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The Image of a President: Romney, Obama and Putin in 2012
Megan Cornthwaite
University of Florida
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The Image of a President: Romney, Obama and Putin in 2012
On September 3rd, 2012, CNN aired a documentary titled “Obama Revealed: The Man, the
President” which was made by Jessica Yellin. This film was part of the official election campaign and was counterbalanced by another documentary made by Gloria Borger titled "Romney Revealed:
Family, Faith, and the Road to Power," aired on August 26th, 2012, also by CNN. Now Obama is the president and it is interesting to compare the documentaries about the Democratic incumbent candidate and the Republican presidential nominee, with the documentary that was concurrently made about
Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin turned sixty years old on October 7th, 2012 and there were no public celebrations in Putin’s honor with the exception of Vadim Takmenev’s documentary that was aired on
NTV (Central TV) and has been available on YouTube ever since. This film is about an hour long and is titled “The Unknown Putin.”* All three films are comparable in length. At the time the films were made, both President Putin and Obama faced much criticism. The Russian film was aired several months after Putin's reelection to a third term as president, which had been a major contributing factor to the protests that took place in Moscow from May to June in 2012. The American films were aired less than fifty days prior to election day on November 6, 2012. Obama’s reelection was in question amidst his declining public approval ratings and increasing public disappointment. Romney was a somewhat unknown politician who rarely spoke about his personal life beyond politics, the most mysterious part of his life being his membership in the church of Latter-Day Saints. As the titles of the films suggest, the idea behind the films was to show something that had previously remained unknown about Obama, Romney and Putin and was worth telling about. In the case of President Putin, with a title like “The Unknown Putin” the viewers are told right away that they haven't seen the truth about the man even after twelve years as president. Surely, a man who has been president for such a long time
* Originally titled in Russian: «Неизвестный Путин»
Cornthwaite 3 cannot remain unknown to the public. Similarly, the title of the documentary about President Obama was also meant to reassure the audience in a political environment of public disappointment and uncertainty. In the case of Governor Romney, the viewers are given a short synopsis of Romney's life story in the midst of such a polarized political constituency. Romney, the most unknown of the three men, was the one whose film title gave the most information.
What was this unknown information? What strategies did the teams of filmmakers use to produce an agreeable version of each president or candidate? Admittedly Putin was already president when the film about him was made, but the task of producing an image that most Russians could be content with was no less urgent and demanding than the one faced by Jessica Yellin or Gloria Borger and their teams. It can sometimes be questionable whether such journalists have the power to shape public opinion about the authorities in power, or whether it is the authorities in power that create and regulate their own public image on which the media simply report. This conundrum is particularly interesting when considering the relationship between media and the president of a nation, particularly when public approval is on the line. In my thesis I offer a close analysis of these films and compare my findings in the concluding section. I submit that these films were made with particular audiences in mind and with the purpose of improving the public image of each president, and in the case of Mitt
Romney, with the purpose of providing a public image Americans could be excited about. The filmmakers catered to their respective audiences and therefore each film is indicative of the prevalent cultural and political stereotypes in each country.
Part I: Expectations
What have Americans come to expect of their presidents? In her article “Is America Looking for the Right Qualities in a President” from February 17th, 2012, Sydney Finkelstein reports that Americans
“want someone who is open-minded and adaptable, who can make adjustments quickly and not be tied
Cornthwaite 4 to past decisions that no longer work. Someone who is cool under fire, won't panic, but also won't be complacent.”1 On September 28, 2012 in the article “What Obama and Romney Must do to Win” for
U.S. News, Finkelstein clarified further what Romney needed to do in order to win the election, saying that Americans will vote for the man who most engenders the confidence that he can “make the future better” and “this is especially true when the economy is struggling, as it is today. Trust and confidence are the essential fuel that drives the American economy [...] for Romney, the path must be via his competence as a manager, business leader, and turnaround expert.”2 Comparatively, according to
Finkelstein's later article, Obama should give “people a reason to believe again,” for which he needed
“all his famous charisma and the ‘likeability factor.”3 Finkelstein in this same article says, “There are data one can look at to see if competence is really there, but the charisma requires no such practical test. Obama's economy is not healthy, but we didn't hire him four years ago to do that; we elevated
Obama to the Oval Office because of how he made us feel about the country and ourselves. He made us feel good, yes, he gave us confidence, and we trusted him to do the right thing.”4 Another opinion about what Americans expect in a president was discussed in a paper written by Martha Vater of Mount
Holyoke College titled “Americans’ Perception of the President.” Vater makes an interesting point that
“because Americans cannot realistically hope to agree with their president on every issue, the character of presidential candidates plays an integral role in American elections.”5 The latter might explain why in their documentaries Borger and Yellin chose to present their subjects as distinguished and remarkable individuals. Vater also mentions in her paper some specific characteristics necessary in a president, claiming, “American voters want consistent leaders of integrity and usually admire people with strong, unyielding convictions.”6
Part II: Romney
The hour-long film “Romney Revealed: Family, Faith, and the Road to Power” was made by
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Gloria Borger, CNN's chief political analyst, as a way to begin CNN's television coverage of the
Republican National Convention. In an interview on August 24th, 2012, Borger gave a synopsis of the documentary: “the Romney documentary is really a biography [...] an effort to take a step back and try to find out who Mitt Romney really is.”7 When interviewer Christopher Peleo-Lavar of National
Journal asked whether or not the conventions really mattered since both Obama and Romney had been nominees for months, Borger discussed the possible impact of her documentary: “The outcome of the conventions is predetermined but the impression they'll leave of the candidate isn't. As the Republican convention showed, the events are still an opportunity for each campaign to tell its story to voters who are just tuning in.”8 Apparently, Borger thought that her film had the power of convincing the undecided voters to vote for Romney. In the same interview Borger elaborated on the main idea of the documentary: “[Romney] mainly discusses his long political family history as well has his devotion to his Mormon faith, both very important parts of who he is today.”9 To make Romney irresistible, Borger needed to introduce Romney as a likable human being. As a politician, Romney was expected to be guarded as well as being known as a candidate who has “been very reluctant to tell his own personal story beyond politics,”10 which only added to Borger's challenge.
