite of the Barnoff Hotel directly across from the Alaskan capitol. The FBI started conducting raids on corrupt officials, but the Cocktail Party never learned its lessons and continued trying to take advantage of Alaska’s natural resource proceeds for itself.
Then-Governor Frank Murkowski appointed Palin to lead the Oil and Gas Commission, which was one of the most powerful positions in the state…and most difficult too, because of all the vested interests sparring over that resource wealth.
Very quickly, Governor Palin was in all-out-war with the Cocktail Party GOP establishment because one of the big political power brokers in the state gleefully conducted Republican Party business from his government office, in addition to breaking various and sundry other laws in the state. Governor Palin was warned not to cross this man — because he was too powerful and would threaten to destroy her political career and take away her six-figure salary at a time when she needed to support her family — but the Governor decided to do what was right instead of what was easy. So she demeanded an investigation of what was going on and the Cocktail Party GOP established elite howled like vampires doused with holy water in a garlic patch.
Tom Irwin, a reformer in the Department of Natural Resources, was fired by then-Governor Murkowski because he insisted on battling corruption — which upset the Cocktail Party GOP elite further. That’s when six other Department of Natural Resources officials resigned in protest to support Irwin (who later became an important part of Governor Palin’s administration when she defeated Murkowski in the 2006 election).
Murkowski and other other establishment fools wanted to give away Alaska’s natural resources for pennies on the dollar, since those pennies would largely end up in the pockets of their cronies (and themselves).
Governor Palin’s supporters believed she embodied the “Five Stones of David” when combatting the Cocktail Party in Alaska: she had the courage to take on the establishment, she had a servant’s heart and a tenacious spirit, she was willing to work long hours to get things done, she connected well with people and was able to communicate her ideas sensibly so people could understand them.
Her secret weapon — of course — has always been her daughter Piper, who seems to have been the Governor’s sidekick since birth. Piper sat on the Governor’s lap in a famous political ad about the benefits of building piping to bring natural gas from the North Slope to homes in Alaska.
During the gubernatorial race, the Cocktail Party worked harder than the Left to attack Palin, because the establishment has always been terrified of her.
In the 2006 debates, Governor Palin called for a better discourse for the Alaskan people — one that put the people’s needs and interests first and severely limited the clout of the establishment.
She connected with people. She had a folksy, understandable delivery of policy. Her message caught fire.
The Cocktail Party GOP establishment didn’t see it coming, but Palin trounced Murkowski in a landslide during the GOP primary and then went on to best Democrat Tony Knowles in the general election.
Instead of having her swearing-in ceremony in Juneau, Governor Palin chose to hold the event in Fairbanks…the birthplace of the Alaskan state constitution, which was celebrating its anniversary that year. In her inaugural address, the Governor repeatedly paid respect to the “55 heroes” who crafted a constitution unique in America because it reserved the natural resources of the state to the Alaskan people, for mutual benefit (unlike other states, like Texas, that allow oil reserves to profit only a landowner…not a land-leaser like the Alaskan system, where the mineral resources are shared by everyone, not the lucky person who just happened to find oil there).
Governor Palin hung framed stills from “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” in her office…when Mrs. Palin went to Juneau to start work as Governor.
From Day One, Governor Palin established she was a different breed of Governor who was not going to play the same old establishment games.
She was fiscally responsible, ethical, and she instituted an immediate clamp on spending.
The Governor of Alaska is a CEO of the state, in charge of 25,000 employees, empowered with line-item vetoes to make sure the budget crafted by the legislature met the real needs of Alaskans.
Governor Palin repeatedly said she would be like a mother eagle taking care of her eaglets…or of a Nanook protecting her cubs. This “Mamma Grizzly” spirit has always run strong in her.
There was considerable whining in the Alaskan budget process, with the Cocktail Party GOP establishment wanting more government and more spending while Governor Palin told these clowns that was never the answer. She also scolded the Leftists who believed government is designed to make people happy, healthy, or productive…instead of just making sure opportunities exist for people to thrive if they have an internal drive to do so.
