Edward Norton's Obama Doc: Plenty of Access, A Paucity of Revelations

One of the most-speculated about documentaries made this past year was By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, a film with unprecedented access to Barack Obama's presidential campaign directed by Amy Rice and Alicia Sams and produced by Edward Norton. The doc (encompassing the last three years of Obama's career) will air on HBO in November, but it screened for the first time in Los Angeles last night. What are the big takeaways?

According to Variety, there aren't many. Despite its close access, most of the documentary's high points are already a matter of historical record (such as Obama's pivotal race speech, or the tears that came as he addressed a crowd after learning of his grandmother's death).

So what will people be buzzing about? Perhaps it's Obama's admission after his New Hampshire primary loss to Hillary Clinton: "We believed we were guarding against hubris. I'm not sure we were." Or maybe it'll be an audio (not video?) interview with Obama's grandmother, where she says that while growing up, the future president's biggest ambition was to become a pro basketball player.

"Our intent was never to try to make an expose per se," Norton said last night. "I think it was always to make a document of what the internal reality of the movement was." Did it pass muster with its subjects? Apparently so, as the Obamas and their team screened the documentary months ago.

· Obama, The Movie [Variety]