With these things in mind, I will now discuss how Borger emphasized certain qualities of Mitt
Romney in her film. In the overview of the film, Borger highlights Romney's wealthy background, business prowess, faith, personal qualities, and qualities as a politician while playing serious sounding music, perhaps to emphasize the mysteriousness of the candidate because so much is unknown. The film then transitions into the first segment about Romney's personal characteristics, given literally in list form by his wife, Ann Romney, while she and Borger stand on the front lawn of one of their family's homes. Ann Romney describes her husband as “fun-loving, warm, spontaneous [...]; out of the public eye and he is as loose and spontaneous and funny as you'd ever want to see.”11 She then mentions that many people only see her husband through the “business lens” while that is “just one
Cornthwaite 6 percent (1%) of who he is.”12 Then, the film turns to Romney's personal history. The fact that Mitt
Romney is a Mormon was most likely the most controversial aspect of Romney's presidential campaign, and because of this, a very large portion of the film, at least thirty minutes worth, is devoted to his faith and how his faith is a large part of his life. True to the title, the segment about his faith is in the first part of the film.
Around the middle of the film, Borger included a negative opinion of Romney in an attempt to make the documentary less one-sided. When Borger interviews Judy Dushku, a former member of
Romney's congregation in Massachusetts, it is seemingly in an effort to address an issue in Romney's political campaign concerning women's rights. Borger gives Dushku several minutes in the film, however, she then brings in footage from interviews with other members of the congregation who dispute Dushku's claims. Borger leaves the issue on a positive final note for Romney. This section suggests that although Borger may be attempting to provide a well-rounded picture of Romney, the ultimate goal is to make him look like an honorable candidate who can vouch for everyone's well being.
The next segment is about the Romney family's struggles, particularly about how Ann and Mitt dealt with Ann's diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. While Ann and the Romneys’ oldest son Tagg are very emotional in this segment, Mitt Romney never loses his cool demeanor. He does not slow his speaking rate or show any display of strong emotion, which may have been a failure at showcasing his personal side. Most of the emotional work is done by Ann Romney, and Borger uses this frequently to Romney's advantage, including much more footage from her interview with Ann than from her interview with
Mitt. It is at this point that Borger turns to Romney's political career, focusing initially on Romney's running for governor against Ted Kennedy, and Romney’s horrible political loss. The transition from
Romney loosing his seat to Ted Kennedy to finding out that his wife had multiple sclerosis is very powerful. Borger succeeds in getting the audience back on Romney's side if they had perhaps strayed
Cornthwaite 7 after Dushku's comments.
Another politician mentions that Romney is a “Mr. Fix-It” while another clip in the film shows another politician saying that Romney isn't “pro-choice, isn't anti-choice, he's multi-choice.”13 At the time of the election, when the economy was struggling and issues such as abortion and religion were sensitive topics, Borger made sure to include evidence that Romney is a candidate for all the people of
America. Notably, Borger highlights the fact that Romney actually used to be pro-choice and a proponent of gay marriage, at which point she asks Romney if he was a liberal. Romney evasively tells her that people can call it “what they want to call it.”14 Borger also includes interviews with people who stress that Romney often “changes position on a broad range of issues” because he is a “political opportunist,” but again brings back Ann Romney who counteracts this negative view by insisting that she is the one who “knows his core: honesty, integrity, conviction.”15 The last five to ten minutes of the documentary are devoted to Romney’s political background. Just the fact that only ten minutes of an hour long film are devoted to Romney's political experience is more evidence that this documentary was primarily aimed at telling Romney's story and making him seem like a nice, caring human being.
Borger highlights how difficult it was for Romney to be selected as the Republican nominee, but again the negative attention is counterbalanced by Tagg’s and Ann’s enthusiastic utterances that Romney is a warm and personable individual who tries to connect with people. This statement follows a clip of
Romney reading scriptures after the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting. The final note the viewers are left with is the longest instance of Romney in his interview with Borger. He talks about who he thinks he is as a person: “who I am has been long ago decided long ago by my wife, by my five sons, by my grand kids, daughters-in-law, and the people who knew me best.”16 He admits that he learned this wisdom from his father. This final statement concludes the documentary, suggesting that the American people should believe what Romney's family, specifically Ann Romney, has said about him more than anyone else.
