by Bryan Stamp

Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?

Sometimes our political candidates act like actors and celebrities, and sometimes they actually are. But often we are only left with our imagination to explore the landscape of a country led by politicians as portrayed in the movies and TV.  During this time of national politicking,  I am inspired to write a little something about of my favorite election films” for two reasons: The first is by the films SWING VOTE and the upcoming DVD release of Participant Media’s own documentary CHICAGO 10, and the second is by an All Thing’s Considered segment called, In Election Movies, Playing By A Rule of Three.

Bob Mondello keenly observes this genre of films as a sub-genre of political films with it’s own sub-set of three types of electoral manipulation:

… movies with a generically political bent come in all shapes and styles, election movies are almost always about process specifically, about efforts to manipulate either (a) the media, and thereby the public, (b) the candidate or (c) the process itself.

The most famous examples are THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, BOB ROBERTS, PRIMARY COLORS, THE BEST MAN and THE CANDIDATE. Bob Mondello and Michelle Norris discuss these and others, including the lesser known Capra/Tracy/Hepburn film STATE OF THE UNION. And WAG THE DOG, which doesn’t really follow and election or candidacy, but it’s a damn fine movie (smartly adapted by David Mamet from a more ambitious book). Nothing about THE CONTENDER though, which isn’t a perfect film and not exactly about an election/campaign, but certainly worth a mention (especially in this post-Hillary era). All of these films intersect with real life (by imitating it or influencing it) either at the time of their making or later.

And ELECTION which wasn’t mentioned on the broadcast, but listed on the site by NPR reporter Audie Cornish was an instant cult-classic with an irresistibly funny performance by Reese Witherspoon.

I’d like to add NASHVILLE (1975, dir Robert Altman) which may not seem to fit in here, but Michelle Norris mentioned BEING THERE - which is my favorite movie of all time – and at least NASHVILLE has an actual campaigning candidate. Although he is never seen, he is omnipresent, and despite the cast of colorful characters in NASHVILLE and multiple storylines, Hal Philip Walker is the name (and voice) I remember most.

Of course, the characters in documentary films can appear larger-than-life, so THE WAR ROOM (Pennebaker’s 1993 verite classic) should fit in there somewhere, and special mention to recent documentaries STREET FIGHT (2005)– Marshall Curry’s intense profile of the Newark, NJ mayoral campaigns of Cory Booker and Sharpe James; and CHISOLM ‘72; and three films about elections in other countries:   PLEASE VOTE FOR ME (2007)- a light and entertaining exam of democracy from the perspective of Chinese elementary school students (and their parents) running for class president, and THE ORANGE REVOLUTION (2007) - which is more dramatic and compelling than most narrative films I’ve seen this year; and Laura Poitra’s MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY (which isn’t explicitly about American politics, but is a great film about an Iraqi doctor’s campaign during the 2005 national election).

And television has certainly contributed: THE WEST WING wasn’t always great but it was always good (Bartlet’s landslide re-election in season 4 and of course the Santos/Vinick campaigns during seasons 6 and 7) and HBO’s terrific docudrama RECOUNT. And since all politics is local politics, don’t forget David Simon’s THE WIRE which featured some great work by Aiden Gillen as Baltimore City councilman/mayoral hopeful Tommy Carcetti in season 3 and 4. And check out Altman’s innovative HBO series TANNER ‘88 available on Criterion dvd.

takepart with Declare Yourself and register to vote!

Related:

DVD Heaven: Top Ten Criterions
In Election Movies, Playing By A Rule of Three

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Bryan Stamp is a Creative Executive at Participant Media. He has been involved with such projects as the Academy-Award winning AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, ANGELS IN THE DUST, JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM PLAINS, DARFUR NOW, CHICAGO 10, STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE, PRESSURE COOKER, FOOD, INC. and CASINO JACK. Prior to joining Participant in 2006, he worked in development at Hyde Park Entertainment.