The 60s: what a time for political movies

[Bogie]

Yes i'm back...other hobbies are just killing me!

Anyways I watched an interesting movie in THE BEST MAN with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. It wasn't the deepest movie (in fact it was quite superficial when you really dig into the characters) but I thought it was a well told story with some fine acting.

This leads me to think that the 60s was a great decade for politically themed movies. I mean you had socially relavent films and you had political type films. This is the kinda stuff you don't see so much of nowadays. The last 2 movies i've seen that even comes close to the tone of the way political movies were done in the '60s were DETERRENCE and THE CONTENDER both directed and written by Rod Laurie who's done a helluva job with political films. In fact his next directorial/writing credit looks to be inspired by the whole Valerie Plame story from a couple years back.

Anyways there's no real point to this except to say that I hope we see more politically themed movies in the future.

BTW if anyone's seen THE BEST MAN here's the real life inspirations to the characters IMO. Let me know if you agree or not.

William Russel (Henry Fonda): Seems to me he's Adlai Stevenson.

Joe Cantwell (Cliff Robertson): This one is tougher. He has the corruptness and dirty politics style of Nixon but his background and exploits are Bobby Kennedyesqe.

Art Hockstader (Lee Tracy): A mish mash of Harry Truman and LBJ

Alice Russell (Mararet Leighton): clearly Eleanor Roosevelt with better looks

Mabel Cantwell (Edie Adams): A bimboized version of Jackie Kennedy


BTW one of the other presidential hopefuls in the convention reminds me of Mike Huckabee LOL!

[ken123]

Gore Vidal the author of The Best Man has stated the the "Joe Cantwell" character is based on Richard Nixon. Mr Nixon os alwao a key character in Otto Preminger's Advise and Consent , he is the Don Murray character " Brig Anderson ".

[mrsl]

Bogie:

You are very correct but remember the 60's gave us the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs, Watergate, Nixon's resignation and so many other political upheavals, it was loaded with fodder for writers. Every time we turned around we were getting a new president, or at the least, new nominees, let alone presidents who were never voted into office.

Anne

[sandykaypax]

Lee Tracy gives the performance of a lifetime in The Best Man.

Sandy K

[klondike]

Bogie:

You are very correct but remember the 60's gave us the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs, Watergate, Nixon's resignation and so many other political upheavals, it was loaded with fodder for writers. Every time we turned around we were getting a new president, or at the least, new nominees, let alone presidents who were never voted into office.

Anne

American military involvement in Viet Nam began in the 50's; President Nixon's resignation from office, and "Watergate" (break-in, investigation and hearings), happened in the 70's, not the 60's; we had only 3 presidents during the decade of the 60's (discounting outgoing President Dwight Eisenhower), and all 3 of those presidents were elected to office.

[mrsl]

Okay, Sargeant Yukon:

I may have had Watergate wrong, BUT . . . The Bay of Pigs occurred in 1961, Vietnam may have started in the 50's but the first boy I ever dated was killed over there the year I graduated from high school in 1962, Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, as was Bobby Kennedy, and Lyndon Baines Johnson was NOT voted for his first term of presidency, he replaced John Kennedy in 1963.

So There

Luv Ya!!!

Anne

[klondike]

Okay, Sargeant Yukon:

I may have had Watergate wrong, BUT . . . The Bay of Pigs occurred in 1961, Vietnam may have started in the 50's but the first boy I ever dated was killed over there the year I graduated from high school in 1962, Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, as was Bobby Kennedy, and Lyndon Baines Johnson was NOT voted for his first term of presidency, he replaced John Kennedy in 1963.

So There

Luv Ya!!!

Anne

Luv ya too, Annie, but your retroscope's still a little out of focus: taking over Commander in Chief executive duites does not constitute a "term" of presidency - before the JFK assassination, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman both had to step up from their vice presidencies to take over for their expired presidents (McKinley & FDR, respectively) when those men died in office, and thereby both served as an interim president, with the complete range of powers & authorities limited by that situation until their office was legitimized by winning that seat in the following national election. Our saddest example of a "place-holder" president was Gerald Ford, who was never elected to any executive office, but rather defaulted his way into becoming a surrogate VP, and then a substitute president following the Nixon disgrace, only to finish by losing the '76 election to peanut baron Jimmy Carter.
LBJ's only full term as President began when he was sworn into office in January of 1965.

[MikeBSG]

Of course, there are good political movies that came after the Sixties. The first I can think of is "The Candidate," from about 1972 with Robert Redford. Maybe, thanks to CNN and CSPAN, we are all more aware of how an election campaign works now, so "The Candidate" might be seen as belaboring the obvious to younger viewers, but Redford and Peter Boyle give good performances.

[klondike]

Good point Mike!
The one that jumps to my mind is The Parallax View, with Warren Beatty, which, I have a strong hunch, just might be the single biggest inspiration for the newly released thriller Vantage Point, which stars William Hurt & Dennis Quaid.

[mrsl]

We've named a few good movies that a person can rent and immerse themselves in for a good political rainy or freezing cold weekend. In 2000 The Contender with Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges was another one which covers the womans view from the top to phrase it in such as way as to avoid giving away any secrets.

BTW Sarge:

Next time I contest anything with you buddy, I'll take the time to date check all my info! But you have to give me credit for most of it. I'd like to see you with 4 kids under 5 years of age remember all that stuff. The thing is that I recall a lot of it by what was going on with each kid at the time.

Anne

[klondike]

Anne;

Lot of truth in what you're saying, no question!
And BTW, right back at ya: at one time, I did have 4 kids who were all about a year & a 1/4 apart - - but more than likely, that was 9 or 10 years later than your passel o' young'uns.
So, ya see, geography notwithstanding, I'm pretty familiar with your "neighborhood!"
And still am - like yourself, these days, I'm fairly awash in grandkids!

[mrsl]

You may have had them all, but . . . were you the Mom or the Dad? There's a world of difference in going to work all day and coming home at night for dinner and the going to bed ritual, and being there from 6:30 a.m. until they're all asleep for the night, not to mention cleaning up the kitchen and the bathroom before you can sit on your duff.

Anne

[klondike]

You may have had them all, but . . . were you the Mom or the Dad? There's a world of difference in going to work all day and coming home at night for dinner and the going to bed ritual, and being there from 6:30 a.m. until they're all asleep for the night, not to mention cleaning up the kitchen and the bathroom before you can sit on your duff.

Anne

A lot of the time, both.
For about a 6-year period, I worked 5 hours per weekday, a.m., as a respite care provider, and 5 hours every afternoon splitting wood, and then two swing shifts every weekend as a patrol deputy, while Mrs. Klondike was doing 40 hrs per week as a metroplitan bus service municipal director (via a 3-hr daily commute) and then picking up evening & Saturday-morning shifts at a local restaurant (mostly for the tips).
Most of the time, it weren't too pretty, but it kept the children fed, and attending school every day, without becoming latch-key kids!

[Lzcutter]

Memorable political movies from that era that I remember fondly:

Fail Safe
The Best Man
The Candidate
Three Days of the Condor
All the President's Men
The Parallax View
Nashville
Executive Action
Twilight's Last Gleaming

I'm sure there were more but those are the ones that come readily to mind.

[knitwit45]

Wow, Klonnie, you make me dizzy just thinking about a schedule like that. I hope your kids realize now what you guys were doing then. I'm sure whatever success they find is sweeter because of how they were raised.

Most of the time, it weren't too pretty,

"Pretty" ain't everything!