Salon.com > Sarah Palin's Alaska

The Sarah Palin movie: A “secret weapon”?

Wed, 25 May 2011 20:47:00 +0000

It's hard to imagine that any aspect of Sarah Palin's life could remain a secret for long. So it's even more surprising that the former Alaska governor has been able to keep news of a feature-length movie about herself under wraps until just one month before its release.

Today, Real Clear Politics reported that the film "Undefeated" -- a two-hour film by conservative filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon with a budget of $1 million -- will premier in Iowa next month. As Real Clear Politics noted:

[Palin asked Bannon] if he would make a series of videos extolling Palin's governorship and laying to rest lingering questions about her controversial decision to resign from office with a year-and-a-half left in her first term. It was this abdication, Palin knew, that had made her damaged goods in the eyes of some Republicans who once were eager to get behind her potential 2012 presidential campaign.

The response was more positive than Palin could have hoped for. He'd make a feature-length movie, Bannon told Mansour, and he insisted upon taking complete control and financing it himself -- to the tune of $1 million.

Sarah Palin’s Alaska finale: The campaign ad wraps up

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:30:00 +0000

This week's episode served as the final episode in the 8-part marketing presentation that brilliantly defined Sarah Palin as a political brand while simultaneously putting the nail in the coffin of her presidential ambitions. It seemed like a good idea I suppose -- using the ruse of an Alaskan documentary to produce a long-form political ad -- but even her most hardcore fans must have had a hard time buying the Mama Grizzly crap that she was selling. And she never stopped selling it to the bitter end.

For people like me, and probably for the majority of those of us who have witnessed Sarah Palin's rise to prominence, her allure as a personality is both mysterious and depressingly obvious. In an age where solid branding is the only way public figures can attract a dedicated following, Sarah developed her talking points and stuck to them religiously -- especially during the course of this program. Throughout the eight episodes, we were sold the image of a hard-working, blue collar everywoman who values family above all else and who will protect that family, and her country, by any means necessary -- and preferably with a firearm. She's become an iconic character -- a modern day Annie getting her gun -- embodying badass, maternal and "naughty librarian" appeal in one package. Not an easy feat.

“Sarah Palin’s Alaska” recap: Free Willow

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 14:30:00 +0000

This week's episode took us from Afognak Island, where we learned about the Alaskan logging industry, to Kodiak Island to race cars and watch bears. I'm not going to sugarcoat this for you, folks -- because there's just no way to get around how incredibly dull it is to watch Sarah Palin cut down a tree. And then pick up that tree and move it onto a pile of other trees. And then push that bundle of trees into the water. Because that's pretty much all that happened this week -- except for when Willow drove a pink stock car and played with her phone. And then they all sat in chairs and looked at bears.

Why would this be broadcast on television, you ask? To drive home variations on the themes that Sarah's been shoving down our throats all season, of course.

Theme 1: Cutting down trees is HARD WORK done by HARD-WORKING ALASKANS!

Can you believe it? And would you also believe that there are perfume-scented pansies who write Sarah letters with their "pretty little pencils" about how offended they are that people cut down trees -- apparently without realizing that they're writing their sissy notes on the very paper that Alaska produces?! And did you know that those San Franciscan, falafel-eating pinkos really BURN HER UP?! Did you KNOW that?

“Sarah Palin’s Alaska” recap: Sarah disses Michelle Obama

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:30:00 +0000

This week's episode began with a close up of a "Live Broadcast, Do Not Enter" sign -- handwritten on cardboard -- which the Palins tacked up outside of their house while Sarah delivered her Fox News commentary from their home studio. No fancy-pants Hollywood set here, commies -- just Todd, a camera and a wooden fish hanging on a wall as set decoration. Welcome to the real America.

Once the broadcast was done, the Palins took to the RV again for their next Alaskan adventure -- this one in multiple parts. First order of business was an exploration of the Talkeetna Mountains, a place that, as Sarah explained, "our family has been visiting for the last 40 years," which of course meant that she'd probably never been there.

