The Obama campaign on Thursday night released “The Road We’ve Traveled,” a 17-minute video with a series of screenings at its campaign offices nationwide and a live stream on YouTube.

The video uses archival news footage, interviews with administration officials and a flurry of statistics to create a narrative arc for President Obama’s first three years in office: He became president when the country was in miserable shape, fought against obstinate resistance to make bold reforms, like overhauling health care and ending the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, and put the country back on track.

The documentary has glossy Hollywood production values — it was directed by Davis Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning director of “An Inconvenient Truth,” and is narrated by Tom Hanks — but relies on many of the traditional trappings of a campaign ad. There he is, laughing with cute children. Or embracing an old woman. Watch him as he fist-bumps a supporter.

The story narrated by Mr. Hanks starts with elation on election night in 2008 and quickly segues to despair with the beginning of the Great Recession.

David Axelrod, the president’s senior campaign strategist, likens watching the president’s first major economic briefing to a horror movie. “All I was thinking at that moment was: ‘Can we get a recount?’” he says.

Adds Mr. Hanks, “Not since the days of Franklin Roosevelt had so much fallen on the shoulders of one president.”

The film devotes a significant amount of time – nearly three minutes – to the president’s backing of a financial rescue package for Detroit automakers. And it highlights Mitt Romney’s New York Times Op-Ed from that period, when he argued that the car companies should not receive any government assistance. The headline, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” is framed in bright red for emphasis.

Rahm Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff, characterizes Mr. Romney’s stance on the auto industry with a dismissive wave of the hand, saying “Let it go.”

This is somewhat of a distortion. Mr. Romney advocated for a managed bankruptcy, not a liquidation of the company. Auto executives and government officials involved in the bailout have repeatedly said that without federal intervention there would have been no path to bankruptcy, and the companies would have collapsed.

The movie is notable for the emphasis it places on the extremist element of Mr. Obama’s political opponents. It includes scenes from the raucous Tea Party-dominated protests outside the Capitol as Congress was considering the president’s health care overhaul plan.

Chants of “Kill the bill!” are heard alongside video of protesters holding signs with various slogans and images that are derogatory toward the president. One reads “You Lie!” while another shows the president crawling out of a coffin with the letters “R.I.P” on it.

“It’ll be a cold day in hell before he socializes my country,” says one man in a news clip from a New Orleans television station.

The film ends with a note of optimism: More than 3.5 million private sector jobs added, billions in new investments by General Motors, 17 million children who cannot be denied coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition.

“Let’s remember how far we’ve come,” Mr. Hanks says in a line that sums up a major theme of the president’s re-election campaign, “and look forward to the work still to be done.”