[Sosfbay-discuss] Greencine} 10 Movies To Watch Before the November Election

[Drew Johnson]

http://www.greencine.com/central/node/720

Vote Early, Vote Often: Ten Movies To Watch Before the November Election
Submitted by underdog on April 20, 2008 - 7:26pm. Documentary | Lists


by Monica Peck

Unprecedented

Buck up, folks. The Pennsylvania primary this week may be the decider of
the Democratic candidate in November. It's high time to revisit some fine
politically minded movies to stir our electoral souls. And with Jay
Roach's Recount out next month (Kevin Spacey movie coming out this year) -
one wonders where that film will sit if we revisit this list later. At any
rate, here is some required viewing to gear up for another tumultuous
election year.

1. No election year would be complete without Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes
to Washington. As poignant as it was in 1939, nothing beats those election
blues like hearing Jimmy Stewart's voice ring out that eternal question:
“What happened to freedom?”

2. On the opposite end of the spectrum, but no less relevant, is Alexander
Payne's Election, about ethical transgressions committed around a high
school election campaign. Reese Witherspoon's character Tracy Enid Flick
has inspired troubling comparisons with Hilary Clinton: “[The competition]
think they can just all of a sudden, one day, out of the blue, waltz right
in with no qualifications whatsoever and try to take away what other
people have worked very, very hard for their entire lives.”

3. Unprecedented is a great, hard-hitting documentary about the 2000
scam-paign. Joan Sekler and Richard R. Perez take you through the
premeditated Florida voter fraud courtesy of Jeb Bush.

4. In case this election campaign has sparked a little innocent hope, be
sure to douse it with Oliver Stone's audacious, epic psychodrama Nixon,
which features arguably one of Anthony Hopkins' best performances. "They
can't impeach me for bombing Cambodia. The president can bomb anybody he
likes."

The Candidate

5. Robert Redford's Oscar-winning (for Ring Larner's screenplay) campaign
in The Candidate was highly cynical in 1972 and, alas, as timely as ever.
Peter Boyle and Melvyn Douglas lend capable support. (I've heard that
Groucho Marx has a cameo, but have yet to spot him, so maybe it's
apocryphal.)

6. For a dose of quasi-reality, hit up Robert Altman's Tanner '88. This
should have made it onto my last list as well, with its run time of 353
minutes. If you're really hardcore, follow up this election-flick debauch
with the sequel Tanner On Tanner.

7. For bleak, black comedy about the absurdity of war (which doesn't hit
home now or anything), I never miss an excuse to watch Dr. Strangelove Or
How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb. One highlight: Peter
Sellers' inimitable delivery (as the American president) of “You can't
fight in here! This is the War Room!”

8. Which leads us to... The War Room, the illuminating vérité doc about
the 1992 Clinton campaign from D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, in which
campaign manager James Carville becomes a star (and now he's really
acting, playing the Governor in Assassination of Jesse James
)

9. Feed, the documentary about the 1992 New Hampshire primary, patches
together raw satellite footage of candidates allowing for a
behind-the-scenes-we're-still-putting-on-our-make-up feeling. Key hitters
abound, including Ross Perot. Remember him?

10. For a refresher on the perils of computerized voting, there's Hacking
Democracy put together by Simon Ardizzone and Russell Michaels.

And one more:

11. Bulworth: Warren Beatty's squirmy, ballsy political satire on a
politician who loses it - or does he - during a campaign, transforming
himself into a hip-hop rhyming, no-BS, suicidal campaigner. (Sample rhyme:
"We've got people in this country that can't even buy a meal! Ask a
brother who's been downsized if he's gettin' any deal. Or a white boy
bustin' ass till they put him in his grave, he ain't gotta be a black boy
to be livin' like a slave. ") If only.

Some honorable mentions:

Barry Levinson's Man of the Year stokes the heart-fires of humor around a
computer malfunction that elects Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams). Although it
falls a bit flat in places, John Sayle's Silver City still deserves an
honorable mention here if only for Chris Cooper's eerie resemblance to the
current president and Daryl Hannah's archery antics. Other honorable
mentions include Wag the Dog; Frontrunner; and Voting in America.

Also: Try to catch a screening of Charla Barker and Matthew Kraus's
documentary How Ohio Pulled It Off. It outlines the voting mechugas of the
2004 election in Ohio and what the filmmakers call "the theft of the
presidency." As screenings are set, they'll post it here.