"The Contender"
Yesterday I saw a movie from several years ago called "The Contender." The best thing about it was seeing a film that didn't bow to the Republican bullpoop orthodoxy of these times, so that in it "liberal" wasn't a concept to be despised but instead meant a philosophy to be treasured.
The film starred the endlessly classy actress Joan Allen. She played a U.S. Senator who is selected by the President, a Democrat played by Jeff Bridges, to be his VP, after the one elected with him died. Also prominent in the cast was another of our favorite actors, Sam Elliott, playing Bridges' chief of staff. We like him partly because we have a good friend around here who is a dead ringer for him. But in this film Elliott had to work much harder than usual because it was out of his genre of Westerns. So here in the White House he had to hold his head up straight through the whole thing, instead of his favorite 45-degree angle to his shoulders. Also he had to rant and rage several times, when usually it's part of his eternal cool that he never has to raise his voice even a decibel.
Oddly the last time we saw that friend, he had just been somewhere where they were shooting a film starring Richard Gere, and he was mistaken by some girls to be that actor. But we couldn't see that at all. The friend is Sam Elliott and that's that.
The characters are fictional though mention is often made of real life political figures. Therein, though, was one of the drawbacks of the picture for me, because the characters had a habit of making snide remarks about Bill Clinton, with reference to the sexual junk, and even worse, considering that he is now fighting for his life because of a malignant brain tumor, Ted Kennedy, because of Chappaquiddick. That incident is echoed in the beginning of the film, when another VP hopeful thinks he's pulling a fast one by, as we learn later, very improbably hiring a woman to drive a car off a bridge and into some deep water where this character just "happens" to be fishing, so that he can dive in and become an instant hero by rescuing her. But he can't get the door open in time.
The Allen character goes through some tough sledding from the Republican-dominated nominating committee, headed by a neo-McCarthyite Congressman played by Gary Oldham. The role Oldham plays here is so unflattering that he must be a liberal, because he was one of the executive producers.
Someone had dug up photos allegedly taken of the Senator when she was 19 and a freshman in college, showing her allowing herself to be used as a sex toy by some frat nitwits.
Though the Elliott and Bridges characters, who are still standing by her, beg her to fight back, she staunchly refuses, saying that what happened with her in college years ago was a purely personal matter and, as it was none of their business, and by extension none of the American people's business either, they had no right to even ask her about it.
This is exactly what I always wished Clinton had said, in no uncertain terms, and maybe this film's makers had that idea in mind.
In any case, in the end Allen tells Bridges privately that when she found out what was going on in the frat room, she had left in a hurry, without taking her clothes off, and the woman shown in the photos was someone else. as could be proved by her lack of a birthmark in a prominent place.
Finally principle prevails even without that extenuating info being disclosed, and we are left with the impression that, with a stirring climactic speech to both houses, Bridges shames the Congress into accepting her.
All in all, however, this film did nothing to budge my lifelong gratitude that I am so totally nondescript that I could never ever have been part of settings like those, even though, ironically, I spent the major part of my life just a few city blocks from where a plethora of comparable scenes were actually taking place.
Power is a nasty business, and I must've been able to smell it quite well, especially over that short a distance. I, on the other hand, was doing a multitude of humble, cool things, with scents more like roses or of a dusty path when it is first hit by rain.
The film starred the endlessly classy actress Joan Allen. She played a U.S. Senator who is selected by the President, a Democrat played by Jeff Bridges, to be his VP, after the one elected with him died. Also prominent in the cast was another of our favorite actors, Sam Elliott, playing Bridges' chief of staff. We like him partly because we have a good friend around here who is a dead ringer for him. But in this film Elliott had to work much harder than usual because it was out of his genre of Westerns. So here in the White House he had to hold his head up straight through the whole thing, instead of his favorite 45-degree angle to his shoulders. Also he had to rant and rage several times, when usually it's part of his eternal cool that he never has to raise his voice even a decibel.
Oddly the last time we saw that friend, he had just been somewhere where they were shooting a film starring Richard Gere, and he was mistaken by some girls to be that actor. But we couldn't see that at all. The friend is Sam Elliott and that's that.
The characters are fictional though mention is often made of real life political figures. Therein, though, was one of the drawbacks of the picture for me, because the characters had a habit of making snide remarks about Bill Clinton, with reference to the sexual junk, and even worse, considering that he is now fighting for his life because of a malignant brain tumor, Ted Kennedy, because of Chappaquiddick. That incident is echoed in the beginning of the film, when another VP hopeful thinks he's pulling a fast one by, as we learn later, very improbably hiring a woman to drive a car off a bridge and into some deep water where this character just "happens" to be fishing, so that he can dive in and become an instant hero by rescuing her. But he can't get the door open in time.
The Allen character goes through some tough sledding from the Republican-dominated nominating committee, headed by a neo-McCarthyite Congressman played by Gary Oldham. The role Oldham plays here is so unflattering that he must be a liberal, because he was one of the executive producers.
Someone had dug up photos allegedly taken of the Senator when she was 19 and a freshman in college, showing her allowing herself to be used as a sex toy by some frat nitwits.
Though the Elliott and Bridges characters, who are still standing by her, beg her to fight back, she staunchly refuses, saying that what happened with her in college years ago was a purely personal matter and, as it was none of their business, and by extension none of the American people's business either, they had no right to even ask her about it.
This is exactly what I always wished Clinton had said, in no uncertain terms, and maybe this film's makers had that idea in mind.
In any case, in the end Allen tells Bridges privately that when she found out what was going on in the frat room, she had left in a hurry, without taking her clothes off, and the woman shown in the photos was someone else. as could be proved by her lack of a birthmark in a prominent place.
Finally principle prevails even without that extenuating info being disclosed, and we are left with the impression that, with a stirring climactic speech to both houses, Bridges shames the Congress into accepting her.
All in all, however, this film did nothing to budge my lifelong gratitude that I am so totally nondescript that I could never ever have been part of settings like those, even though, ironically, I spent the major part of my life just a few city blocks from where a plethora of comparable scenes were actually taking place.
Power is a nasty business, and I must've been able to smell it quite well, especially over that short a distance. I, on the other hand, was doing a multitude of humble, cool things, with scents more like roses or of a dusty path when it is first hit by rain.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 8:44 AM
1 Comments:
Indeed, power is a nasty business. Imagine using pictures of the senator being abused like a sex toy. Anyway, it was a cool and informative read for me. I enjoyed it.
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