This week, Neil Calloway looks at films that deal with political campaigns…
Unless you’ve been living away from society, disconnected from any news source for the past eighteen months, you’ll be aware that there is a US Presidential Election this week. It’s been a hard fought, bitter campaign with serious allegations thrown at each candidate from the other side. Donald Trump can count on the backing of serious political heavyweights such as Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson, 16 And Pregnant star turned porn actress Farrah Abraham, and Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase. Hillary Clinton has had to make do with the backing of Barack Obama, Colin Powell and virtually every major newspaper in America.
If you’re confused about the process, or just can’t get enough of the debates, dramas and dirt slinging, then here are a few films to watch…
The Candidate is a 1972 film starring Robert Redford as a young, idealistic Californian lawyer and son of a former politician who is asked to run for the Senate, but is expected to lose. Free to say what he wants, the polls say he is going to lose very badly, so he moderates his message, and inevitably, ends up winning. The final line to his campaign manager after his unexpected victory is probably repeated by many politicians who don’t expect to win: “What do we do now?”
Bob Roberts is a mockumentary written, directed by and starring Tim Robbins and released in 1992 He plays the title character, a folk singer who has rebelled against his liberal parents by becoming right wing. His surprise entry into the race for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania, and the dirty tricks he pulls on his opponent (played by Gore Vidal, who appears to voice his real life opinions in his campaign). Roberts’s songs – about people who are on benefits – soundtrack the film, and there’s a few nods to Bob Dylan in his album titles and videos that are shown. It’s a little dated now, with plot lines about savings and loans scandals, the Gulf War and US interventions in South America, but it contains some great cameos, such as John Cusack as a TV host angry that his surprise guest is Roberts rather than KRS-One, and Jack Black (in his film debut) as a young fan of Roberts’s music and his politics. Robbins, Black and Cusack would later reunite on High Fidelity. Alan Rickman gives a terrific performance as Roberts’s campaign manager. Incidentally, the soundtrack, by Robbins and his brother, has never been officially released, in case the songs were used out of context.
Primary Colors is a 1998 movie based on the 1996 novel of the same name, originally published as being written by “Anonymous”, and later revealed to be journalist Joe Klein. It’s a roman à clef (google it!) about Bill Clinton’s 1992 Presidential Campaign. Made in that post-Pulp Fiction, pre-Battlefield Earth phase when John Travolta was a credible actor for the first time in decades, he plays a Clintonesque womanising Southern Governor who finds it impossible to refuse some fried food or a doughnut, and Emma Thompson plays his strong-willed wife who is under no illusions about her husband’s shortcomings. One of the smears flung at Travolta’s character is that he has fathered an African American child – an actual allegation that Clinton has faced.
The Campaign was released in 2012, and deals with a fight to represent a North Carolinian district in Congress. Will Ferrell plays the incumbent, who can’t keep his hands off women. Zach Galifianakis is the son of a local politician chosen by immoral businessman Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow to run against him so they can build a factory for low paid Chinese workers in the area (in reality, North Carolina has one of the lowest rates of Union membership in America). Despite a cameo from Piers Morgan, the film is an amusing look at some of the cliches of elections – a race to kiss a baby ends with the baby being punched, and later a dog gets the same treatment. It’s directed by Jay Roach, probably most famous for helming the Austin Powers movies and Meet The Parents, but he’s also directed two TV films about real life elections – Recount in 2008, which looks at the aftermath of the 2000 Presidential election in Florida, and 2012’s superb Game Change, starring Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin as she was thrust into the spotlight as John McCain’s running mate in 2008.
These are all entertaining films, but all of them seem to have a grain of truth somewhere there. One day someone will make a film about the 2016 election, but they’ll probably have to tone it down to make it believable.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future instalments.
Originally published November 6, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