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Part III: Obama
Jessica Yellin, the creator of the film “Obama Revealed: The Man, The President,” has been
CNN's White House correspondent since summer of 2011. Her film began CNN coverage of the
Democratic National Convention. While both films make an attempt to portray each candidate in a positive light by emphasizing certain qualities Americans want to see in their president, Yellin's film focuses on how Obama's character determined his political choices. Yellin stated in an interview with
Christopher Peleo-Lazar for National Journal on August 31, 2012, a few days before the Obama documentary was aired, that making the documentary was a challenge because her goal was to both
“give viewers a sense of Obama's leadership as president and 'who he is as a man.'”17 Yellin also tells
Peleo-Lazar what the viewer should pay attention to in her documentary: the viewers should look at
“how President Obama navigated a tumultuous period in our country and what his decisions said about his character.”18
As mentioned in part II, in order to win the election Obama had to rely heavily on “his charisma and his famous “likeability factor.”19 In her article Finkelstein observes, “we elevated Obama to the
Oval Office because of how he made us feel about the country and ourselves. He made us feel good
[...] he gave us confidence, and we trusted him to do the right thing.”20 Accordingly, the Gallup poll from October 29th, 2012 titled "Americans See Different Strengths in Obama and Romney" reported that the strengths that Americans attributed to Obama had to do with his personal character. Aside from being an “excellent communicator” (ranked first), Obama's perceived strengths were “helping the less fortunate” (second), having a “good personality,” being “charming” or “down to earth” (third) and being “levelheaded/determined” (fourth).21 In “Americans’ Perception of the President” Martha Vater suggests that “the president of the United States has always been a figure with whom American voters can identify.”22 Even Yellin herself in an interview for The Huffington Post on September 3rd, 2012
Cornthwaite 9 said, “a lot of people felt that they understood Obama and had a sense of who he was, and then once he got into office, he almost seemed more distant.”23 Her task was therefore to make her viewers like
Obama again. Yellin is able to do this in a multitude of ways in the film.
Yellin relies on Obama's close friend Reggie Love to make Obama appear more personable, much like how Borger used Ann Romney to make her husband appear more personable. Whatever
Yellin's own views were, she did present Obama as a family man, an average guy who likes to play basketball and coach his daughter's basketball team. In the overview of the film, Yellin gives highlights of Obama as president during his first term. These highlights included the mission to kill Osama bin
Laden, the way he handled his divisive constituencies, and his overall “cool” demeanor. The film then transitions into playing patriotic music, showing footage from Obama's inauguration in 2008, which by now has come to be remembered as a major historic event, as one woman in the film says, she “can't wait to tell her children about it.”24 Yellin then includes footage from an interview in 2008 when she herself said about Obama “it's not just the size of the crowds but there's something different, people come and wait for hours for him, sometimes they start crying when he talks.”25 Then we see the footage of the campaign trail which led to his initial election, then we see Oprah endorsing Obama, then we see crowds chanting Obama’s message of “change” and Obama in his element on the stage with a microphone. Yellin focuses on Obama’s 2008 inauguration, most likely in an attempt to bring back the audience's memories of the wave Obama rode to his presidency, on his message of hope and change which seemed to sweep him right into office with great public approval.
At this point in the film Yellin starts showcasing Obama's “likeability factor.”26 Yellin asks
Obama's senior campaign Adviser Daniel Axelrod whether people saw in Obama what they wanted to.
Axelrod defends Obama, saying that Americans expected “perhaps more than anybody could ever live up to.”27 This suggests that the public's disappointment with what Obama promised is perhaps not truly
Obama's fault, and has more to do with what Americans expected rather than what Obama offered. The
Cornthwaite 10 next few moments of the film support this, as Yellin goes into an overview of various political and social issues which had to be prioritized from A to Z. Obama's chief adviser says, “what do you do when [the issues] are all A's?”28 Yellin dutifully highlights the fact that the decline of the stock market was getting worse and worse, months before Obama was inaugurated. The film then finally turns to an actual interview with Obama, during which Obama talks about the economy being his first priority and how his “first job when [he] got into office was making sure we didn't go into another Great
Depression.”29 Then Yellin again includes someone saying in an interview: “you could create whatever you wanted out of him, he was a folklore figure right out of the gate.”30 When Yellin asks, “What do you think [Obama] was expected to do?” the Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley says “I think people didn't know.”31 Yellin then addresses the issue of Obama's changing his public image, stating that “the passionate speaker who electrified crowds on the campaign trail would become a calm, cool leader once in office.” This time it is Obama’s turn to offer a different interpretation: “people who know me well, and people on the campaign trail, I don't think they'd describe me that way [...] I am in a lot of ways an extrovert when it comes to folks outside the Beltway. I don't think it's hurt, except for maybe some of my relations inside of the Beltway, here in Washington.”32
Then there is a preview of the next segment of the film, where Yellin highlights how Obama has angered the right and disappointed the left and polarized the nation even more. However, Yellin does not leave this segment on a negative note and moves on to interview David Maraniss, the author of
Barack Obama: The Story. Maraniss observes: “I think [Obama] came in sort of feeling his own exceptionalism, and then the realities of Washington smacked him in the head,”33 suggesting once again that the problems in America were not simply Obama's fault but were due to forces that Obama had no control of.
