64
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittLively documentary about McGovern's disastrous run for the US presidency. The interviews with him are worth the price of admission.
- 80The New RepublicStanley KauffmannThe New RepublicStanley KauffmannA lively, long, intelligent documentary.
- 80SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirIt's a deeply flawed film but also an important one.
- 75TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxRunning just a little over two hours and wordily narrated by talk-radio host Amy Goodman, Stephen Vittoria's hagiography spends more time bemoaning the past 30 years of U.S. political history and setting the dismal tone for McGovern's arrival on the political scene than it does on his 1972 campaign.
- 70L.A. WeeklyL.A. WeeklyThe strength of One Bright Shining Moment lies in its reminder of McGovern's critical role in reforming the way his party chose its convention delegates, and how prescient he had always been about the looming disaster of Vietnam.
- 63New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanInstructive but aggressively biased liberal history lesson.
- 60Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranThe film's greatest asset and strongest selling point is the former senator from South Dakota himself, thoughtful and articulate at age 83, who talks candidly, even eloquently, about his political career.
- 50The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinStill, as the documentary plods past the two-hour mark, much of Mr. McGovern's legend seems dependent on Nixon's faults, and even the Democrat's political supporters, with hindsight's many gifts, can't infuse his persona with any more dynamism.
- 30Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonAmy Goodman's narration, though correct, has a petulant, Spanish Inquisition ring to it, only made more childish by the film's cheap idealization of the senator from South Dakota as some kind of pacifist Savonarola, overdue for canonization.