{"id":2143,"date":"2011-06-28T14:18:23","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T18:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/?p=2143"},"modified":"2011-06-28T14:25:57","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T18:25:57","slug":"reporters-out-in-the-cold-tuesday-nights-premiere-of-sarah-palin-movie-sold-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/06\/reporters-out-in-the-cold-tuesday-nights-premiere-of-sarah-palin-movie-sold-out.html","title":{"rendered":"Reporters out in the cold; Tuesday night’s premiere of Sarah Palin movie sold out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>National journalists\u00a0found themselves stuck with the prospect of\u00a0interviewing local farmers coming out Tuesday night’s premiere of the Sarah Palin movie in Pella, Iowa.<\/p>\n

It seems the\u00a0111-year-old Pella Opera House sold out every seat to local folks\u00a0— and no tickets were put aside for the national press, reports Paul Bond of the Hollywood Reporter.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Reporters from around the country that have descended upon tiny Pella, Iowa for the premiere of the Sarah Palin documentary The Undefeated<\/em> on Tuesday night are in for a rude awakening,” wrote Bond Tuesday afternoon.\u00a0“So scarce are the tickets that there\u2019s no room in the theater for journalists.<\/p>\n

“The town, in fact, has been filling up rapidly since Palin confirmed she\u2019d attend the premiere with her husband, Todd. Police notified residents that the streets around the venue, the would be shut down beginning 13 hours prior to show time. On Monday, organizers were still divvying up tickets to the massively oversubscribed event.”<\/p>\n

Reporters \u2013 some who travelled more than 1,000 miles — were\u00a0told “they didn\u2019t make the cut,” reported Bond.<\/p>\n

There are only 311 seats in the opera house, which is actually a community auditorium restored in the 1990s. Back in the 1800s, such community\u00a0theaters were given lofty names — and Pella citizens will admit with a chuckle that\u00a0almost no opera has ever been performed in their operea house.<\/p>\n

Why was Pella chosen for the premiere? The town of 9,479 was founded in 1847 by Dutch immigrants seeking freedom to practice their Reformed Presbyterian faith, which was politically incorrect in the Netherlands at that time. Today the town retains its well-scrubbed Dutch image and is right in the middle of Iowa, home of the upcoming presidential caucuses. It\u00a0is surrounded by farms and is home to Pella Industries, best known for quality folding doors and room dividers.<\/p>\n

After the Iowa premiere, the\u00a0film will play in AMC Theatres nationwide in Dallas, Denver, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Atlanta, Orange County, Phoenix, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City and several other cities\u00a0beginning July 15.<\/p>\n

It\u00a0features political commentators Mark Levin, Tammy Bruce and Andrew Breitbart as well as conservative activists Kate Obenshein, Sonnie Johnson and Jamie Radtke. Additionally, the film\u00a0includes interviews with Alaskan civil servants, elected officials and advisors who were involved in Alaskan politics during Governor Palin\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

“The Undefeated<\/em>is the ideal candidate for digital theatrical distribution,” said Jonathan Dern, president of Cinedigm Entertainment Group, which is managing the release. “Given Palin’s ardent following throughout the country, digital cinema allows us to be extremely precise and efficient in our distribution strategy, bringing this much-anticipated film directly to interested theatre-goers.”<\/p>\n

Directed by Steve Bannon,\u00a0 it follows Palin\u2019s time as Alaska governor, the vice presidential run, and her current political life.<\/p>\n

Reviews have been predictable. Conservative commentators love it. Liberal outlets hate it.<\/p>\n

The conservative magazine National Review<\/em> called it a \u201chero\u2019s journey.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The conservative\u00a0Daily Caller<\/em> praised it as a \u201cgame-changer.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Initial impressions from pre-release screenings have been on the low side,” wrote the liberal internet news site The Daily Beast.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIts tone is an excruciating combination of bombast and whining,” wrote Kyle Smith, the New York Post<\/em>‘s film critic. “It\u2019s so outlandishly partisan that it makes Richard Nixon look like Abraham Lincoln and its febrile rush of images — not excluding earthquakes, car wrecks, volcanic eruption and attacking Rottweilers — reminded me of the brainwash movie Alex is forced to sit through in A Clockwork Orange.<\/em>Except no one came along to refresh my pupils with eyedrops.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you like Sarah Palin, the movie will make you like her even more,\u201d CBS News noted.<\/p>\n

The self-labeled liberal\u00a0MSNBC said\u00a0the most striking part of the film is its attack on the\u00a0Republican Party\u00a0hierarchy.<\/p>\n

“To hell to the establishment,”says conservative activist Andrew Breitbart near the end of the movie, who charges that the GOP didn\u2019t defend Palin from the relentless attacks she has received. In an after-the-credits coda, Breitbart calls Republican bigwigs “eunuchs.”<\/p>\n

But\u00a0at the Tuesday night debut, the audience was guaranteed to be midwestern Iowans, Pella-area\u00a0folks, many of whom have devoted their lives to growing corn and sorghum and raising pork.<\/p>\n

<\/a>They didn’t mind the idea that\u00a0national reporters would have to wait outside\u00a0to ask them how they liked the movie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National journalists\u00a0found themselves stuck with the prospect of\u00a0interviewing local farmers coming out Tuesday night’s premiere of the Sarah Palin movie in Pella, Iowa. It seems the\u00a0111-year-old Pella Opera House sold out every seat to local folks\u00a0— and no tickets were put aside for the national press, reports Paul Bond of the Hollywood Reporter. “Reporters from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,274],"tags":[276,278,277,444,275],"class_list":["post-2143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-sarah-palin","tag-gop","tag-iowa","tag-pella","tag-sarah-palin","tag-the-undefeated"],"yoast_head":"\nReporters out in the cold; Tuesday night's premiere of Sarah Palin movie sold out - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/06\/reporters-out-in-the-cold-tuesday-nights-premiere-of-sarah-palin-movie-sold-out.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reporters out in the cold; Tuesday night's premiere of Sarah Palin movie sold out - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"National journalists\u00a0found themselves stuck with the prospect of\u00a0interviewing local farmers coming out Tuesday night’s premiere of the Sarah Palin movie in Pella, Iowa. 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