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Lights, Camera, Election!
Political lessons we learned from the movies By Jim Emerson Though it's nothing new, today's campaigns are taking cues and tricks from Hollywood to a new level: Events are more carefully staged and scripted than ever, and the mainstream media cover the photo ops, "press conferences" and "debates" as if they were actually news. Even Baghdad can be just another studio back lot: McCain claimed to "walk freely" in a market there and complained Americans weren't getting the full picture of U.S. successes in Iraq -- neglecting to mention his escort of 100 soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache gunships, conveniently off-camera. And let's not forget the importance of costumes, especially low-cut necklines and flag pins. But maybe we can still learn some important truths about politics from Hollywood's election fantasies and satires. The latest candidate is Kevin Costner's new release, "Swing Vote," in which he plays a regular guy whose single ballot will decide the winner in a tied presidential race. Heading into the final act of this election season, here are some lessons from the movies that candidates and voters would do well to heed. "Primary Colors" (1998) Once upon a time, politicians and voters worried about unsavory sexual revelations: John F. Kennedy's parade of mistresses, Bill Clinton's Oval Office hokeypokey .... Now it's hard to believe that "bimbo eruptions" once caused such a sensation. Joe Klein's thinly veiled, anonymous novel about the 1992 Clinton campaign was a scandal in itself, but director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Elaine May created a sympathetic portrait of a gifted politician (Gov. Jack Stanton, played with Clintonian charm/smarm by John Travolta) who just can't keep his zipper up. And yet, what is the real scandal? As campaign advisor Libby Holden (Kathy Bates) says about some pre-election dirt: "This has everything: Sex, drugs, corruption. And none of it ... none of it has clear-cut venality. It's all kind of human and awful and ... sad." Advice for candidates: Keep your pant(suits) on. Advice for voters: Don't confuse the image with the issues. "Bulworth" (1998) It's 1996. Incumbent Bill Clinton is facing off against Bob Dole for the presidency. The electorate is suffering an excitement deficit. Sen. Jay Billington Bulworth (Warren Beatty, who also directed), running for re-election, has been driven to the brink of suicide by the numbing ritual of repeating his hollow stump speech, which always begins with, "We stand on the doorstep of a new millennium ... " When he apparently goes mad and starts speaking the truth about the entire corrupt system of U.S. politics, he does so in hip-hop rhyme. (His flow is wack but as funny as it is stiff.) Ralph Nader appears to have based his entire 2000 spoiler campaign on "Bulworth." Advice for candidates: "Straight talk" is a good selling point, whether it's real or not. Advice for voters: If a candidate tells the truth, he or she will be considered insane. "The Candidate" (1972) Four years after Robert Kennedy was assassinated, look-alike golden boy Robert Redford ran for California senator in this film about a charismatic storefront civil-rights lawyer (and son of a senator) who tries to mount a no-nonsense, ultra-liberal campaign without selling out. Directed by Michael Ritchie (whose next film, "Smile," a pointed comedy about beauty pageants, was also a parody of politics), "The Candidate" asks whether idealism and integrity can survive the American political process without being seriously compromised. We already know the answer, but this case study remains fascinating, leading up to the big question: "What do we do now?" "Bulworth" can be seen as a de facto sequel. Advice for candidates: Ask yourself how many of your principles (if you have any) you're willing to sacrifice to get elected. Advice for voters: There is no such thing as a completely uncompromised candidate. "Homecoming" (2005) In Joe Dante's speculative horror-satire (made for Showtime's "Masters of Horror" series), a spokesperson for the incumbent administration claims that if he had one wish it would be that military casualties of the Iraq war could come back to tell us all "how important this struggle is" for the safety and security of all Americans, and how proud they are to have served their country. Well, they do come back. And they're mad as hell. And they vote, as dead people often have in America. "The face of this war had always been ugly," the narrator says. "We'd always tried to hide it from the public. But then ... they were among us ... demanding only that we look at that face and acknowledge what we had done." The risen soldiers fulfill their ideals at last, defending American honor and constitutional principles to the death. (As a bonus, few things are more satisfying, for people of intelligence and integrity on the left and the right, than seeing Ann Coulter sacrificed in effigy by undead veterans.) Advice for candidates: Be careful what you