The first day they took a rafting trip down the Matanuska River with Piper, Willow and her nephew -- Happy -- led by their white water rafting guide, Mud Flap (Sneezy, Dopey and Doc were meeting up with them later…) "We're going to be barreling down some pretty intense Class 3 rapids today," Sarah explained, which is akin to saying they were going to be partying hard on Grape Ne-Hi and Planter's Cheese Balls (Class 3 rapids are the rafting equivalent of driving over a speed bump at 10 miles per hour in your grandma's Plymouth.)

“Sarah Palin’s Alaska” recap: Kate Gosselin loses it

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:30:00 +0000

Sarah Palin succeeded in doing the impossible this week -- engendering sympathy and perhaps even a little bit of admiration when she faced her biggest wildlife challenge to date -- Kate Gosselin. For those unfamiliar with this pestilence, Kate Gosselin is the mother of eight young children, a former "Dancing with the Stars" contestant and the star of her own very popular TLC reality show. And she's insufferable.

At first, things seemed to go well between the two women. "Kate and I have a lot in common -- like we put our children first," says Sarah -- right before they attend a course on how to survive a bear mauling. It seems that putting children first entails taking them all camping in a part of Alaska that has a higher than average occurrence of brown bear attacks. We've been dancing around the issue since the show began, but this week's episode was a full-on middle finger flip to gun control advocates everywhere. Our first stop was the gun store, because every Palin adventure must begin with the purchase of a new firearm.

"Out in this territory anything can happen, but it's nothing a shotgun can't handle," Sarah says, clearly giddy at the thought that she might have an opportunity to drop one of those attacking bears so that media outlets can replay the clip over and over again come Republican primary time.

“Sarah Palin’s Alaska” recap: It’s huntin’ time

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 13:30:00 +0000

Sarah's freezer is empty, so it's time to go a huntin'.

She explains how important this is for her family, because the key to their survival is making sure there is enough meat to tide them over for the winter. "The rifle in your hand could mean food on your table," she explains to us somberly, before throwing on her designer camouflage outfit and pink "Girls love Guns" baseball cap. Apparently the Palin's lost income from that abandoned governor gig has hit them hard.

Sarah made sure in this episode that we clearly understood how hard she was clinging to her guns and religion. She takes us into the wild Alaskan Tundra to a hunting camp 14 miles from a place called Kavik -- located north of the Arctic Circle. Kavik has a population of one, a hearty gal named Sue whose motto, "blood, guts and bullets," clues us into the fact that we're dealing with a real Mama Grizzly -- and not just because her head was chomped on by one a few years prior. "Here, feel this," she says, placing Sarah's fingers in the holes in her scalp where the bear tossed her around. She goes on to explain how she broke free, crawled back to camp and sewed her scalp back on -- presumably with the intestines of pansy Democrats she has squirreled away in her meat locker -- before passing out for ten days until a relief plane came to rescue her.

“Sarah Palin’s Alaska” recap: Sarah loves workin’!

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 13:08:00 +0000

Sarah loves work.

Sarah loves work so much that she and work should get a room and make sweet, procreational, Christian love.

During this week's hour long infomercial, she talked about how her son Track "needs to learn his father's work ethic" and how every decision she makes is to "connect to family, nature and work" and even that her dream for son Trigg, who has Down's Syndrome, is that everyone "treats him like one of the other kids … and expects work out of him." In Sarah's world you either work hard or look like you are, because Jesus is coming, got that?

And Sarah loves Alaska.

Sarah loves Alaska so much that, during every episode, she takes us to a part of the state that we've never seen before. Only thing is, we kind of get the feeling that this is the first time she's seen it too -- or at least the first time she's been back to that particular hell hole since she found something else to do. Not to say that much of Alaska isn't stunning to look at, but most of this particular episode took place in Dillingham and the fishing village of Ekuk -- places largely composed of mud and fish heads. "She seems to love it there," Barbara Bush quipped recently about Sarah's love of the state, "I hope she stays."

“Sarah Palin’s Alaska” recap: Mama Grizzly goes shootin’

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 13:30:00 +0000

In this edition of "Sarah Palin's Alaska," Mama Grizzly demonstrated that she works harder, gets dirtier, rises earlier, cares more and remains perkier than all of the liberal pansies who are stealing the American dream from hardworking families.

