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Politics As Usual—At Least in Hollywood
Lessons Learned From 15 Politically-Minded Movies
Alan J. Pakula directs Robert Redford in All the President's Men (1976).
As we enter the home stretch of the 2008 presidential race and brace for the endless “I approved this message” tags, it may seem cruel and unusual punishment to consider a raft of political films. However, a review of some standouts offers a useful primer on politics American style—the good, the bad and the very, very ugly.
Movies and politics have always crept hand-in-hand—from President-in-the-making Ronald Reagan’s 1951 star turn in Bedtime for Bonzo to Presidential-hopeful John McCain’s cameo in Wedding Crashers (for which he took some heat from the family-values crowd).
From the start, the screen has been a political battlefield, with the small screen the site of its ugliest skirmishes. Miles from the soft-pedaled “I Like Ike” spots of the 1950s are such ad gems as the anti-Dukakis Willie Horton fear-starter and the anti-Kerry Swift boat siege. Of course there is also the most infamous of the lot—the devastating 1964 anti-Goldwater piece, in which a little girl pulls petals from a daisy while counting down to a mushroom cloud. (Subtle, it wasn’t. Effective, it was. People are still talking about it almost half a century later.)
On the big screen, the dramatic possibilities of all things political are ageless. After all, politics has yielded a rich vein for dramatists from antiquity onward; throw in a sex scandal and you have a continuum that runs from Oedipus to Striptease, where Congressman Dilbeck (Burt Reynolds) savors quality time at the Eager Beaver strip club.
But beyond the obvious timeless nature of political themes, there is something unique about American political films: The myth of populism, for better or worse. The “common man” is both celebrated and exploited. On the one hand the common man is the enobled Mr. Smith of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, on the other he is the dangerously ambitious Willie Stark of All The King’s Men.
In the end, the humble, self-educated, man-of-the-people Honest Abe of Young Mr. Lincoln remains America’s idealized politician, and candidates continue to vie for the honor of being regular folk—despite Ivy League credentials. This political season you can bank on plenty of photo ops of candidates striving to look comfortable with Joe and Jane Six-Pack, while insults assailing opponents as being “elitist” or “out of touch” are almost guaranteed. The next time you hear a populist barb, consider Stark’s incendiary exhortations to his “hicks” in 1949: “Here it is, you hicks! Nail up anybody who stands in your way!”
The following is a sampler of American political movies. The films at hand reveal lessons forgotten and then re-learned each election cycle, and even some valuable reminders about what really matters when it’s time to pull the lever or you stop to consider those pesky hanging chads.
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
Director: John Ford
Criterion Collection, $39.95
Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln is a rarity among political films—a preamble of things to come, with hints of impending greatness strewn throughout. Henry Fonda, replete with platform shoes, towers over all as we follow Lincoln’s rise from store owner to sharp-witted lawyer with a gift for memorable verbal jabs. Within the standard plot of courtroom heroics that save a pair of innocent brothers, there’s Mary Todd, the future Mrs. Lincoln, who casts an ambitious eye on the future president. Her portrayal, interestingly, is ambiguous at best; she seems to shrewdly size up Lincoln’s prospects. Ford also sets the stage for the budding rivalry with archrival Stephen A. Douglas, which culminated in the now famous debates. There’s more than a hint of sadness about Fonda’s Lincoln, a youthful, doomed romance hangs over the picture and, in the end, Lincoln takes a walk—alone—into the hills, background thunder booming as if from a cannon.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Director: Frank Capra
Sony Pictures, $27.95
The quintessentially simple, honest man taking on corrupt Washington. Picked as a patsy to finish a dead senator’s term, Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) wants nothing more than to pass a bill granting land to the “Boy Rangers.” Unfortunately, the land in question is needed for an unneeded dam project, and chicanery unfolds—culminating in Smith’s marathon, voice-scorching filibuster. As it begins, the Speaker of the Senate asks, “Will the Senator yield?” Senator Smith answers, “No, sir, I’m afraid not, no sir. I yielded the floor once before, if you can remember, and I was practically never heard of again.” In the end (after all, it is Capra) decency prevails, in the form of Claude Raines’ rediscovered conscience. Tellingly, the film wasn’t embraced by all circles upon its release. Newspaper correspondents were shocked at the drinking, and Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, that model of political virtue, was concerned that the film would harm “America’s prestige in Europe.” By the way, for those seeking a political slant, the film mentions neither Republicans nor Democrats—Jefferson Smith’s state isn’t even named.
