RBG is a pretty standard documentary about a pretty extraordinary woman. She is reserved and brilliant and an icon. I do think the movie misses two major points in understanding Ruth Bader Ginsburg's career. She was allegedly thought that Roe v. Wade was the wrong case to set the precedent legalizing abortion, as the privacy standard the Court decided on was too weak. As co-founder of the Women's Rights Project at the ACLU, and following Thurgood Marshall's legal strategy for securing civil rights for African Americans, Ginsburg supposedly laments that Roe v. Wade beat her own stronger case to set the important foundation for abortion. The other point that was missed was Bill Clinton's saga of a nomination process. Ginsburg was not always viewed with the admiration that we have for her today. Feminists distrusted Ginsburg, misunderstanding her calculating approach. She was a polarizing figure and it was not a given that she would get on the Court. Though the movie is all about praise, it would have been interesting to explore that polarization during her pre-Court career. And of course, today she is the most iconic Justice of the Supreme Court. The elderly woman is a cool badass. And the movie amply explores her celebrity status.
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