Before we travel to the halibut capital of Alaska -- a "working man's" town appropriately called "Homer" -- with the self-described "everyday American" Palin family, Sarah shows us how she spends the bright Alaskan summers getting up at 4am to take a pilates class before talking to the "East Coast" at 7am -- because the best way to start the day is "sweaty and a little bit hurtin'." After a full day tweetin' and setting her record straight with the "lamestream" media, she gathers the hapless Todd and "old soul" Bristol for a quick turn at the shooting range -- or as Sarah describes it, "the place where her girlfriends took her for her baby shower before Piper was born."

Bristol Palin apologizes for Facebook rant

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:01:00 +0000

Bristol Palin is apologizing for herself and her younger sister for their Facebook rant against posters criticizing their family. Palin posted the apology on her Facebook page, saying she and her 16-year-old sister Willow "shouldn't have reacted to negative comments about our family. We apologize."

Willow Palin used a homophobic slur against a poster on her Facebook page who criticized her mother's new documentary series "Sarah Palin's Alaska." Then, she and Bristol engaged in a stream of offensive comments with posters who continued to slam the family.

Bristol ends her apologetic post by thanking those who are supporting "the great competition in Dancing with the Stars!" She is among three teams who made the finals this week.

Nielsen: Five million watched Palin’s TLC show

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:34:00 +0000

Sarah Palin made TLC history.

The debut of "Sarah Palin's Alaska," the former governor's travelogue about her home state, had just under 5 million viewers on TLC Sunday night.

The Nielsen Co. says that was the top-rated series premiere in the network's history, besting "What Not To Wear" in 2003.

During her first episode, the ex-vice presidential candidate did some fishing and rock climbing, along with trying to keep her daughter Willow's new boyfriend away from the girl's room.

Nielsen says the show reached triple the audience of what TLC had been reaching in the time slot this fall. But Palin still has a way to go to beat the network's ratings champ: the 10.6 million who watched the separation episode on "Jon & Kate Plus Eight."

“Sarah Palin’s Alaska”: Hour-long campaign ad

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 06:01:00 +0000

"Sarah Palin's Alaska" has no table-tipping divas and no Hawaiian bounty hunters. It has no bouffant sporting Snookis (though it does showcase some similar hairstyles). It is in many ways a tamer, less Ed Hardy festooned "Jon & Kate Plus 8." Yet whether you prefer your rallies to be of the honor, sanity or fear-restoring variety, there's something to disgust and delight everyone in TLC's new Palinpalooza.

For the devout, the eight-hour campaign ad thinly disguised as a travelogue will do absolutely zip to dispel any comfortingly clung-to notions of Palin as the straight-shooting regular gal who can smoothly move from baking cupcakes with her family to talking taxes on "The O'Reilly Factor." TLC, meanwhile, is hilariously promoting the Mark Burnett produced show as "not taking sides" with a blog that insists, "The show has nothing at all to do with the 2012 Presidential campaign." That's like saying "The Biggest Loser" isn't about fat people.

Palin’s show might set up a run

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 18:16:00 +0000

"Sarah Palin's Alaska" portrays the show's heroine as an adventure-loving wife and mother enjoying a whirlwind of activities amid spectacular settings in her home state. There are no overt clues to her future political ambitions.

However, throughout the first episode of the eight-part TLC documentary series beginning Sunday, Palin's outdoorsy image against the stunning scenery often plays nicely with her familiar political message.

One telling scene shows Palin and members of her family fishing near a bear and two frolicking cubs. Cut to the Tea Party darling and her self-sufficiency speech. For months, Palin has referred to strong Republican female candidates as "mama grizzlies."

"I love watching these mama bears," Palin tells the TLC camera. "They've got a nature, yeah, that humankind could learn from. She's trying to show her cubs, 'Nobody's gonna do it for ya. You get out there and do it yourself, guys.'"

Translation: Stop relying on government.

That scene and others are sure to suggest to some viewers that the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee is positioning herself for a 2012 presidential run.