having watched the film i must contest the previous posting... the film offers a nuanced and complex lens through which to view the american political landscape, the entire premise is that it is far too reductive and simplistic to break it down to red versus blue even though that is the message served and re-served by the mainstream media.... it offers a thoughtful and thorough investigation of the politics-as-usual we are present with in America today... simple logic would dictate that you watch a film before review it.

I haven't watched the film but I'd rather see this "red state/blue state" idiocy thrown out the window in favor of a more realistic discussion of the issues. Dividing the nation into 2 colors is a very dumb thing to do. It leaves stupid people with the impression that they understand complicated issues. The entire premise of there being either democrats or republicans, that dems do these things and feel this way and that repubs do those things and feel that way, it's too simplistic. The world is NOT black or white. Life and human relationships are FAR too complicated to reduce them to 2 colors. It's ignorance at its worst and those who swallow that silliness are part of the problem. The politicians have people bickering amongst themselves instead of working together for the greater good.

It's a very well-balanced documentary, but yes, I agree with other reviewers, SOME judgment or commentary would be nice. Because it's not really saying anything new then, it's just re-hashing what each side believes in, which isn't a mystery, really. There were a couple times also when I thought the information was misleading and borderline historically incorrect. Example- yes, Jefferson produced a version of the bible, but it was one in which he cut Jesus and God entirely out of the equation, and presented it as moral teachings. So how is that an argument towards him possibly being religious? Yes, this is a bit nit picky, but still, this is a documentary, and this was part of the background commentary and not someone's interview.
I also found some of those background explanation segments simplistic, essentially copouts. The whole "separation of church and state could mean either one". Really? It could honestly mean state can't do anything to the church but church can do anything to the state? How does that even make sense? Or the idea that we are more polarized now because citizens now have LESS of a political voice than they did during the time of the founding fathers, when only white, Christian, land-owning men were allowed to participate in the debate. Or even the idea that people are naturally going to pick the best, most "truthful" option when given the choice. Or what about some exploration of what focusing only on moral issues does to the voters, in terms of sometimes voting against their overall or economic self-interest? It just wasn't critical enough, sometimes.

A good Doc. with a very balanced approach but .. they tried way too hard to remain balanced - so nothing was ever vetted and then presented as right or wrong. And the truth is, even though we all have a right to our own opinions in this nation, there are issues and ways to do things where there's a right and a wrong way to go about it. Without that element in the movie - it really just kind of sits there like any other doc on this subject - much as drkodus said earlier.