The Undefeated

In November 2010, shortly after the Republicans swept the midterm elections, Sarah Palin asked her aide Rebecca Mansour to get in touch with Stephen K. Bannon. She wanted a set of videos explaining why she'd stepped down as governor of Alaska, something to protect her legacy. Bannon went further. He put up a million dollars of his own money and made 'The Undefeated', a feature length documentary about the former governor, which opened in American cinemas on 15 July 2011.

The film covers her career in three acts. The first stays in Wasilla, the Alaska town where she sat on the city council and then became mayor. The second follows her time as governor and her fights with the oil companies, with the long negotiation over a gas pipeline front and centre, and the third tracks her jump to national politics as John McCain's running mate in 2008 and her rise as one of the faces of the Tea Party.

Palin never sits down in front of the camera. Her voice comes from the audiobook of her memoir, 'Going Rogue', whose rights Bannon bought, and the rest is told by former colleagues, Alaskan political allies and conservative commentators such as Andrew Breitbart, all interviewed against a white backdrop. Before any of that, an opening montage rounds up jibes from some of her best known detractors, Matt Damon, Bill Maher and John Cleese among them.

There are a few curious details along the way, like the fact that Palin kept a photo of James Stewart in her office as governor, such was the mark 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' had left on her. 'The Undefeated' opened in just ten AMC cinemas and critics savaged it: on Rotten Tomatoes it doesn't have a single positive review. In October 2011 Palin announced she wouldn't run for president, in March 2012 Julianne Moore played her in 'Game Change', and years later Bannon would end up as Donald Trump's chief strategist in the White House.

• Documentary
• Biography