The Great McGinty (1940)
Director: Preston Sturges
Universal Studios, $59.98 (Contained in Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection, with Sullivan’s Travels, The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, Hail the Conquering Hero, Christmas in July and The Great Moment)
Sturges takes aim at political machines in his directorial debut. Told as a flashback, Dan McGinty (Brian Donlevy) makes a name for himself by voting 37 times for the candidate picked by The Boss (Akim Tamiroff). McGinty further secures his place in politics by demonstrating an uncanny ability to collect debts—the next step is to run for mayor as, in a moment of cynical genius, the reform candidate. A show marriage which predictably transforms itself into love ensues and, as the governor’s mansion beckons, a moment of conscience negates McGinty’s final victory. Despite the latent decency, this is a black view of the party hackery. (A good double feature with Sturges’ Hail the Conquering Hero, which considers the nature of heroism and ambition.)
Director: Orson Welles
Turner Home Entertainment, $26.98
Before Gary Hart’s cruise on the Monkey Business, before Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress, before Eliot Spitzer at the Mayflower, there was candidate Charles Foster Kane’s famous indiscretion. In American politics, there’s no surer career bonfire than the sniff of a sex scandal. The future looks bright for Kane, who speaks at Madison Square Garden, a giant campaign poster in the background. In the wings, political rival James Gettys looks on. Kane’s political ambitions come to a decisive end in his love nest, with his wife, song-bird mistress and Gettys in attendance. Given the choice of bowing out quietly or being outted, Kane unleashes an ill-conceived, delusional torrent of abuse on the bemused Gettys, who calmly walks away. Screams Kane, “Don’t worry about me, Gettys! Don’t worry about me! I’m Charles Foster Kane! I’m no cheap, crooked politician, trying to save himself from the consequences of his crimes!” The polls close; in the end it’s jigsaw puzzles for the mistress and brooding for Kane in the oppressive halls of Xanadu.
All the King’s Men (1949)
Director: Robert Rossen
Sony Pictures, $19.94
The flip, dark side of the populism of Ford and Capra. Rossen’s film, taken from Robert Penn Warren’s novel, is a thinly-veiled retelling of Louisiana Senator Huey Long’s rise and violent ending. Broderick Crawford’s long-inspired Willie Stark shrewdly emerges from obscurity to become governor. But the movie doesn’t simply present Stark as a decent man corrupted by the system: There’s something darkly ambitious just below the surface in Stark’s early scenes as a decent, bumpkin candidate. When that ambition is finally unleashed, Stark’s drive is almost feral. As he discards his wonkish speech for the lowest common denominator, he fastens his future on the “hicks.” Grasping the microphone he finds his voice and roars, “Now shut up! Shut up all of you! Now listen to me, you hicks. Yeah, you’re hicks too, and they fooled you a thousand times like they fooled me. But this time I’m going to fool somebody. I’m going to stay in this race. I’m on my own and I’m out for blood.” Footage of rabid crowds and Stark illuminated by torches follows. The rest is debasement.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Prepaid Cell Phone Guy on 11/29/08 at 11:23 pm
The sad thing is so much of the liberal hollywood is as closed minded as some conservatives. The closing of the mind… The inability to learn from the past or unwillingness to look at the past.
- Comment by free g1 on 1/02/09 at 2:33 pm
Don’t mistake liberals and sonservatives
- Comment by latest hindi movie reviews on 1/08/09 at 12:01 pm
This is such an enlightening article..thanks a lot.
This story was published in the Summer 2008 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Politics As Usual
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