Governor Palin successfully presided over a $14 Billion budget managing the nation’s largest state.
Alaska needed to live within its means, focus on core services, and direct its attentions towards the state’s future needs.
From smoke-filled back rooms, the Cocktail Party GOP establishment warned Governor Palin not to shake things up too much. She essentially told them to “just watch me”. Previous Governors had just rubber-stamped whatever budget their political party members gave them, but Governor Palin challenged every line item in the budget asking if it was really necessary. This was not an easy path, but it was the right path.
Alaska had accumulated dozens of wasteful boondoggles under previous administrations that were too politically beloved to get rid of — including a state-owned dairy other Governors were afraid to close. Governor Palin held an auction and uloaded this dairy, since the state had no business running it when it could be privatized.
Another battle occurred between the Palin administration and Exxon, since the oil company held a lease for the Point Thompson oil field since 1977…but they’d never begun work on drilling there. The Governor told Exxon to either drill or forfeit the lease. Exxon sued, and the Governor won. She forced the company to start drilling so the oil there could be sold and Alaskans could benefit.
This was a massive victory just two years into her term.
Next up, Governor Palin tackled Alaska’s broken tax system which didn’t give Alaskans enough profit from the sale of natural resources. Governor Palin battled both the oil companies and the establishment to defend Alaska’s rights.
ACES was the name of the new tax system, which would tax the net instead of the gross profits of the oil companies. The only tax breaks the oil companies would get would be related to infrastructure investment. If oil prices fell, then the oil companies could have some tax relief…but if they were making big profits then those profits needed to be shared with Alaskans.
Governor Palin and her advisors spent many sleepless nights around kitchen tables eating cold pizza looking for solutions to the problems that stymied the state in previous administrations.
The Governor’s focus on the national energy crisis remains important because oil prices affect not just gasoline, but food prices and every aspect of modern life.
Alaska has not only trillions of gallons of oil in the ground and off its shores, but it also possesses the potential to create scores of jobs getting this treasure out of the ground and into refineries.
The AGIA pipeline was designed to get more of these resources to market than ever before…and Governor Palin needed to bypass the Cocktail Party GOP establishment’s business-as-usual approach to everything to take this project from pipedream to actual pipeline.
Breaking the Cocktail Party’s tradition of no-bid contracts, the Palin administration sent out RFPs to qualified firms around the globe and received five proposals for buidling the pipeline based on competitive construction pricing. This chipped away the project from the same three big firms that had always done business with the Cocktail Party. TransCanada Alaska was ultimatley chosen to construct the pipeline. In 2008, near the kitchen table where she did most of the strategizing to make this a reality, Governor Palin signed the bills officiating the AGIA deal that would bring billions of gallons of natural resources into the free market.
Governor Palin employed principles-centered policies evidencing great fiscal restraint…and this led to sustained high popularity that made even the Cocktail Party consulting firms running DC admit the Thrilla from Wasilla was doing something right in office.
During a visit to the Alaskan State Fair the Governor received the call from Senator McCain asking her to be his 2008 running mate.
This begins the third act of “The Undefeated”, showcasing the energy and excitement the Governor brought to McCain’s campaign. Charts and graphs show the immense boost she gave McCain in the polls. Crowds lined up to see her speak wherever she went, like she was a rock start giving sold-out concerts. Governor Palin nailed her convention speech, accepting the Republican nomination and delivering great lines that really socked it to Obama and the Left.
Since she was not a member of the permanent elite political establishment, Governor Palin was not headed to Washington to seek anyone’s approval…she was involved in politics to serve the people.
The Governor’s speeches, her message, and the electricity she brought to the campaign were the origins of the Tea Party movement that fully evolved a year later.
When George Soros attempted to detroy the global economy on September 15th, 2008, the Left launched the “October Surprise” designed to guarantee Obama the election. McCain’s response to the crisis was weak and essentially he gave up his presidetial bid. Governor Palin urged McCain to keep fighting, but McCain reverted to his long history of seeking favor from the media and didn’t want to challenge Obama too forcefully lest McCain upset the media’s coronation of “The One”.
