Sarah Palin has dismissed "Game Change" as unimportant, but a top aide says the HBO film about her 2008 vice-presidential bid was "true enough to make me squirm."

Nicolle Wallace, a senior advisor to the campaign, was assigned to work with Palin after she was chosen as John McCain's running mate and later wrote a novel with a mentally-ill character inspired by the former Alaska governor.

"This is a movie about the vast gray area where 99 percent of our politics actually takes place,” Wallace told "This Week" on Sunday. “You’re just feeling your way though a gray area and doing your best and that campaign was one of those instances for me."

Wallace has previously butted heads with Palin and once described her as bitter, cynical and aggressive.

"I believe that if she were on the cusp of becoming the nominee for the Republican party a whole lot of people... would talk about some of her more troubling deficiencies," she told MSNBC in 2010. "Her incredible cynicism, her bitterness, her aggressive attempts to claw anyone that points out an area for her to work on, I think these things will continue to reveal herself and the people that love her will continue to love her, but the people who are not so sure about her will, I think, formulate harder opinions and more clarity about her."

John McCain also spoke out about the movie on Sunday.

"Of course I'm not going to watch it," he said Fox News Sunday. "Why there continues to be such an assault on a fine and decent person, Sarah Palin ... They continue to disparage and attack her person. I admire and respect her, I'm proud of our campaign and I'm humbled by the fact that I was able to give her [the Republican vice-presidential nomination]."

HBO's highly-anticipated film "Game Change" premiered Saturday night, and it sparked many reactions from viewers from both ends of the political spectrum. The film, based on the book of the same name, chronicles the 2008 presidential election from the perspectives of the GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ed Harris) and his vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin (Julianne Moore).

Palin dismissed the HBO film -- airing publicly for the first time on Saturday night -- as unimportant.

In an email to ABC News, Palin said her "family has the right priorities and knows what really matters," according to the Chicago Tribune. As she brushed off the film, she also took a swipe at President Barack Obama for having supporters in the entertainment industry.

Both Palin and McCain have said they won't watch the made-for-tv movie that takes a look inside the behind-the-scenes drama of the 2008 campaign. McCain said "it'll be a cold day in Gila Bend, Arizona" when he views the film.

"Game Change" director Jay Roach said the film humanizes the GOP duo. In a recent interview with CNN, Roach said he wished the two would watch the movie.

The ReelzChannel television network says it scheduled a pro-Sarah Palin documentary on the same weekend as HBO's "Game Change" debut strictly for business considerations, not political ones.

"The Undefeated," a Palin documentary by conservative filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon, will have its television premiere on Sunday. It will come 23 hours after HBO opens "Game Change," based on the 2008 campaign book by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, and starring Julianne Moore as Palin.

Stan Hubbard, ReelzChannel CEO, said he licensed "The Undefeated" for the same reason that his network aired "The Kennedys" miniseries last spring after it was dropped by the History channel – to draw attention to a nearly 6-year-old network with a low public profile. ReelzChannel is in 62 million homes, a little more than half the country.

"For a young network, public relations is important to us, which is why we hunt for opportunistic things," Hubbard said.

Hubbard said he found the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate a fascinating figure, but he wasn't trying to lionize her.

"If HBO wanted to swap movies this weekend, I'd do that in a second," he said.

Palin supporters have attacked "Game Change," although it's unclear whether any of them has seen it in advance. "The Undefeated" maker Bannon called it a "fictionalized hit-piece" and has praised ReelzChannel's "courageous" decision to air his movie.

"Game Change," co-starring Woody Harrelson and Ed Harris, actually strives for a balanced portrait, showing Palin overwhelmed at times after being thrust onto the presidential ticket and lashing out at some McCain aides but connecting with audiences and performing on big stages better than many critics and supporters expected.

"The Undefeated" focuses first on Palin's life as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, as that state's governor and on the 1998 campaign.

Current and former aides to Sarah Palin lashed out Wednesday at HBO's "Game Change," describing the upcoming film's depictions of her on the 2008 campaign trail as "sick" and inaccurate.
None of the aides said they have yet seen the movie, which debuts March 10, and some said they had asked for an opportunity to screen the film but had been denied.
Trailers for the film, which is based on the bestselling book chronicling the 2008 presidential race, have been released, however, and some snippets appear to cast Palin in an unfavorable light. As portrayed by Julianne Moore, Palin is seen complaining about how she's being handled by political advisers and mumbling about missing her baby, who was born in April 2008. In one snippet, campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, portrayed by Woody Harrelson, describes her as being on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Aides said none of that jibes with their own experiences with the former Alaska governor, and they defended her vigorously Wednesday.
Jason Recher, who handled vice presidential road operations for the McCain-Palin campaign, called Palin "one of the most engaged public servants I'd ever observed." Tom Van Flein, her former personal attorney, called her diligent, sharp and enthusiastic about the campaign.
Meg Stapleton, a former spokeswoman, said that she, unlike some of the others who worked with Palin during the campaign, had not been contacted by anyone associated with either the book or movie.
"They don't want to hear anything good," she said, her voice full of passion. "We all know Palin sells and the dramatization of Palin sells even more. This is sick."
"They mock Gov. Palin, you mock Gov. Palin, as weak and unable to cope and press forward," she told reporters on the conference call. "And the movie and the trailer ... say that. And yet look with your own eyes at what she and her family have endured and inspired over the last few years. Any lesser man would have hanged himself by now. So who's weak?"
Recher noted that Palin wasn't the primary focus of the book, and he said he told screenwriter and co-executive producer Danny Strong that the book "absolutely, unequivocally" did not accurately reflect his time with the McCain campaign.
Filmmakers have said that they sought historical accuracy.
Director Jay Roach last month said he wrote a long letter to Palin seeking an interview with her to help the film, "but I got a very quick email back from her attorney saying, `I checked, she declined.'"
Strong, in an email, acknowledged that members of Palin's camp asked to screen the film but said filmmakers responded that they would privately screen the movie for Palin and her husband. He said Sarah Palin declined the offer.