Mjeteconer
Just perfect...
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
Jerrie
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
SnoopyStyle
In a Presidential convention, William Russell (Henry Fonda) and Joe Cantwell (Cliff Robertson) are the leading candidates. Russell is a principled intellectual with personal issues that could haunt him. His estranged wife Alice is supportive publicly. Cantwell is a populist on the outside, and a ruthless opportunist on the inside. His wife is superficial. They struggle for the endorsement of the departing President Art Hockstader. Cantwell threatens to Hockstader that he would release Russell's secret psychiatric hospital records. In his all important speech, Hockstader doesn't give a direct endorsement throwing the convention open. He has concerns about Russell but vows to stop Cantwell.This is a political movie of the era. The main characters are referencing politicians of the time. It loses a little with the passage of time. Fonda and Robertson are exceptional. Writer Gore Vidal injects the movie with plenty of behind the scenes realism. It is more real than most political thrillers of that era.
dougdoepke
The movie's a cynical look behind-the-scenes at American presidential politics. Conflicted idealist candidate Russell (Fonda) needs just a few more delegate votes to go over the top. But can he play the kind of political hardball necessary to get them. At the same time, ruthless candidate Cantwell (Robertson) won't hesitate to throw dirt from the past to discredit him. Trouble is that Russell will have to lower himself to Cantwell's level to stave off the attack, something that would injure his strong sense of character.Writer Vidal does a good job of dramatizing the conflict between ideals and practical politics. We all respect strong ideals, so Russell comes off as the good guy, conflicted, but basically what we think presidents are supposed to be. What I like is Vidal's questioning of whether ideals are enough qualification for the highest office. That comes about through Cantwell's questioning of whether his opponent is decisive enough to be a commander-in-chief. Of course, Cantwell is nothing if not decisive; he knows what he wants. On the other hand, Russell wavers when confronted with a difficult choice. After all, he's got many more norms than his rival to consider. However, Cantwell points out that such wavering could be fatal for a chief executive in a dire situation. Of course, this important point tends to get lost in the good guy – bad guy colorations between the two chief candidates. But the point is a telling one as it gets reflected in the movie's outcome, when Russell disqualifies himself from candidacy. Note too, that Cantwell is finally undone by the sheer drive that causes him to fatally misjudge Russell's character. After that, the movie leaves off on a rather ambiguous note despite the symbolism of an upward bound escalator. As a result, we're left wondering whether the best man has really won, especially since Merwin, the remaining candidate, remains a cypher.Director Schaffner does an excellent job of capturing the hurly-burly of a nominating convention. Knots of people are constantly bouncing off each other like billiard balls. How anything cogent could come out of such apparent disorder is hard to believe, but I guess it does. Meanwhile, writer Vidal's particular dislikes are also pretty close to the surface, especially as directed toward southern politicians, along with segregationists in general. At the same time, he appears to take the slimy deal making, blackmail, and betrayals, as an orthodox part of politics-as-usual. My only real complaint is with comedian-turned-actor, Shelley Berman. He plays his informer role almost as if it were shtick. His craven mannerisms are more comical than convincing. Too bad, because otherwise the movie manages a persuasive air of realism.All in all, the movie stands the test of time pretty well. Issues like legal segregation have faded, but the mechanics of political deal-making, et al., likely remain in effect. I'm glad the film doesn't take the easy way out by reinforcing good-guys-always-win beliefs, a regular feature of 50's films. Sure, Cantwell comes across as something of a political bad guy. But sometimes, bad guys can say incisive things, as Cantwell does here. While good guys, even though basically good, can be too cerebral for the job. And that seems to me an important lesson to note.
Michael Neumann
Gore Vidal, always one of our more honest and entertaining political insiders, provides a typically critical look at the closeted skeletons and backstabbing power plays behind a national presidential convention, where Henry Fonda and a young Cliff Robertson square off for their party's nomination. Fonda, more or less typecast as the more rational candidate, plays an admirable but unexciting character surrounded (thankfully) by a gallery of colorful eccentrics bordering on, but never quite reaching, the level of caricature. Chief among them is his rival, Robertson, a sleazy right-wing demagogue modeled, according to the author, after Richard Nixon, although his paranoid tirades would fit comfortably anywhere in the shallow soapbox of post-Reagan political discourse. Oscar nominee Lee Tracy and comedian Shelley Berman lend memorable support, but the real star of the film is Vidal's barbed wit and malicious political insight, none of which has aged a day, even while the old-style national convention depicted here has long since devolved into a meaningless charade of choreographed soundbites and corporate slogans.
johno-21
An interesting political drama with satirical humor and a screenplay by Gore Vidal. Vidal successfully adapted the screenplay for the film from his own play. The play Vidal was nominated for six Tony Awards and won two of them for Best Play and Best Actor for Melvyn Douglas in the role of William Russell that would be played by Henry Fonda in the film. the only actor from the original Broadway play that reprises his role for the film was Lee Tracy who was nominated for both a Tony Award and an Academy Award for his interpretation of the role of former president Art Hockstader. At the time of the original staging of the play on Broadway in 1960, Vidal himself was testing the political waters with his own ambition of a political career in his unsuccessful run for U.S. Congress. In the film, former governor and former secretary of state William Russell (Henry Fonda) is the front runner by a slight edge in delegates over senator Joe Cantwell (Cliff Robertson) at a nameless major political party's presidential convention being held in Los Angeles. (in the play the site was Philadelphia) Russell is a man of steadfast determination and principal when it comes to leading the country but has a reputation as a womanizer and has some past mental health issues that his main rival Cantwell will use if he can. Cantwell is a slick politician who will say whatever it takes to get the nomination but Russell has a card of his own on Cantwell's past history and his involvement in a military sex scandal. Former president Art Hocker (Lee Tracy) is the ailing elder statesman whose support is coveted by both Russell and Cantwell and the the other three minor candidates who hold convention delegates, governor T.T. Claypoole (John Henry Faulk), senator Oscar Anderson (Richard Arlen) and governor John Merwin (William R. Ebersol). The three minor candidates are vying for the vice presidency on the ticket with their delegate swing support and the big question is who will win the delegate count, Russell or Cantwell and how many ballots will it take? A stellar cast with additional supporting roles from Margaret Leighton as Alice Russell, Edie Adams as Mabel Cantwell, Ann southern as Sue Ellen Gamadge, Shelly Berman as Sheldon Bascom and Kevin McCarthy as Dick Jensen. Shot by cinematographer Wexler who photographed Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, Bound for Glory and One Flew over the Cuckoo's nest to name a few in his long respected career and is still filming today. Franklin Schaffer who directed such classics as Papillon, Patton, Planet of the Apes and The boys from Brazil directs. Robert Swink who edited Funny Girl, Roman Holiday and Boys from Brazil edits. It's a great cast and crew of filmmakers and worth a look to check out this black and white film from 1964 and compare notes with the then and now. I would give this an 8.0 out of 10.