The next segment of the film focuses on America's economic troubles early on in Obama's presidency, highlighting the severity of the stock market decline and “unprecedented hole in the
Cornthwaite 11 economy,”34 as well as introducing certain aspects of Obama's personal character that explain how he handled these events. Maraniss tells Yellin: “He's not easily categorized in any way: he wants it all, he's rational, first of all, he's a little bit deliberative and cautious, but then once in a while he'll go for the bold stroke because he wants something larger.”35 Yellin also chooses this moment to include someone with a negative opinion of Obama's competitiveness. The Speaker of the House John Boehner claims that Obama told him, “You have to remember, I won”36 when rejecting Republicans' contribution to the stimulus deal. Yellin at this point (and this technique is repeated later on in the film) simply shows each party giving their different accounts of the same episode, seemingly in a circle, perhaps to try and give the audience both sides of the story. Obama is given a chance to defend himself against Boehner's comments and claims that he actually received criticism from his own party for going out of his way to get along with Republicans and mentions that many Republican leaders decided early on in his presidency that “working with the President was not good politics.”37 He also mentions an email sent to him by Republicans saying they would be voting against Obama's stimulus bill before even looking at it. More support for Obama comes when Rahm Emanuel, Former White House Chief of Staff, says that
Republicans had adopted the mindset of “it's your problem [Democrats], we are going to start planning for four years from now.”38 Then the Republicans are given a chance to defend themselves, one of whom simply said she thought “Obama missed a crucial opportunity early on to reach out to
Republicans”, and in a scathing remark, comments that she doesn't think Obama quite “understands the relationship between the president and the legislative branch.”39 Again, coming full circle, and ending on a positive defensive note for Obama, Obama's aide Axelrod admits, “in hindsight, there was room for improvement.”40 Interestingly, and perhaps in a show of Yellin's own personal opinion, she includes
Axelrod saying “perhaps we should have made more time for schmoozing but there wasn't a lot of time for it. At the time [Obama] seemed like he was spending his waking hours doing what he was supposed to do.”41
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At this point the film transitions into the segment detailing Obama's handle on the economic crisis he faced when coming into office in 2008. While Former Chair of Council of Economic Advisers
Christina Romer mentions that she “made a bad forecast” and the economic “hole [was] deeper than anticipated”42 it is again as if Yellin is suggesting the blame should not be on Obama, but on a number of factors. Then Yellin reveals that the stimulus package saved or created more than three million jobs while upbeat music plays in the background. The Former Chair of Council of Economic Advisers
Austan Goolsbee says “[Republicans] were kinda coming at it like the old East German judge at the
Olympics where it doesn't matter what he's doing, he could be doing a triple flip lutz and they're giving him a two, the card's already filled out.”43 Then Yellin discusses how Obama saved the auto industry and yet this bold move on his part failed to appease his opponents and supporters. Then we see Mike
Huckabee criticizing Obama. “Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff,” he insinuates. Yellin cuts to
Rahm Emanuel asking the audience, “How can Obama both be a socialist and an advocate for the one percent (1%)?”44 which is indeed an interesting question to consider.
The next big issue that is covered in the film is the taxpayer money that was given to AIG and which was distributed as bonuses to its executives. Yellin admits that Obama was slow to respond and seemed distant from the public by not showing a huge reaction right away. Reggie Love comes to
Obama’s rescue and says that Obama just “doesn't like conflict, it's not his style” to call people out, and also says he thinks that “people misconceive the expression of emotion with the idea of having emotion.”45 Yellin drives the point home even further, by having Maraniss submit that Obama “didn't want to just be another president, he wanted to be a great president,” Obama “is more like a professor- in chief” which “surprises people because on the campaign trail he seemed to be a different person.”46
Yellin here interviews Velma Hart, a woman who was seen on a television show telling Obama that he is a different person in office than on the campaign trail, and that she was “tired of defending him” and
“frankly disappointed”47 in him after voting for him in the last election. Yellin then says “the change he
Cornthwaite 13 had promised was not coming fast enough, not for those who swept him into office and expected him to champion their causes.”48
Then Yellin shows all the different constituencies Obama was expected to champion causes for such as Latinos, the gay and lesbian community, and women's rights activists, as if to show again that
Obama could not be at fault for taking so long with so many constituencies that require attention to different issues. As if to emphasize this point, Yellin then mentions that while Obama did bring about change, constituencies were upset because it was “change on the president's time frame.”49 One of
Obama's senior advisers then says that certain things are “sometimes better to do over a slower process” and at this point Maraniss mentions that Obama has “been expected to tackle race in ways other presidents haven't.”50 Maraniss then mentions Obama’s autobiography “Dreams From my
Father.” This book is all about race, “the lens through which he saw his life, and a deep part of how he views the world.”51
Near the end of the film, Obama is made to appear even in a better light and as the one who can cope with adversity. Yellin brings up the issue of the Republican takeover in Congress and describes it as a kind of “buyer's remorse.” However one of Obama's supporters says that “when things get challenging [Obama is] at his best.”52 Yellin then brings Obama's personable qualities into play again and questions Reggie Love about what Obama looks like when he's “just hanging out.” Love responds with a simple answer, “he's like a guy, you know, he likes the Bulls, he likes the Bears, he likes sports, he likes cars, like most guys that I know which can sometimes be hard for some people because they're like wait, he's sort of like me, but he's the president.”53 Love is then said to have “seen the president as few else ever have” and Love continues to paint a picture of a likeable guy by saying that Obama is
“very much a person who enjoys the simple things in life, enjoys watching a good game, enjoys a good cocktail, he's competitive at everything he does, whether it's bowling or pool or shuffle board, there isn't anything I think he's be okay losing at.”54 Brinkley, a presidential historian, backs up Love's
Cornthwaite 14 statements by saying that even now “when [Obama] sings a little song or acts a little cool or he shoots baskets or he tells a joke, people still swoon over him.”55
