I like movies about politics and Emile Hirsch (still) sucks.
October 28, 2008
I can’t really think of a script reading blog today. I have election fever and it is blocking my brain from other activities. But here’s something:
With a week left until the big day, I have noticed a lot of people listing movies about elections and presidential politics, but, surprisingly, i have not yet seen a list that has all five of my favorite movies on the subject. So here they are, listed (in my opinion) from the least to the most cynical:
1.) Dave (1993)
2.) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
3.) All the President’s Men (1976)
4.) Primary Colors (1998)
5.) Bob Roberts(1992)
I am kind of embarassed to admit that if I had to pick a president from among the politicians in these movies, I would go with Dave Kovick…the everyman who knows nothing about the office. Jack Stanton (thinly veiled Bill Clinton) of Primary Colors is my second choice and Jimmy Stewart’s Jeff Smith is third. He should probably be first but I have an ambivalent relationship with naivete. Even his. I would not vote for Nixon or Bob Roberts, but if I were a member of the academy of crazy eyes arts and sciences, I would vote for Jack Black’s Bob Roberts character for craziest eyes EVER.
In related news, Emile Hirsch (aka the man of zero faces), has succeeded in making the only celebrity voting PSA that has ever made me want to not vote out of spite.
i can tell you secretly love sarah palin, with your preference for uninformed every-people who do not even understand the basic contours of the position for which they are running.
can’t believe you left bullworth off the list! that’s my fave.
Thanks for the article, it really helped me.
Why the hate?
I like Wag the Dog, although that’s not really an “election” film, but whatever.
*gasp* dont you dare talk bad about my Emile sweetie!!! He is so hot.. talented… sexy… mmm
lol
That’s exactly what I was thinking about Emile UPG.
cecelia.
Have you ever seen The Best Man or The Candidate? Otherwise I liked your choices.
mitch.
mitch-
Haven’t seen The Best Man but it’s on my list now. I have seen The Candidate. It is good, but I think i saw it so late in the game that I’d already seen movies that were taking a lot of its ideas and running with them, so it wasn’t that surprising or upending for me to see it and it made less of an impression on me than I thought it would. I had a similar reaction to The Dirty Dozen. It’s an amazing film, but I have seen so many movies that are derivative of The Dirty Dozen’s structure, caper elements and the way that the characters interact and bond that it felt dated and not that exciting to me. Which is dumb, because it was the first to do a lot of those things in that way, but which is nonetheless what my reaction was.
By contrast, I saw Cool Hand Luke, another male bonding movie, for the first time last year and it blew me away.