The Left saw an immediate existential threat in Governor Palin.
Obama personally directed his operatives and surrogates to use Alinsky Methods to destroy Governor Palin.
The Cocktail Party GOP establishment saw what was happening but did nothing to intervene and defend Governor Palin…because the Governor is as much as threat to the GOP establishment as she is to the Left…and anyone out there interested in forever maintaining business as usual at the expense of what’s right for America.
After the election, Governor Palin wanted to get back to business in Alaska to continue the historic and productive work she had done — but the Left continued to attack her with nonstop frivolous lawsuits and ethics complaints due to flaws in Alaskan law that allowed anyone to file complaints about the Governor for any reason, with the Governor forced to defend herself at her own personal expense.
Not only did business grind to a halt in Alaska because of the Alinsky-grade attacks from the Left, but the Governor risked personal bankruptcy funding her legal defense.
Since she knew she was not going to seek re-election, she resigned as Governor so that Lt. Governor Sean Parnell could continue the Palin administration’s progress without being bogged down by the attacks launched against the Governor by the Left.
As the 2010 elections approached and the Tea Party movement continued to build across the country, Governor Palin was able to get her message to the people and help good candidates coast to coast defeat both Leftists and Cocktail Party GOP enablers alike.
The Tea Party realizes that none of the issues the Left and media insist are important if someone doesn’t have any money or a job. In a time when the president insists American exceptionalism is no different than “Greak exceptionalism to Greeks”, Governor Palin consistently encourages Americans to stand up and fight for the best in America.
The Governor repeatedly asks how the hopeychangey stuff from 2008 has worked out for everyone.
The Tea Party movement, as captured so well during Glenn Beck’s Restore America Rally in Washington, DC, reminds Americans that they are not alone and it’s the establishment that’s threatened.
An excellent parallel is made to the Reagan Revolution, since the Cocktail Party establishment back then hated Reagan, made fun of him, and tried everything it could to stop his election.
Even members of the GOP today who ostensibly respect Reagan were people back then who despised him — because he was a great threat to the status quo.
Both President Reagan and future-President Palin believe there is nothing to apologize for in American exceptionalism.
Phrases like “I can see November from my house” and her continued use of Mamma Grizzly and other Alaskan imagery to convey her strength and beliefs are very Ronald Reagan in terms of mastering communication in the age she thrives in.
Both Reagan and Palin are the sort of people who go running TOWARD challenges and danger. They do not shy away from a worthy fight.
People who observed Reagan and his supporters taking over the Republican Party in 1980 see a very clear parallel to Governor Palin and the Tea Party spirit shaking the Cocktail Party out of power in 2012.
Governor Palin is successful because she refuses to accept the old rules of political correctness and will not be hamstrung by the Cocktail Party GOP establishment.
She says she will fight to the end for the America she loves and will never accept the premise of this nation’s destruction at the hands of either the Left or the entitled petulent establishment.
The film ends with the Thomas Paine quote: “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day so that my child may have peace”.
Governor Palin has risen to this challenge to confront both the Cocktail Party GOP establishment and the Left here and now today…and the audience is left inspired and challenged to think of how they as individuals can match her verve and join this fight as well.
You simply cannot watch “The Undefeated” and NOT leave the theater pumped up, ready to start campaigning for her, and so inspired to help her take down the Cocktail Party GOP establishment once and for all and sweep the Palin Revolution into Washington to decimate the Left wherever President Palin finds it.
© 2011, Kevin DuJan. All rights reserved.
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Thank you, Kevin. The Undefeated isn't playing anywhere close enough for me to get to, so I'm planning to buy it when it's released on DVD in Sept. Speaking of which, interesting timing, no???
love the timing too
I can't wait. My birthday is Sept 1 and the film is the first thing on my list of gifts. The second is a bag a popcorn. I say dinner and a movie on the evening of Sept. 1.