Yellin then again addresses the “coolness” many Americans have felt since Obama came into office and provides an explanation for it. Maraniss claims that it stems from Obama's “laid back childhood in Hawaii keeping it 'cool'” which Yellin qualifies as “one of the elements that plays out for better and worse”56 in Obama's presidency. While Maraniss insists that Obama is “cool under fire and when things get challenging he's at his coolest, and that coolness is a great quality in a leader.”57
The million dollar moment that ultimately drives the point home is when Yellin asks her interlocutors, “cool, but does that mean disconnected?”58 First Brinkley says that he has heard people say that Obama has “trouble connecting with people but [he] just [doesn't] see it” to which he adds that he thinks “a lot of people have trouble connecting with people in Washington.”59 Then Maraniss brings up Obama's family life, mentioning how a “politician has to be sort of imbalanced, Bill Clinton was imbalanced, he would spend the hours between six and nine talking to people in Congress whereas
Obama's basically with his family during those hours.”60 At this point Yellin includes a video clip of
Obama walking out of a helicopter to his daughters who run up to him, one with their dog on a leash, while Obama picks up high younger daughter, a very touching clip, while Maraniss finishes saying that being with your family from six to nine p.m. is “kind of a balanced thing to do but not necessarily good for a president.”61 Yellin quips: “being a family man isn't always an asset in office, it is a priority for
[Obama].”62 She then has Obama’s senior adviser asking to “remember this is someone who grew up raised by a single mom and his grandparents, his father abandoned him, and he lived with this missing piece in him, and at a very young age he decided he wasn't going to be the kind of father he had, he wanted to be a present father, and a present husband.”63 Yellin here adds an endearing clip of Obama kissing his wife at a basketball game. Yellin also mentions Obama's involvement with his daughter's basketball team and his own competitiveness at the sport. At this point Yellin asks her ultimate
Cornthwaite 15 question, what does Obama’s own game style say about his leadership style? Love is brought back again saying “he's a competitor, you know sometimes you get a bad call, but you can't extend or overextend too much emotion worrying about what just happened, from an efficiency standpoint, you can cry about the call or you can look to the next play.”64 Yellin relates this observation to how Obama handled his mission of killing Osama bin Laden. Obama comments on his decision-making skills, especially at that particular moment and claims that he always tries to “pull back and look at the long view and not get caught up in the emotion.”65 This is ultimately a characteristic that Americans do want to see in their presidents according to Finkelstein and Vater.
Yellin concludes the film by giving an overview of Obama's major accomplishments as president: “killing Osama bin Laden, the passage of a landmark, but controversial, healthcare bill, saving the auto industry, averting another Great Depression, and removing troops from Afghanistan.”66
Hillary Clinton is then summoned to reinforce this positive image of Obama. She maintains,
“[Obama’s] steady hand has been beneficial for the country.”67 The last spoken words in the documentary are Obama's, as he describes his way of thinking. His philosophy in governing is the same as the advice that he gives his daughter's basketball team: “always worry about doing your job, doing your best, getting better, and thinking like a team,”68 while upbeat music plays in the background.
Part IV: Putin
The film “The Unknown Putin” was made by Vadim Takmenev, a journalist and a reporter for
NTV, a major television channel in Russia. Putin's decision to return to his old job as Russia’s president triggered widespread street protests in Moscow and other cities in the period from December 2011 to
June 2012. It also led to a steep fall in his popularity, previously his most potent asset. Yet despite all the disruption he remains firmly in control. What could Putin's intentions therefore have been in granting Takmenev such a long interview? Putin was obviously concerned about what the media said
Cornthwaite 16 about him, and wanted to improve his public image by showing what his ordinary days and his private life looked like. Putin's public image in the media between 2008-2011 was primarily one of physical strength, and he was made out to be not only “a symbol of his country, but the personification of a certain type of politics […].”69 In the words of Fyodor Lukyanov, “Putin is an ideal embodiment of such a model. As a leader, he is perceived in the world as stronger and more influential than the country he leads [...] Most importantly, Putin is perceived to be the undisputed master of his land who is able to do whatever he likes with it.”70 Also, at the end of October 2012, after this film was aired, polls in
Russia from the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center* revealed that the majority of Russian citizens prefer their leader to be “an experienced politician.”+ These polls also revealed that a large percentage of Russians view Putin as being active (85%), physically strong (83%), and sensible (82%), wise (69%), charming (64%), and a modern leader (53%). Two thirds of the respondents described
Putin as being in the prime of his life (62%).++71 The American scholar Allen Lynch describes Putin’s main character traits as “devotion to the state, pride in country, a fierce sense of personal honor and loyalty, and a ferocious work ethic, as well as a profound fear of disorder.”72 Lynch offers an insightful list of “tensions and paradoxes that structure much of Putin’s life and his tenure in high office,” among them Putin’s “deep and genuine respect for personal honor and loyalty versus a corresponding ruthlessness toward those seen as violating those values; [and] an abstract understanding of the requisites of modernity, including economic, civic, and political liberty, versus an emotional attachment to discipline order, command, and control.”73
Since Putin has turned sixty, he has faced his largest challenge according to the New York
* Originally in Russian: «Всероссийский центр изучения общественного мнения (ВЦИОМ)» + Originally in Russian: «опытный политик» ++ Originally in Russian «активный (85%), физически крепкий (83%), здравомыслящий (82%)...мудрый (69%), обаятельный (64%), современный руководитель (53%) [...] По мнению двух третей опрошенных, президент России находится в самом расцвете лет (62%)»
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Times article by Ellen Barry from February 13, 2012. This challenge is “coming to grips with a society that has greatly changed under his watch, while he has remained essentially the same.”74 Barry also predicts, “the emerging threat to [Putin's] rule has slid beneath the surface. But it will follow him across the six years of his third presidential term, as he will be forced to respond to a populace beginning to demand more of a stake in the governing of Russia. With his once phenomenal popularity gradually waning, Mr. Putin will have to find other ways to guarantee his legitimacy.”75 Has Putin succeeded in guaranteeing his legitimacy in Takmenev's film?
