Zachary Earl Smith

Cute, funny, not bad, and a good satirical political film good for several laughs. The film does deal with some serious adult themes that may be difficult for some younger audiences as the film is really geared for adults.

Basic plot: Presidential election ties and it is down to one state, but one man’s ballot got chewed up by the electronic machine and by state law is allowed to recast his ballot. Now one man will elect the leader of the free world. What ensues next is a rather interesting commentary on our current media and our emerging voyeur culture.

I was a little worried at first when the Democratic candidate and his campaign team were presented as considerably more sympathetic and personable. I was also bothered by that the Democrat had a wife and the Republican was left with no one other than his own highly exaggerated vanity. By the end of the film though I would say things evened out and both parties were pretty equally bashed. The funniest part of the film is a montage sequence of each candidate doing commercials in which they take the other party’s position. Basically Republicans talking about being pro gay marriage and Democrats being pro life, funny stuff and done rather well. This caused each candidate to have a crisis of conscience and ultimately it was the Republican candidate that found his own internal moral campus, while the Democrat had to be slapped into it by his wife. The balance of bashing Republicans and Democrats by the end of the movie I thought was fair for the most part, but frankly was really just down right hilarious most of the times. Clearly the writers of this script don’t think much of the media and in particular politicians, but Kevin Costner plays one really good red neck. As a political junkie and as a candidate myself I enjoyed the movie and I recommend it.

On a personal note which I think it is important to mention, the film does at times try too hard to get you to think about big issues. That being said, I found the battle between the candidates and their campaign operatives pressuring them to do stuff they didn’t want to do all too familiar. I don’t think people always fully appreciate the pressure candidates themselves are put under by their own staff. Keep in mind these people have staked their careers on their candidate and if they lose are literally unemployed. The temptation to set aside the candidate’s beliefs and wishes can become dwarfed by the emotion and drive to win at all costs, as there is no prize for second place. Now I’m running for state office so I don’t have a staff, but you’d actually be very surprised at the amount of pressure that can come at you to change positions. This is why I think so many politicians take the easy road using neutral ground language and say a lot without saying anything. To a certain extent people bring it on themselves by demanding their candidates be all things to all people. This is why I think you so rarely see a candidate be truly bold or stick to his guns on the issues, as after are all we are all human. It tends to be so much easier to give in and tend be all façade. This is why I have profound respect for politicians who can rise above and be who they really are, although I only wish this was rewarded more often because it isn’t. Perhaps then we’d get more politicians of substance than the majority of regurgitated sock puppets we tend to get. Anyway, just something the film got me thinking about as it did hit a lot of subjects that I my self am struggling with.

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