Monday, April 19, 2010

Movie Monday -- Rock the Vote


Share on your blog movies about politics and leave the link back here to the Bumbles.

The Candidate. Some things (like Redford's sideburns) are dated. But the basic political truths are still relevant ... unfortunately. My favorite scene is when Senatorial candidate Bill McKay, riding to yet another appearance, exhaustedly begins riffing on his own too-often delivered, by now numbingly insincere stump speech. "No can do, no can do. Can't any longer play black against old or young against poor. We cannot house our houseless or feed our … foodless. Blah, blah, blah…"

A Face in the Crowd. A pre-Mayberry Andy Griffith is devastating as "Lonesome" Rhodes, a charming, talented performer who parlays his "aw, shucks," man-of-the-people schtick into TV gold, cynically inciting his audience -- simple folk who feel disenfranchised by the elite -- to angrily vote exactly the way Rhodes tells them to. Sound familiar? An unfortunately timely movie filled with unfortunately still-relevant truths.

All the President's Men. As cinematic story telling goes, this is about as good as it get because knowing how the tawdry tale ends doesn't make watching "Woodstein" get to the bottom of it any more thrilling. An indictment of politics at its worst and a celebration of the press at its best.

Definitely, Maybe.
This Abigail Breslin/Ryan Reynolds movie is predominantly a love story, but the segments during which our hero is working on the Clinton campaign is about as real a depiction of the local, unglam, day-to-day goings on as I have ever seen onscreen. I volunteered for both the Clinton and (especially) the Kerry campaigns and spent many mundane hours doing the grunt work of stuffing envelopes, soliciting funds and trying to answer unanswerable questions (I still don't know why -- or even if -- Senator Kerry was "weak on mad cow").

4 comments:

  1. I haven't seen A Face In The Crowd... or Definitely, Maybe. I'll have to check them out.

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  2. Wonderful choices here!

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  3. Well I just knew you'd feature Redford here!

    I have seen clips of A Face In The Crowd but never the entire movie. He really is a talented man.

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  4. Anonymous5:15 PM

    How could I never have seen The Candidate? I'm going to have to look for that one at the library. I'd love to work on a campaign but have never found the candidate I would want to spend my time and effort on. I can't put my stamp of approval on them just because I hate the other guy. Although that does guarantee them my vote ;) and I always work at the polls.
    Kudos to you for doing the grunt work!

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