An iconoclastic outsider who questions reality as it is commonly understood and refuses to toe the party line, Nader's defiant individuality has been both his most respected and most despised feature.
An Unreasonable Man, a documentary by Henriette Mantel and Steve Skrovan, is a vindication of sorts for Nader. He is interviewed along with a number of critics and supporters alike, many of whom still believe he handed the country over to Bush on a silver platter.
What emerges is a portrait of a man who doesn't play by the usual rules, who finds his measure of justice and decency not from politicians and Washington, D.C., insiders but from the profound impressions of right and wrong established in his own Connecticut childhood. Nader's Lebanese immigrant parents preached an influential message of doing what is right and not what is merely convenient, a philosophy Nader also examines in a recent book about the importance of his upbringing: The Seventeen Traditions.
