In 1966, General Motors, the most powerful corporation in the world, sent private investigators to dig up dirt on Ralph Nader, an obscure thirty-two-year-old public interest lawyer, who had written a book critical of one of their cars, the Corvair. The scandal that ensued after the smear campaign was revealed, launched Ralph Nader into national prominence and established him as the leader of the modern Consumer Movement.
Over the next thirty years and without ever holding public office, Nader built a legislative record that rivals any contemporary president. Many things we take for granted including seat belts, airbags, product labeling, no nukes, even the free ticket you get after being bumped from an overbooked flight are largely due to the efforts of Ralph Nader and his citizen groups. Yet today, when most people hear his name, they think of the man who cost the Democrats the Presidential election. After sustaining his popularity and effectiveness over an unprecedented amount of time, he now has become a pariah even among former friends and allies.
An Unreasonable Man traces the life and career of Ralph Nader, one of the most unique, important, and controversial political figures of our time.
4 Comments
there are too many VERY important issues to deal with besides this whiny stuff that serves to divide people who need to be united.
AL GORE LOST BECAUSE THE ELECTION WAS STOLEN FROM HIM!
ARE YOU STILL WHINING ABOUT RALPH NADER EXERCISING HIS RIGHTS!
ARE YOU STILL ARGUING THAT HAVING A CORRUPT SYSTEM IS ACCEPTABLE AS LONG AS YOUR CANDIDATE WINS!
YOU ARE SO DAMN STUPID, INSIPID, RIDICULOUS!
GORE LOST BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO BELIEVE HE WAS SOMEHOW ENTITLED TO WIN, WITHOUT HAVING TO WORK FOR IT, AND WITHOUT HAVING TO DO THE HARD WORK OF CHALLENGING THE CORRUPT SYSTEM!
INSTEAD OF DOING A DOCUMENTARY, SPENDING ALL THAT TIME ON DOING THIS STUPID FILM, THEY SHOULD HAVE SPENT THAT TIME AND EFFORT ON EXPOSING THE CORRUPT ELECTORAL SYSTEM!!
RALPH NADER HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH STEALING THE ELECTION FROM AL GORE!!
HE WAS NOT A SPOILER!! HE GOT LESS THAN 2% OF THE VOTE!
GEORGE BUSH OBSTRUCTED 8+% OF THE VOTE!!!
IDIOTS!
The last comment shows how heated the Al Gore issue is. Hopefully the movie can show more people Ralph’s legacy, and put the election in perspective.
I love Ralph. In 1998 I presented a biographical account of Ralph’s life and work to my college environmental science class. I thought every student should know about this remarkable person and all the things they have to be grateful for because of him. I stunned the class with the information and my passion for him. That is why I am so entirely disappointed that I missed this film. It came to my city and I didn’t even know it.
I love Ralph. My democrat friends make excuses that he’s just another politician that can’t really be trusted, but I know the truth. His life’s work is no politicians work. To say that he is a modern day Robin Hood doesn’t do him justice, but that’s all I can think of to compare him to. My friends don’t see this, but I do. Those of us that get it are shakers and revolutionaries. We know the long fight for truth and justice is worth the sacrifices we face in the present. I am proud I voted for Ralph. Both times.
I have only superlatives for Ralph Nader, and am ANGRY at the powermongers who did not and do not want their supposed TURF challenged.
My vote belonged to Nader every time he ran.
Fascinating reality is that I DID NOT VOTE FOR CLINTON, and CERTAINLY did not vote for BUSH. I was among the “idiots” who didn’t realize there were other candidates WORTH voting for.
CERTAINLY I had heard of Ralph Nader in the sixties and seventies when I was a high school student and a college student. CERTAINLY he was a HOUSEHOLD NAME at that time, although MY family did not ever talk about him, to my knowledge. My family was “Republican.” They did NOT ever talk about POLITICS!
Enough said.
When I was old enough to vote, I did not register Republican, and since I was “somehow” (since they did not talk politics) indoctrinated into the belief that Democrats wanted handouts and were welfare promoters and not backers of the proper meritorious, competitive, “earn what you get” and WORK HARD to GET LUCKY….supposedly the Republican ethic…I did not see that as just in the view of the Vietnam War, which made no sense to me, and seemed interference, and nothing but that. I registered INDEPENDENT when I first registered. At that time, there were only primaries for those in parties, and , so, I developed the habit of not bothering with watching what was going on while the TWO PARTIES created the ONLY supposed choices “available” to the voting majority!!!!! as a “reality check” (talking about 1970 forward until I did not vote for Clinton or Bush, and thought I was bad, but KNEW I did not affirmatively want either of them.
So, Those Who “believe” my VOTE does not belong to Ralph Nader if and when he runs, or ran, are offensive against all proper view of meritorious competitive voting and the proper view of the TRUTH of the corrupt media powermongering and railroading of the two parties AGAINST the public and their PROPER voting power.
My vote BELONGS to ME, for the BEST candidate, and I vote for that candidate. I did not know when I did not vote for Clinton that Nader had seen the urgency of his CHALLENGE to the STATUS QUO of powermongering and corruption against the majority public interest…
I love Ralph Nader and everything he stands for!
Elizabeth
Cambridge, MA
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