Featuring cameos from contemporary headliners like Dick Cheney, Mark Foley, and Mark Warner, A Perfect Candidate follows the 1994 Virginia Senate campaign, in which incumbent Chuck Robb went head-to-head against Iran Contra poster-boy Oliver “Ollie” North, and in the process reduced American politics to a shouting match of moral superiority.
Directors R.J. Cutler and David Van Taylor’s depictions of the two candidates—Robb as a dull and ideologically ambiguous wonk, North as an enigmatic but emotionally monotonous superstar—are outdone by the unheralded faces of campaigns. Washington Post reporter Don Baker makes friendly banter with the very men who deride him as a member of the “liberal media,” only to have his lifelong beliefs about the system challenged. At the same time, campaign manager Mark Goodin looks to a North victory for social redemption; his realization near the end of the campaign that all politicians, no matter what party, are indolent beaurocrats is one of the most profound moments ever caught on film, as it highlights the most frequent criticism of American democracy. That, and parents who place a shotgun in their child’s hands at an outdoor rally and instruct him, with a grin of seriousness, to only shoot ducks and Democrats.
by Adam Balz | Source: First Run Features DVD
04 Mar 2007 3:27 PM | Submit Comment