BBD Comments:
I have always been a little nervous when Bourbon Cookie has taken the stage. The Crew can be an unforgiving place for the less than stellar Selections in our Canon. Yet every time she gets the shot she does me proud - and ‘The Candidate’ isn’t only her best Pick to date, it’s straight up, old school Movienight.
That I had never seen ‘The Candidate’ before was only the first of this film’s many strengths. But the sheer beauty of delivering a fable about a steadfast community organizer ascending to the US Senate in the midst of Barack Hussein Obama’s singular campaign for our Nation’s highest office is nothing short of perfection.
As the Obama campaign has been faced with increasingly negative and racist attacks from Hillary and her supporters, I marvel that he has been able to stand up to the Peter Boyle’s on his staff and remain focused on the issues. He says the same thing when he’s up that he says when he is down. BC’s Pick, the day after Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “comeback” in Ohio and Texas (oh, wait a minute - Obama won Texas) filled me with dread as I considered the possibility that the first politician I have ever truly been willing to follow may have to lose his “virtue” to the great strain of the campaign. Well I am happy to report that after the ugliest seven day stretch of Hillary’s death throes Obama has remained constant and true. His rhetoric remains on point and he has yet to stoop to sensationally reminding the population that Hillary Clinton has blood on her hands for her vote in Iraq and she stood by her husband after he screwed an intern four years older than their daughter and then lied to his family and the American people about it. The Democratic party has not come undone only because Obama and his campaign have left so many stones on the ground in this fight. In fact, his consistently dignified behavior makes him seem more deserving of my vote each passing day of this campaign.
There are far better places on the internet for me to post such thoughts, so I’ll simply applaud Bourbon Cookie for her finest hour yet at Movienight - I am so pleased we were outside when you hit your stride.
Onwards...
Brandon Comments:
When the film began and the credits rolled with the “Redford / Ritchie” production logo, along with the grainy 1970s film and the obvious political landscape unfolding, I thought for sure we were going to be watching ‘All the President’s Men’ – another political Redford classic, and one which I hadn’t seen in so many years that I forgot how it started – which is why I was so pleasantly surprised to see that Bourbon Cookie introduced me to ‘The Candidate.’
I thought I had seen all the Redford films out there, but this one had slipped under my radar. And it’s a great film! I loved watching Bill McKay evolve from a grassroots contender all the way to the California Senate. And this film is also an interesting look into the campaign trail that politicians and aspiring politicians must follow. Great film Bourbon Cookie.
I do have a few gripes, but not with the film itself – more with Robert Redford. First off, those oiled and pink lips of his reminded me of those Internet porno sites where true erotica is defined as a pink and puckered asshole. I couldn’t help but picture some blond tramp’s oiled and sore rectum every time Redford wasn’t speaking. And secondly, there were an awful lot of glamour close-ups of Redford throughout this film – whether handsomely gazing off into thoughts of his future or studiously deliberating at his desk. And since he played a part in the production of this film, I am wondering whether he played a part in having so many of those “pretty boy” shots.
But that does not reflect how I feel about ‘The Candidate’ – it’s a great film, perfectly timed with our current political zeitgeist. Great 3rd Pick Bourbon Cookie…how’s it feel to show it outdoors? A whole different world, huh?
Nubs Comments:
I wonder if it’s obvious to decipher my well written, well thought-out, sober reviews versus my late at night, slightly inebriated, up against the deadline jumbled thoughts.
I really enjoyed Boubon’s ‘The Candidate.’ It seemed to fit all the criteria Netti deemed as Movienight quota in his better late than never recent review for ‘Black Sunday’: “timely, early-to mid seventies, largely unseen or forgotten”. This being the first time I’d seen or even heard of this universally, timeless political piece, I had, perhaps, a more unique take on the intent than the others.
As I saw it, this seemed to be an especially dry, honest, and refreshingly accurate un”Hollywood” portrait of the political game. Even though Robert Redford played our hero, I wasn’t taken in by him as a hero. He, nor the movie, ever tries to show us why he would really do good if elected. On the contrary, he seems to be revealed as a determined man, yes, but also susceptible to the power and corruption of the flesh and mind. He becomes like most politicians we know; affairs with groupies, good on camera pushing the issues he was told to push, and just a shell of the idealist we get behind in the beginning. We all go on an intense ride to get our man elected, then when he succeeds, neither he, the Peter Boyle who created him, or us the viewer have any clue what he can, or should do with his office. Or maybe I missed something.
I found it sad but brutally realistic and apt. Though Tooda is going to bludgeon me, and as much of an Obama supporter as I am, I couldn’t help but contemplate during this gem how my allegiance with the man of the hour is just with the latest man of the hour. He is the fresh, straight talking inspiring new face that has been exploited by the political machine of every campaign since the beginning of time. Just like the people who get behind “McCay, A better way” I am inspired and rejuvenated about backing the new comer standing for change. However, Bourbon’s tale from more than four decades ago brought me back down to our cynical earth, reminding me, as great as we all hope he can be, he is still “the Candidate”.
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