Putin has “exercised greater control over what is known about him than almost any other modern politician. He has created his own mythology”76 Masha Gessen claimed on February 20th, 2012 in her article titled "Portrait of the Young Vladimir Putin." In Barry's article, Putin's press spokesman
Dmitri Peskov was reported to have said, “Mr. Putin’s public persona — salty language, tiger-stalking, shirtless fly-fishing — was his own creation.”77 Indeed, Russia's political climate demands a leader who appears physically strong after a succession of physically unfit leaders, including Leonid
Brezhnev, Yurii Andropov, and Boris Yeltsin. In November 2012 Anton Klyuchkin speculated about
Putin's bad back and its consequences for Russia in his article for Lenta.ru ironically titled “An
Unhealthy Situation - Vladimir Putin's Back A Factor in Russian Politics”*
The health of the Russian president, as it already was at the end of the '90's, is once again
becoming an important factor in internal political life, and the question of whether or not it
should remain a medical secret is socially relevant [...] But the president has become a prisoner
of his own image, and age appears to take its toll [...] To age like his old friend Silvio
Berlusconi would be unthinkable for Putin, though he can't not age […] Forever young in life
and in politics – it is something impossible, but to offer a new image of Putin, the Kremlin PR
* Originally in Russian: «Нездоровая ситуация-Спина Владимира Путина как фактор российской политики»
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is not yet able to do.+78
Putin's public image is directly correlated to the political atmosphere of Russia. Klyuchkin mentions how “power here [in Russia] is very personalized, so a bad back is projected at once onto the entire power structure, and vice versa - talk of a decrepit regime is automatically reminiscent of the ailments of the President”++79 and “considering the decisive role of Putin in the Russian political system, messages about his health are extremely sensitive in the political and investment climate.”+++80 The popular belief that the backbone of the country literally depends on Putin's backbone further shows why he may want to control his public image in the media. In a poll done in May 2012 by the Pew
Research Center titled “Russians Back Protests, Political Freedoms" it was found that “a majority of
Russians continue to feel that relying on a leader with a strong hand in order to solve problems is more important than relying on a democratic form of government.”81 Consequently, any questions or doubts about Putin's health are automatically projected into questions and doubts about his ability to rule the country, and the “health” of the country itself.
Many Russian journalists consider their duty to reveal the truth about Putin in a country with such state-controlled media sources. In 2012, a journalist for New America Media Valeriya Fedorenko said “I live in Putin's Age, or [...] in the manner of many university professors, 'The Regulation Age of
+ Originally in Russian: «Здоровье российского президента, как это уже было в конце 90-х, вновь становится важным фактором внутриполитической жизни, а вопрос о том, должно ли его самочувствие оставаться медицинской тайной, оказывается общественно значимым. [...] Но президент стал пленником своего имиджа, а возраст, похоже, берет свое [...] Стареть так, как стареет его друг Сильвио Берлускони, для Владимира Путина немыслимо, но и не стареть он не может. Вечная молодость как в жизни, так и в политике - вещь невозможная, однако предложить Путину новый имидж кремлевские пиарщики пока что не в состоянии» ++ Originally in Russian: «Здесь власть предельно персонифицирована, поэтому больная спина проецируется сразу на всю властную вертикаль, как и наоборот - разговоры о дряхлости режима автоматически заставляют вспомнить о недугах президента» +++ Originally in Russian: «С учетом же определяющей роли Путина в политической системе России сообщения о состоянии его здоровья оказываются крайне чувствительными для политического и инвестиционного климата»
Cornthwaite 19
Russian Media.' This age started in 2000 when Putin became president. [...] We young people need to try to create a new type of media that is uncensored and honest. I’m afraid that somebody, as often happens in Russian media, will come and say: 'Listen, this is not your newspaper. We bought it. You can stay and tell ‘our truth,’ or you can leave!' That has happened before, as with the once independent but now state-controlled mouthpiece channel, NTV [...] This is why I didn’t vote for Putin’s protege
Dmitri Medvedev in 2008 nor I did I vote for Putin in the March 4 election. I don’t know a single journalist who did.”82 Yet, another journalist, Elena Milashina, wrote in 2010, “I am exhausted from the funerals, and I am frightened for my friends, my colleagues and myself. This horrifying chain of murders will not be broken until the perpetrators—those who pulled the trigger and especially those behind the killings—are brought to justice. And we can hardly hope for a proper investigation while
Vladimir Putin holds the reins of power.”83
Taking all of this into account, how did the NTV host Vadim Takmenev portray Putin in his film
“The Unknown Putin?” At times, it seems as though Takmenev is merely following Putin while Putin goes about his daily routine. Although NTV is a government controlled media outlet and Putin seems to be running the show, Takmenev manages to somewhat help the viewer read between the lines and make their own opinion of Putin. In the very beginning of the TV special, and in the beginning of the film,
Takmenev introduces Putin as unreachable, distant, and omnipotent. He even says, “it's hard to believe this”*84 when introducing the fact that they filmed Putin for a week when it was usually forbidden to film him. Then dramatic music is played in the background while Takmenev voices over several video clips of Putin—doing laps in a pool, doing exercises on different workout machines, reaching into a refrigerator—all seemingly usual tasks until you consider how important it is for Putin to show physical strength and composure, particularly after reports of his back injury. Takmenev positions
* Originally in Russian: «В это трудно поверить»
Cornthwaite 20 himself on a stool explaining to the audience that “this week we saw a different side of Putin, he not only showed his private life, but he answered questions that would be seemingly scary to ask. [...] We are the first of mere mortals to see it, and now you (all) will be the second.”*85 In this short introduction, Takmenev has already portrayed several of the “normal” images typically associated with
Putin in the preview: physical strength and a man in the prime of his life. By telling the audience that what they are about to see is “hard to believe” and “usually forbidden,” Takmenev refers to Putin as the embodiment of some fascinating but distant power that average citizens are not normally allowed to approach. According to Lukyanov “Putin [is often] perceived as stronger and more influential than the country he leads,”86 so Takmenev’s comment that the “mere mortals” will see this new Putin for the very first time, appears justified. This is the initial image of Putin that is spouted before the film is even shown. While Takmenev may have a dramatic streak, his comments also suggest some irony once the actual film is viewed.
