Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

RBG Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Michael Reuben September 4, 2018

When the co-directors of RBG began developing the project in 2015, I doubt they imagined just how controversial the subject of their documentary would become by the time they were finished. Their account of the life and work of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg opens with an audio collage of denunciations from such voices as Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, and Ginsburg herself would fuel the flames in the summer of 2016 with critical comments about then-candidate Donald Trump (remarks she now says she regrets).

But the diminutive figure known to her fans as "The Notorious RBG" has never been a wallflower. Before being appointed to the bench—first as an appellate judge by President Carter in 1980 and then to the Supreme Court by President Clinton in 1993—Ginsburg litigated an impressive array of precedent-setting cases that helped redefine the place of women in American law and society. Her intellect, persistence and formidable work ethic have won admiration even from those who vehemently disagree with her. Ginsburg's fellow justice, the late Antonin Scalia, was in every way her ideological opposite, but the two colleagues became fast friends, and their families spent holidays together. At her confirmation hearing, Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, noted how much they disagreed but concluded that "frankly, I admire you. You've earned the right, in my opinion, to be on the Supreme Court". (Try to imagine that happening in this century from a member of a sitting president's opposing party.) The full Senate vote was 96-3 in her favor.

RBG premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, followed by a limited theatrical release in May. Magnolia Home Entertainment is releasing it on Blu-ray, DVD and digital platforms, but its widest distribution will likely be on the CNN broadcasts that began on Labor Day and will no doubt be repeated multiple times. The fact that CNN co-produced the film may prompt some potential viewers to dismiss it out of hand, which would be unfortunate. Ginsburg is and remains a force to be reckoned with. Both on and off the Court, her impact on American life has been quietly enormous, and at 85 she shows no signs of slowing down.

Co-directors and -producers Julie Cohen and Betsy West are both experienced TV journalists and documentarians, and they have assembled a detailed and multi-layered biography of RBG, condensed into a tightly edited 98 minutes, using contemporary interviews, vintage and recent photographs, film and video from multiple sources, and rarely heard audio recordings from Supreme Court arguments (where no cameras are allowed). Born in Brooklyn in 1933 to an immigrant father and a mother who was the daughter of immigrants, Ruth Bader acquired the nickname "Kiki", which friends who have known her since childhood still use. She excelled in high school, encouraged by her mother, whose death from cancer prevented "Kiki" from attending graduation. She attended Cornell University, where she met and married Martin Ginsburg. By the time she enrolled at Harvard Law School—where she was one of only nine women in a class of five hundred—they had their first child.

Ginsburg quickly rose to the top of her class at Harvard, making the law review in her second year, but her third year was spent at Columbia so that her husband could take an attractive job offer in New York. After graduation and a two-year judicial clerkship, she discovered that no New York law firm would hire a woman, even one with a résumé as sterling as hers. This led to a career in academia and eventually as general counsel of the ACLU, where she was instrumental in opening doors for women that had been closed to her. RBG's many interviewees include Sharron Frontiero and Stephen Wiesenfeld, plaintiffs in two of the cases Ginsburg argued and won before the Court, providing essential building blocks to the legal framework for women's entitlement to equal protection under the law—a principle now taken for granted largely due to Ginsburg's methodical efforts.

Ginsburg's intellectual prowess and reputation for measured, reasoned argument brought her to the attention of President Carter, who nominated her to the influential D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and her work on that court cemented her reputation as a likely Supreme Court nominee. Former President Clinton describes in the film how he knew within fifteen minutes of meeting Ginsburg that she would be his choice to replace retiring Justice Byron White. Ginsburg became the Court's second female justice, joining Sandra Day O'Connor, with whom she collaborated in redesigning the traditional judicial robes to suit a woman's attire.

