The End of the Trail. (Thank heavens!)

Election Day is at hand, which means it's also time for me to wrap up this ultimately half-cocked scheme for October. I know you're all sick of the flyers and the robo-calls. Here's my last gasp at throwing some great political films your way. Better late than never, but once this election's over you can bet your ass that the next 4 years are going to be one long campaign cycle anyway. Might as well dig in and study up.

John Adams (2008) Dir: Tom Hooper

Maybe it was too drastic an undertaking for my own good this month, but I hunkered down with the 7-part John Adams miniseries over the course of a week or so. I'm glad I did, though. It's a really great achievement, with wonderful performances all around, especially Paul Giamatti as the titular 2nd President, and Laura Linney as his wife Abigail, who provided an incredibly strong rock upon which to anchor his ship. Also, through taking its adaptation from David McCullough's book, the series strips away the legends and provides a grounding sense of humanity to many of our founding fathers, notably Tom Wilkinson lending a delicious salaciousness to Benjamin Franklin. George Washington, however, is still exhibited as having a godlike air of quiet strength. Adams' political battles with Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton provide nerdy yet gripping historical fodder.

It makes me wonder how wonderful it would be, how much more productive government could become, if we reverted to the voting system that gave the Vice Presidency to the runner up of the election, rather than having a chosen running mate. Although the power of the Vice President is fairly minimal, he does preside over the Senate, and could be an interesting balance to a President from the other party. Interestingly enough, there is talk during this election that in the event of an Electoral College tie (269 votes each) that a vote of the House of Representative would choose the President and the Senate would choose the Vice-President. Since Congress is currently split we could see a POTUS/Veep situation not all too dissimilar from way things were before the Twelfth Amendment was passed in 1800.

Tanner '88 (1988) Dir: Robert Altman

 Continuing with another mini-series, "Tanner '88" is still a must-see and as sharply relevant now as it was 25 years ago. In what would be a part of HBO's burgeoning original programming scene, Co-creators director Robert Altman and writer Garry Trudeau hatched the idea of running a fake candidate with a full-on fake campaign out into the very real 1988 election season. Watching Michael Murphy as candidate Jack Tanner and his staff, headed up by a very game Pamela Reed as his campaign chief, interact at rallies and conventions with the oblivious real politicians (Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, Michael Dukakis, etc.) and an easily fooled electorate delivers 11 episodes of smart, biting humor and an unparalleled insight behind the facade of political barnstorming. Altman had touched on the circus exuberance of political campaigns in his landmark 1976 film, Nashville, but in "Tanner '88" it is the star of the show. Satire is rarely this perfectly thought out or divinely delivered.

The War Room (1993) Dir: Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker

On the boot heels of "Tanner '88," this documentary peeks inside an actual campaign, in this case Bill Clinton's successful bid at the Presidency in 1992. This strips away the satire and goes for the gritty, unvarnished weariness of the campaign headquarters. James Carville and George Stephanopoulos would soon become household names, and this shows them in all of their spin-doctoring glory, though we are unfortunately withheld from some of the juicier conversations due to the lack of participation of campaign manager David Wilhelm. A bit slow at times, but a good dry chaser of reality to wash down Tanner's shenanigans.

Point of Order (1964) Dir: Emile de Antonio

The Army-McCarthy hearings were the grandfather of all televised Congressional Procedural, and this is a culling of approximately 90 minutes of the most dramatic moments from 30 days worth of ABC footage that was broadcast live into every home in America and precipitated the downfall of Joseph McCarthy's communist witch hunts. It remains a landmark document, not just of an important era of Cold-War Politics, but also portends the of the role television media in the perception of our elected officials. Through discussions of cropped photos and legal favors the banter between Army counsel Joseph Welch and McCarthy is affable and at moments outright hilarious, but the breaking of a gentleman's agreement turns things vicious, until Welch's plaintive plea for decency crushes all remaining credibility from the boorish Senator from Wisconsin and remains a legendary part of our lexicon:



All the King's Men (1948) Dir: Robert Rossen

and Huey Long (1985) Dir: Ken Burns

I'll admit that I don't read recreationally as much a I wish I did. I have a pretty good collection of classic books on my shelves (or at least, I would if I still had shelves) that I have picked up second hand for pennies. But I've only really read maybe 20% of what I have. At one point I was in a book/beer club, but some of the members couldn't be bothered to do the work and it faltered.