wish for. Advice for voters: Phony patriotism (the empty politicized sloganeering of "Support Our Troops!") is the first refuge of a scoundrel. "Wag the Dog" (1997) Hooray for Hollywood indeed. This justifiably cynical picture ("A comedy about truth, justice and other special effects"), made just before the Monica-gate scandal derailed the country and the Clinton administration, predicted the distraction tactics perfected by Karl Rove years before George Bush's election made him a national figure. When the president faces a terrible sex scandal during re-election season, a political fixer (Robert De Niro) calls in a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman, channeling Robert Evans) to create a war and a hero through the use of smoke and mirrors, sleight-of-hand and expert misdirection. Today Barry Levinson's movie plays like the first 21st-century history textbook -- written as farce. Advice for candidates: The best defense is a good scapegoat. Advice for voters: Hey -- look over there! "Election" (1999) Everybody knows, and hates, a Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), the kind of perfect brown-nosing student who could grow up to be president of the United States. Her political career begins with an unopposed campaign for student body president of Carver High School. One of her teachers, Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick), who can't stand privileged know-it-alls like Tracy (think of the way Al Gore came across in 2000), recruits a dumb jock named Paul (Chris Klein) to run against her. The 11th-grade version of Nixonian political "dirty tricks" ensues. This Alexander Payne ("Sideways") comedy proves that politics is more like high school than we might like to admit. Advice to candidates: Never look like you're trying too hard. Advice to voters: Beware the perfect candidate who wants too badly to win. "Nashville" (1975) Director Robert Altman's rollicking masterpiece was the filmmaker's State of the Union address on the eve of the American bicentennial, bustling with patriotic symbols, backroom wheeler-dealing and old-fashioned hoopla and hucksterism. This wide-ranging widescreen spectacle (starring, as the built-in promo announces, "24 of your favorite stars!" -- including Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty, Keith Carradine, Karen Black and Shelley Duvall) centers on the campaign of an unseen presidential candidate whose hilariously plain-speaking, vaguely libertarian platform includes a promise to remove all lawyers from Congress. His operative John Triplette (Michael Murphy, who would later play Altman and Garry Trudeau's candidate in "Tanner '88"), attempts to persuade country music stars to perform at a rally at Nashville's replica of the Greek Parthenon. The movie climaxes with a seemingly inevitable assassination attempt in front of a mammoth American flag, a cry of "This isn't Dallas! This is Nashville!" and a crowd repeating a sing-along chant: "It don't worry me..." Advice for candidates: It's all about the image. Advice for voters: It's all about the image. "Duck Soup" (1933) Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) never has to actually run for office in the deficit-ridden country of Freedonia. He's appointed by the richest dowager in the land, Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont, of course), who lends the country $20 million to save it from insolvency on the condition that her choice (Firefly, inexplicably) be installed as chief executive. President/king/prima facie dictator Firefly lays out the laws of his administration in a musical number: "If any form of pleasure is exhibited/Report to me and it will be prohibited/I'll put my foot down, so shall it be/This is the land of the free!" In the movie's biggest satirical production number, the populace whips itself into such a frenzy over a minor incident (Groucho insults the ambassador of Sylvania and vice-versa) that war becomes inevitable. Which prompts the four Marxes to vaudevillian heights of all-too-real absurdity: "To war! To war! To war we're gonna go! A hi-dee hi-dee hi-dee hi-dee hi-dee hi-dee-ho!" -- climaxing in: "They got guns, we got guns, all God's chillun got guns!" "Duck Soup" could have been made about any number of wars. You could say it could almost have been made yesterday, but chances are nobody would have the nerve. Advice for candidates: Nobody is really listening to what you say. Advice for voters: When it comes to politicians, freedom's just another word for something you could lose. What are your favorite movies about politics? What advice would you give politicians? Send us mail at heymsn@microsoft.com Sound off: Cast your vote: What are your favorite movies about politics? Also: Features archive Jim Emerson is the former editor of Microsoft's online/CD-ROM movie encyclopedia, Cinemania. He has written a lot over the years, mostly about movies, for many publications and Web sites, and is now the editor of RogerEbert.com, where he also publishes his blog, Scanners.
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