When the actual film begins, Takmenev's dramatic element is clearly displayed by a mood that is set immediately with mystery and a lack of clarity. The camera is blurry for several moments, once again dramatic music is being played in the background, it is unclear where the cars are headed, and there is a loud crack of thunder and car sirens. Then when Takmenev's car reaches a security gate at night, the air of mystery is compounded when Takmenev is on the phone with someone asking, “What do we do next?”+87 as if this is some spy movie where clues must be given to get to the ultimate answer.
Yet while this introduction is full of mysterious music and blurry camera shots, when Takmenev
* Originally in Russian: «Hа этой неделе мы снимали совсем другого Владимира Путина, и он не только показал закрытую прежде часть своей жизни, но он ответил на вопросы, которые, казалось бы, и задавать страшно...Мы были первыми из простых смертных кто смог это увидеть, и сейчас вы станете вторыми.» + Originally in Russian: «Что нам дальше делать?»
Cornthwaite 21 announces, “Well, my moment has arrived”++88 it could be interpreted both that Takmenev is announcing that he will finally meet that larger than life Putin, or that his moment has arrived to finally show people the real Putin. When Takmenev is walking towards Putin's desk, all the built up hype surrounding the final moment meeting Putin is finally coming to a close. When they finally meet and shake hands, the music is no longer mysterious but instead light and playful.
From this point on to the end of the film, Takmenev proceeds to removing the mysteriousness surrounding Putin by revealing Putin's daily activities: he does laps in the pool, works out in the morning, pets his dog, and eats breakfast—all tasks that the rest of us mere mortals do. Then, of course,
Putin has his meetings with his staff. Should the viewers feel cheated? After all, they were told that they were going to see something truly sensational. Instead what we see are just mundane scenes of life. In these scenes, in fact, Takmenev accomplishes two things: he portrays Putin as a strong, physically active and capable president, he also succeeds in portraying Putin as an ordinary man, contrary to what the audience has been led to believe up until now, and contrary to what Putin most likely wanted the audience to think of him prior to October 2012.
Around the middle of the film, Putin appears extremely animated. The awkwardness of the situation is tangible while Takmenev and Putin talk on Putin's very special private plane. Takmenev begins by asking a question about the controversial punk band “Pussy Riot.” When Takmenev says “I want to ask you as well about the punk band Pussy Riot,”*89 Putin interrupts Takmenev before he can even finish asking his question, and Putin begins fidgeting in his chair and puts his hand on his hip while talking about it. Though this animation seems partially due to how uncomfortable the translated name of the band makes both the grown men, it also seems to have to do with how strongly Putin wants to clarify that he had nothing to do with the prosecution procedure. Putin is very quick in turning this
++ Originally in Russian: «Ну вот и мой момент настал» * Originally in Russian: «Я хочу вас как-то спросить про панк-группу Пусси Райот»
Cornthwaite 22 part of the interview in his direction, changing his body language to one of enthusiasm and defensiveness. Putin interrupts Takmenev to say, “you know that according to experts, the tape that we have today was created later”(meaning Pussy Riot's diatribes against the president were superimposed later on the tape that they made inside the cathedral and on the original tape Putin's name was not even mentioned).+90 Putin tells the truth. By then, this was an established fact that Takmenev either knew or didn’t know, that’s why Takmenev is “shocked” and is lost for words. It takes him several seconds to respond. This then prompts Putin to ask, “You don't know?”++91 in reaction to Takmenev's surprise.