One of the classic American novels that I have read and highly recommend is Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, a thinly veiled account of the rise and fall of Louisiana governor "populist/dictator" Huey Long. The 1949 film the movie brings the novel to life wonderfully,  skimping a bit on some of the richness of reporter/narrator Jack Burden's unrequited love (which is actually my favorite section of the book; the words are beautifully heartbreaking, the melancholy of missed opportunity, the admitted shortcomings and the wordy yet perfectly natural flow of the prose.) I've been purposely avoiding the 2006 film revision for a while now after hearing it is rather subpar. I may check it out, but in terms of recs I'd suggest sticking with the Oscar winner.

Ken Burns' made-for-TV biography "Huey Long," however, is the perfect accompanying third to this book/film pairing. In fact, I would encourage a viewing of it before tackling any screen or page version of All the King's Men. It provides a fascinating history lesson on a political figure who is mostly passed up or completely forgotten about nowadays. Long was easily one of the 5 most powerful men in the world during his era of bombastic (and this was during a moment when Adolf Hitler was coming to power in Germany) but nowadays The Kingfish is largely forgotten in popular history. Utilizing first person accounts of people who were young during the 1930s and witnessed Long's powerful sway, it sheds a light on a truly polarizing figure, as scorned by many as he was adored by the rest.

We are also exhibited with the prototype of a Ken Burns style that would carry through his essential (but loooong) "Jazz" and "Baseball" docs. "Huey Long," on the other hand, is very focused, clocking in under 90 minutes.


In closing, there are obviously a ton of war films that could have fallen into this category (All Quiet on the Western Front, Paths of Glory, Flags of Our Fathers, Saving Private Ryan, Patton, and on for hours), and some that revolve more loosely around political campaigns (Nashville, Taxi Driver, etc.) but I didn't quite as much time as I wanted. I'm intrigued by Spielberg's upcoming Lincoln only because of Daniel Day Lewis. I have a feeling it's going to be pretty crappy though. More importantly, I don't want to leave things without mentioning that there are some astounding political international films as well:  I highly recommend Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba), Z (Greece), Battle of Algiers (Italy/Algeria), and Persepolis (Iran) just to name a few. Next on my docket is The Battle of Chile (er...right after I catch up with "Breaking Bad.") As for tomorrow, like a lot of you I'll be going out early to vote, then after work I'll be watching the news with mild interest.

'K, Martyrs...That's Enough.

Halloween night I chose to forgo the dress up and candy pander in favor of a doubleheader in front of a glowing screen. My first movie was Pascal Laugier's Martyrs, a French/Canadian production that I'd heard it was pretty intense, most commonly summed up with the caveat "torture porn." When I hear that I'm thinking violence along the lines of Se7en, Saw, or Gaspar Noé's incredible but often tough to stomach Irréversible. I've seen Pasolini's notorious Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom, so I'm pretty doughty when the shit goes down, so to speak. But I wasn't really prepared for an entire film that is a nonstop, paralyzingly on-edge gut-check whose tamest moments make the harshest parts in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo seem like a tea party in Care-a-Lot with Strawberry Shortcake and the My Little Ponies. After I finished I was in no state of mind to finish the double feature.

Scott Tobias of AV Club does a great job unfurling the plot if curiosity compels you to wonder what the BFD is, so I won't rehash it here. It is extremely taxing and not one that I would casually recommend or be in a hurry to watch again, but it is also a very good, well made and inciting movie, provoking thoughtful debate, especially with its open-to-interpretation ending that I'm still mulling over 2 days later. I just wanted to put down for posterity that I indeed finished it in one undeterred sitting and remarking on it felt like a good way to culminate an October spent almost exclusively watching horror/monster movies. After Martyrs, I am left with the ultimate takeaway of the month that once we are reminded that humans can be the worst monsters imaginable, then every other thing we can fathom is a lot less scary.  

Speaking of scary: one or two final splashes of political films are on tap for this pre-election weekend. Hope everybody takes some time to study up on their ballots and make good informed selections this Tuesday.