As RGB traces this remarkable history, two consistent themes stand out. One is Ginsburg's extraordinary capacity to work long hours even under the most challenging of circumstances, an appetite which has not declined with advancing years. Some of the film's most memorable scenes are from the Justice's rigorous workouts with her long-time personal trainer, a regimen to which she adheres with the dedication of an athlete in training. The other abiding theme is the strength of the Ginsburgs' 56-year marriage, which ended with Martin's death in 2010. Their friends and family speak in admiring tones of the couple's union of opposites, with Martin the jolly extrovert and Ruth the quiet one who laughed at all his jokes. A distinguished attorney in his own right, Martin willingly subordinated his career to his wife's, relinquishing a lucrative New York tax practice to follow her to Washington when she was first appointed to the bench. Together they raised a family, supported each other through mutual battles with cancer and stuck to their agreement that, in the absence of extenuating circumstances, both would make it home every night for dinner with the family.

Ginsburg's devotion to opera is well known, and RBG contains a behind-the-scenes account of her surprise guest appearance in a non-singing cameo at a 2016 Kennedy Center performance of The Daughter of the Regiment. (She wrote her own lines.) Justice Scalia shared the same passion, and they often attended together.

Interviewed today, the Justice seems bemused, but appreciative, by her late-life promotion to pop-culture icon, a development that can be traced to the publication of the 2015 biography, The Notorious RBG. Her busy schedule doesn't leave time for TV viewing, but in one of RBG's many light-hearted moments, she watches Kate McKinnon's impression of her on Saturday Night Live for the first time, gently laughing at the caricature but denying that she sees any resemblance. It isn't false modesty. It's the product of a lifetime of self-effacing devotion to ideals and a system of justice that RBG has always considered bigger and more important than any one person, including herself.

RBG Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The image on Magnolia Home Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray reflects the typical range of quality familiar from many documentaries, with newly recorded interviews bearing the clarity of modern digital cinema and a wide variation in the abundant collection of vintage photographs, home movies, TV broadcasts and news footage. (The credited cinematographer is Claudia Raschke, who has a long and distinguished résumé in documentary film.) Digital post-production has massaged these disparate sources into visual continuity, providing a smooth and consistent viewing experience. Magnolia has authored the film on Blu-ray with an average bitrate of 21.07 Mbps, with a capable encode.

RBG Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with most documentaries, RBG's 5.1 soundtrack, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, remains front-oriented with emphasis on the voices of the interviewees. (There is no narration.) The surrounds are used to expand the understated score by prolific documentary composer Miriam Cutler (Ghosts of Abu Ghraib). The track also contains several pop tune selections and the original song, "I'll Fight", written by Diane Warren and performed by Jennifer Hudson, which plays over the closing credits.

RBG Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted/Extended Scenes (1080p; 1.78:1; 7:15): The scenes are not separately listed or selectable. The first is an extended session of RGB with her trainer. The second is comprised of additional moments from RGB's surprise cameo as the Duchess of Krakenthorp at the 2016 premiere of the Kennedy Center's production of The Daughter of the Regiment.



• Additional Interviews (1080p; 1.78:1; 23:58): A "play all" function is included.
• Bryant Johnson (personal trainer)
• Clara Spera (granddaughter)
• Harry Edwards (friend and fellow judge on the D.C. Circuit)
• Harryette and Ann (friends of RGB since childhood)
• Jane and Jim (RBG's children)
• Sharron Frontiero (former client of RGB in a Supreme Court victory)



• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:28).



• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment: Trailers for The Final Year, I Am Not Your Negro, plus the usual promos for The Charity Network and AXS TV. These also play at startup.



• BD-Live: "Check back later for updates."

RBG Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Supreme Court nominations have become increasingly partisan battles, but the career of Justice Ginsburg is a reminder that there was a time, not so long ago, when both sides of the aisle could agree on a superbly qualified nominee, regardless of where he or she might be considered on the spectrum of liberal vs. conservative. On the D.C. Circuit, then-Judge Ginsburg had the reputation of a consensus-builder, but as the Supreme Court itself has become more polarized, she has become better known (like her friend Antonin Scalia) as a fiery dissenter—and a well-reasoned dissenting opinion can achieve real results. Ginsburg's dissent in Lilly Ledbetter v Goodyear (2007) prompted Congress to change the law regarding the statute of limitations for women suing to challenge unequal pay, thereby effectively overruling the Court's majority opinion. Who knows what further impact she may have in years to come? RGB is an expertly crafted and candid portrait of this unique and influential figure in American law, and Magnolia's disc is highly recommended.