Election Day features two films about politics. The first film up was 1972's The Candidate starring Robert Redford. This satiric expose of the political process broke new ground with it's cinema verite style of being right in the midst of an election campaign.
Redford is Bill McKay a long shot democrat running against Republican incumbent Crocker Jarmon (Don Porter) for a U.S. Senator in California. McKay is talked into running by campaign manager Marvin Lucas (peter Boyle) who tells him that since he has no chance of winning he can say whatever he wants during the campaign and run it the way he wants. McKay is the son of former California Governor (Melvyn Douglas) and has long despised politics and everything it stood for.
As the campaign proceeds and the focus becomes the campaign itself, rather than the message, Bill McKay is slowly transformed and repackaged into an actual politician. The viewer watches this happen long before he realizes what is happening to him.
The film is an authentic look at the early days of marketing politicians like a product, with media consultants and television advertising. The political messages in the film are as relevant today as they were thirty-eight years ago. In fact the movie itself has aged very well and it's cautionary tale has come true in an age when personality is more important than substance in our political candidates.
The movie has some great lines:
Lucas: You're the Democratic nominee!
Bill McKay: You make it sound like a death sentence.
Jim McKay to Bill McKay; You're a politician now!
And one of the greatest last lines of a movie:
Bill McKay: What Do We Do Now?
The Candidate is a witty, sharp intelligent film about the campaign process with Redford giving one of his best dramatic performances.
At The Movie House rating **** stars
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