And on September 3rd maybe the Governor will give you a belated birthday gift by making her announcement in Iowa and officially becoming a presidential candidate.
Thanks Kevin for the writeup. Would love to see the movie in a theater., with like minded individuals .May have to settle for the DVD .Hopeing Sarah starts her next road trip at Mt Rushmore.
We have 22 principled people in the House,We need many more there and in the Senate. We need Sarah in the Presidency.
Excellent, and really detaild analysis, Kevin. I saw it twice, and will buy it on PPV and DVD when it comes out. Hope you took my advice and drove up to Wauwatosa, WI to see it.
Justin and I did drive up there last Wednesday. It’s a very nice mall. The malls here in Chicago are mostly dead, with empty stores in most of them, or those low-rent dollar store type places. It was like traveling in time for me to be in a mall that seemed to be thriving.
It was really worth the two hour drive up there to see “The Undefeated”. Justin is still talking about it and asking questions about what he saw in the movie, which is very unusual for him. Normally, he is very hard to interest in politics. He does support the Governor however.
Wow…What a detailed synopsis! Like everything in life, though, a description will never match seeing the original. We just wrapped up at the Smart Girl Summit in St Louis, where they had a screening of the film and it was quite phenomenal. I don't know if it will change the minds of anyone who already "hates" Sarah Palin, but it may. And it definitely has the power to influence those who aren't sure if she's the candidate for them. So, if you get an opportunity, WATCH IT. I'm not much for clapping at my television screen, but the audience clapped at many points throughout the film and it was actually quite inspiring. Like many of you with children, I get very busy and probably wouldn't have taken the time to go see it on my own. So, I'm really glad that I did see it here.
I want to write more, but I'm just exhausted. I will say, though, that it has inspired me. And whether she runs or not, I know that she will be a strong force for good in the future. I can't wait to see what she does next. In the meantime, I'm working to figure out what I can do, because Sarah Palin didn't wait for someone else to do what needed to be done and I want to be prepared, should I find myself in similar circumstances, so that I will not fail in doing my part, whatever that may be.
I think you are already doing something important — being an awesome mom and a great wife…not to mention a good friend!
I would love for you to reflect on what someone with kids and a husband and all the time limits that causes CAN reasonably do each day.
You have the passion and the drive. You have the talent and the smarts. But it’s the time and energy crunch that gets in the way.
There MUST be a creative way around this. It is not about forcing 25 hours in a day…but somehow seeing an hour or two of the existing 24 as something you can do for the country that is ALSO part of family time.
This to me is something like the story of windshield wipers…for YEARS people knew there had to be a way to make an intermittent speed windshield wiper. Back then, there was just a high speed or a low speed, but not one that could be high and low together intermittently, which is what was really needed. It took a family man with a flash of genius to figure it out. He actually involved his wife and kids in the process and put it together in his garage. But none of the big thinkers and fancy pants executives at the car companies could invent this. A husband and father with massive time and family commitments did.
THAT is America’s secret ace in the hole that will save this country time and again for all time…we are the greatest nation on Earth because of the industriousness of Americans and these flashes of genius that Americans have.
It’s just frustrating seeing situations where something needs to happen, but not being able to make that happen…it has to come organically.
Just like you could one day have that flash of genius that unlocks the ability to use your talents and passion to take down the Left and the Cocktail Party GOP establishment AND not feel it is taking time away from the family…but instead is actually something the family is doing together as a natural part of your lives.
I have great faith you are going to come up with something Mafia Rose…and I do hope you share your flash of genius with others!
Kevin, you are so right. As Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I you." We all have something to contribute, however meager we think our contribution might be.
One thing we can all do is to get organized, so as to pool our resources and multiply our efforts. Organize4Palin is a grassroots effort that reflects this can-do, "You don't need a title to make a difference" attitude; I'd encourage everyone to go to Organize4Palin.com and sign up, just to see how to get plugged in. I think various state's chapters are in various stages of getting organized themselves, but we can all work toward a common goal while we get our game together.