The Candidate (1972 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
For other uses, see The Candidate (disambiguation).
The Candidate

DVD cover of "The Candidate"
Directed by Michael Ritchie
Produced by Walter Coblenz
Written by Jeremy Larner
Starring Robert Redford,
Peter Boyle
Music by John Rubinstein
Cinematography Victor J. Kemper,
John Korty
Editing by Robert Estrin,
Richard A. Harris
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) 29 June 1972 (USA)
Running time 109 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

The Candidate is an American film released in 1972, starring Robert Redford. Themes of the film include that of how the political machine corrupts, and the pointlessness of politics. There are also parallels between John F. Kennedy and Redford's character Bill McKay. The film serves mainly to show how a race for a seat in the Senate develops.

The film was shot in Northern California. Peter Boyle plays the political consultant Marvin Lucas. The screenplay was written by Jeremy Larner, a speech-writer for Senator Eugene J. McCarthy during McCarthy's campaign for the 1968 Democratic Presidential nomination. The film won a Best Writing Oscar and was also nominated for Best Sound.

Tagline: Nothing matters more than winning. Not even what you believe in.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle), a political election specialist, is given the unenviable task of finding a Democratic candidate to unseat California U.S. Senator Crocker Jarmon, a popular Republican. With no big-name Democrat eager to enter the seemingly unwinnable race, Lucas seeks out Bill McKay (Robert Redford), a thirty-something, married, attractive guy who couldn’t be further removed from politics. Despite being the son of former governor John J. McKay (played by Melvyn Douglas), McKay was never interested in politics and instead acts as a lawyer for liberal causes.

Lucas meets with McKay and tells him the blunt truth: Jarmon can’t lose; and since the race is already decided, McKay is free to get out on the campaign trail and say exactly what he wants because none of it matters anyway. Though he now knows he will definitely lose, McKay accepts the proposition because it gives him the chance to speak to groups of people and spread his liberal values (which include abortion rights, bussing, environmental regulations and welfare). He rejects help or involvement from his father, wanting to make it on his own steam.

McKay hits the campaign trail and begins courting voters. His team of campaign staffers start airing pro-McKay commercials while creating ads designed to make Jarmon look old and weary. With no serious Democratic opposition, McKay cruises to the Democratic nomination on his name alone. He is then confronted by Lucas, who has distressing news: According to the latest election projections, McKay is set to be defeated by an overwhelming margin come November. While McKay counted on losing, he never counted on being “humiliated” – and the recent primary win means he can no longer back out and quit the race. Worried by a possible blowout, he agrees to start “broadening” his message to appeal to more voters.

Throughout the next several months, McKay travels the state and campaigns, with his liberal statements eroding each day. His early support of abortion rights and gun control fade to mush, while his stump speech is reduced to the same few clichés and a new slogan: “For a better way: Bill McKay!” The new approach causes McKay to gain in the public opinion polls, but he has a new problem. Because McKay’s father has stayed completely out of the race, the media speculates that such silence is actually an endorsement of Jarmon. McKay begrudgingly meets his father and tells him the problem. McKay’s father then tells the media he is not endorsing Jarmon, simply honoring his son’s wishes to stay out of the race.

As McKay continues to do as he’s told (rather than say what’s in his heart), he continues to gain in the polls. As the campaign continues, McKay suddenly becomes self-aware that he is being manipulated and yells at Lucas to explain what the campaign has become. Though Lucas never verbalizes it, it’s evident that, in his wisdom, Lucas saw McKay as an unpolished gem – a candidate who began with things you couldn’t buy: good looks, confidence and massive name recognition. Lucas then counted on molding McKay as the months went along. Lucas tells McKay that the shift in election strategy isn’t important. What is important, he says, is that McKay is now only four points down – so close, in fact, that Jarmon proposed a debate. Lucas says the debate will provide a chance to close the last gap in the polls. McKay, somewhat resigned to his new course of strategy, agrees to give tailored answers in the debate, rather than his real opinions. The debate happens, and the two candidates trade barbs, with McKay the slight winner overall. Just as the debate is ending, McKay has a pang of conscience and blurts out that the debate didn’t address any real subjects, such as poverty and race. Lucas and his staffers are furious, knowing this outburst will hurt the campaign. The media go to confront McKay backstage about his remarks but arrive just as John J. McKay appears and vigorously congratulates his son on the debate, having been very impressed with the honesty McKay showed at the end. Instead of the media reporting on McKay’s outburst, the story becomes the reemergence of former Gov. McKay to help his son. The positive story, coupled with McKay’s father’s help on the campaign trail, puts things neck and neck with Jarmon.

Election day arrives and volunteers canvass to get out the vote. McKay, meanwhile, has strayed so far from his original values that he’s in a hotel room having an affair with a staffer. The votes are counted and McKay wins. In one of the movie’s more famous scenes, McKay escapes the victory party and pulls Lucas into a room while throngs of journalists clamor outside. McKay then asks Lucas: “Marvin ... What do we do now?” McKay was so preoccupied with being a candidate, and has become so used to being told what to do in that role, that he has no idea how he will actually go about being a Senator on his own.

[edit] Analysis

The film highlights many criticisms of modern day American politics, such as the importance of money and the emphasis on the image of political candidates. In particular, the degeneration of McKay from an idealistic public-interest lawyer working for unpopular and then-little-known causes (the young environmentalist movement, civil rights for Latinos, integration through busing) and strong opinions on all issues into a construct of his campaign, dominated by idiotic little slogans (most notably "Bill McKay: the better way") and a road-weary nervous wreck, to boot.


[edit] Reception

N.Y. Times (June 30, 1972) reviewer Vincent Canby applauded Redford's performance and commented that: "The Candidate is serious, but its tone is coldly comic, as if it had been put together by people who had given up hope." Christopher Null from filmcritic.com gave the film 4.5/5 and said: "... this satire on an American institution continues to gain relevance instead of lose it."

[edit] Cast

[edit] Selected quotations

  • Bill McKay: It's the basic indifference that made this country great.
  • Marvin Lucas: You're the Democratic nominee for Senator.
    Bill McKay: You make that sound like a death sentence.
  • Bill McKay: So vote once, vote twice, for Bill McKay... you middle class honkies.
  • In an ominous voice, an election-day sound truck bellows: What has Bill McKay done for California? Not much... but his father was governor.
  • Bill McKay: What do we do now?

[edit] Trivia

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../t/h/e/The_Candidate_%281972_film%29_c46d.html"
In other languages