Putin then takes his moment of opportunity to “clear his name,” though in doing so reveals his true intention to mock his opponents: “I don't know if this is true or not. But if it is true, then it means this was a) way to attract attention to themselves, and b) a method of self-defense: to say that you were not just fooling around and desecrating in the church, but that this was some form of their political activism”+++92 Putin then goes on to say how he really feels, “Actually, it's right that they were arrested, and the courts made this decision. Because you can't undermine the foundations of morality, ethics, and destroy the country. What will we be left with then? My first reaction was to ask the believers to pardon them, and I thought that it would all end there. But it has come to trial, and the court has sentenced them to two years in prison. I have nothing to do with it. They wanted it, they got it.”*93 These statements about “Pussy Riot” reveal that Putin was seeking an opportunity to discuss some
+ Originally in Russian: « а вы знаете, что по данным экспертизы, они, все, что касается президента, наложили потом в интернете, на самом деле, они ничего подобного в храме не выкрикивали?» ++ Originally in Russian: «Вам не известно?» +++ Originally in Russian: «Я не знаю, так это или не так. Но если это так, то тогда это означает, что это был: а) способ привлечь к себе внимание и, б) способ самозащиты: сказать, что вы не просто похулиганили и нагадили в храме, а занимались политической деятельностью.» * Originally in Russian: «На самом деле правильно, что их арестовали, и правильно сделали, что суд у нас такое решение принял. Потому что нельзя подрывать основы морали, нравственности, разрушать страну. Мы с чем останемся тогда? Первая моя реакция была такая, что попросим верующих за них прощения, я думал, что на этом закончится. И докатили до суда, а суд залепил им двушечку. Я здесь ни при чем. Они этого хотели, они это получили.»
Cornthwaite 23 controversial issues with Takmenev in a semi-private atmosphere of his private jet. Has he achieved what he was planning to achieve? Putin knew that Takmenev would ask this particular question and knew that he could set the record straight. Yet he failed to conceal his highly negative opinion about the band. Given the fact that Russian society is predominantly conservative (anti-LGBT, anti-Western interference in Russian internal affairs, pro-strong government, etc.), Putin might have scored a few points with his constituency. After this tense moment in the interview, the subject changes quickly, and the rest of the film is accompanied by upbeat, almost sensational music. The rest of the film after this point seems rushed and hurried, and nothing of real substance is discussed again.
Takmenev in general appears to have no discernible goal, nor does his film appear to have a script. The most memorable moments are those of Putin eating his ordinary breakfast and meeting with his staff. We have to conclude that he is an ordinary man—in other words, less than sensational.
Part V: Comparison
Based on the analysis of each film, it is obvious that each film was made with a certain audience in mind and in an effort to improve the public image of each man, yet there are some differences. The films about Romney and Obama were made prior to the election while the film about Putin was made after his election. The films about Romney and Obama were made in an effort to get more votes while the film about Putin was an effort to show his daily routine and his very private life, to make him a sympathetic figure, almost an underdog. All three films aimed at making each man exciting for the audience. Romney was such an unknown entity, so all Borger had to do was tell his life story.
Interestingly, Borger's film draws parallels with Putin's autobiography from 2000 when he was also practically a political unknown. Putin's autobiography called First Person: An Astonishingly Frank
Self-Portrait by Russia's President is literally a large interview in written form. Questions are asked about his parents and how he grew up, about how he met his wife (Romney's film covers this as well,
Cornthwaite 24 while similar segments are absent in the film about Obama), and basically the things he did from birth to becoming president. There is even an interview with his wife included in the book, which is interesting because Romney's film included a lot of Ann Romney, while Michelle Obama was not even interviewed for Yellin's film about Obama. In February 2013, according to Forbes magazine, Putin's public approval reached an all time low for him at sixty percent (60%). This is not a low number, however, but it is still less than normal for Putin, who in the past has consistently been given public approval around eighty percent (80%). Takmenev’s film did not help to increase Putin's approval ratings. This could be due to the fact that Putin ultimately chose to say nothing about his very private life, that is, his daughters and his wife. Putin has been notoriously secretive about his family and even the whereabouts of his daughters. Putin also appears strangely shy, almost disconnected -- he walks past Takmenev while Takmenev is trying to ask him questions, and only seems genuinely interested in clarifying his feelings about Pussy Riot, arguably the most scandalous trial at the time of the interview.
Perhaps Putin should have gone down the path Yellin took to improve Obama’s public opinion, and focused on his personality traits by creating an impression of an “Average Joe”, or an “anonymous taxi driver,” whose approval “meant more to [Putin in 2000] than the gasps of globe-trotting elites.”94
It is interesting to think about whether Putin’s and Takmenev’s strategy in “The Unknown
Putin” would have been as effective in America. Certainly I could not imagine Americans wanting to know what was in Obama’s or Romney's fridges. Perhaps Putin has been president so long that the only thing left unknown about Putin really is what he eats for breakfast and what is in his fridge, or perhaps the film really didn't show anything new, and Putin kept it as private as he wanted it to be. While
Yellin's and Borger’s films present rather micromanaged and polished portrayals of the two contenders,
Takmenev's film succeeds at satisfying the curiosity of average Russians who have been eager to find out what Putin looked like when nobody was watching him. When Mitt Romney made his comment that Russia was America's number one geo-political foe (shortly after “The Unknown Putin” was aired
Cornthwaite 25 in 2012), a poll discussed by Lukas Alpert in an article by The Wall Street Journal on October 17, 2012 showed that forty-two percent (42%) of Russians wanted Barack Obama to win re-election, compared to just four percent (4%) who were in favor of Mitt Romney. Who knows, they might have changed their minds after seeing what the Romney family had in their refrigerator. The differences in these three films highlight the different expectations Americans and Russians have of their presidents. While
Americans want the whole package, which includes a family man, a politician, a religious man; the
Russians simply want a man who proves himself to be a strong and healthy leader. While Yellin and
Borger ultimately accomplish the goal of making Obama and Romney appear more personable in their respective films, Takmenev may well have been the first and the last journalist to see the insides of
Putin's fridge. Will we ever see the inside of Putin's heart? Only history will show.
Cornthwaite 26
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