After taking a few months off from the blog/list, I've found another film to compete for eleventh place. But first, I've got the tell you about something. The other night something happened on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." I can't stop thinking about it because it goes to the heart of how I feel about politics right now.Everywhere I go people seem to be talking about the elections. They're full of hope. They're full of dread. They want things to change. They're afraid things will change too much. They're all trying to figure out how to make it work between $5.00/gallon gas and what's happening to basic costs like food and health care.
As we say in Arizona, this isn't my first rodeo. I've seen a crappy economy (late 80s/early 90s) and I've seen someone ride into town and promise to fix it all (you know who) and then make a few miscalculations (I don't have to say it, do I?) in how to handle some issues both personal and professional. So the street cred and the policy wonk status of some key players dipped and something huge - health care - was never worked out before we reached the critical mass of now.
So that thing I mentioned at the beginning - that moment on The Daily Show that stays with me - happened a few weeks ago after Jon Stewart had done an interview with Barack Obama. The answers Obama gave were stellar and even Stewart made fun himself and how much awe he felt during the interview. And then the interview ended and Stewart went to commercial. When he came back Barack was gone and Stewart looked into the camera and asked impishly, "I wonder, how *will* he break our hearts?"
As much I love the philosophical focus of Obama's campaign and even though I voted for Obama in the California primary, I can't help but wonder if there's something waiting around the corner for those of us who want to believe. Turning myself in these mental knots reminded me of another political film favorite, "The Candidate." It's pure 1970s Redford - Idealistic guy looks to change the system and he does...but he also walks away from the fight with the goo of the system all over him.
Before I go further I have to issue a spoiler alert for the coming paragraphs. If you haven't seen the movie and plan to catch it, you may want to stop here.
The best part of this film for me was watching the campaign itself spin out of control. Robert Redford's character quickly loses control of the message and content of his platform as more and more political pr types show up when his candidacy begins to look real and feel solid. In short, when he looks like a possible, everyone wants what they believe to be their own piece of him.
Redford's character stumbles along the way, too. He's not without a dalliance here and there and in the end he's not sure why he ran or what he'll do next. It's sort of shocking to think of how prescient this film was at the time. And the irony of why I watched this film at such a young age - my mom had a huge crush on Redford - is not lost on me. I imagine there were all sorts of people who paid $2.75 to see Redford's hotness and came away with a deep and maybe even unwanted reflection on the U.S. political process.
