Game Change - 3 stars!
So I watched that HBO movie, "Game Change," about the addition of Sarah Palin to McCain's 2008 presidential election campaign, and was very impressed -- and also rather horrified. What sort of surprised me was how much I enjoyed it just as a drama, that would have been compelling to watch even if 100% fictional (as some on the right are claiming it is). The performances are excellent, and it really captures a rather frightening surreality to the whole business, along with a sense of slowly growing horror from the aides who allowed it all to happen and then couldn't stop it as it transformed into a juggernaut. Of course the ending is a foregone conclusion (spoiler alert: Obama wins), but the point isn't to shock you with the twists and turns of the plot, but to suck you in to the human drama that plays out behind the scenes, and it does an excellent job at it. All of the characters are humanized, and while I would say the portrait it paints of Palin is unflattering on the whole, she's no cardboard villain. I can see Steve Schmidt as a guy who was playing to win, wanting to get the guy he believed in elected through realpolitik that blew up in his face to a spectacularly unfathomable degree. And it's hard not to feel sorry for Nicolle Wallace, who didn't have anything to do with Palin's selection and wound up so bothered by the idea of Palin as VP that she winds up... well, spoiler it yourself if you don't know, that revelation works best in the narrative. McCain almost gets it too good, he's almost unfailingly shown to be a decent guy who refuses to stoop to any method. I seem to recall the real McCain backing down on almost every unorthodox position he ever took, but oh well, creative license.
What's scary is to have lived through that period and to have known how much of it WAS true, how close we came to putting a completely unqualified person a heartbeat away from the presidency. When I watch the movie as a narrative drama, I sympathize with the characters. When I watch it as a piece of history, I'm horrified all over again, thinking how easy it is to empathize with the people responsible and understand their choices. Sarah Palin never should have been on the ticket for a major political party, but in the name of ambition and expediency she was put on the fast track to power without being properly vetted first. It's a dire warning about how we choose candidates and the pitfalls of putting a campaign ahead of the nation, and for all that I want to point partisan fingers at the Republicans I think the movie does a good job of so completely removing specific policy aspects that I am able to believe it was less their platform in particular, than Washington politics -- and the human ability to rationalize -- in general. Both parties take heed.
(Of course, Palin is still around and shows no signs of having grown, intellectually or morally, but I don't think she will ever have legitimacy as a national candidate. A demagogue, yes, but it's not like the right has ever lacked for any of those.)
One particular bit I certainly didn't hear about in 2008 was the part where Palin thought the head of government in England was the queen and not the prime minister (which is the exact moment Steve Schmidt starts to get a glimpse at what he's gotten the campaign into, and help me if I couldn't but pity the man a little). It's so outrageous my initial reaction was that HBO must have made it up, but apparently they did confirm it with Schmidt, although some are disputing it since Palin had named Thatcher as one of her idols before the conversation took place -- although I for one have no problem imagining Palin had heard of Thatcher as a beloved conservative icon but had no real idea what her actual position was or entailed. She didn't know what her OWN job was going to entail!
Anyway, I liked it, and would recommend it if you have any interest at all in political drama.
What's scary is to have lived through that period and to have known how much of it WAS true, how close we came to putting a completely unqualified person a heartbeat away from the presidency. When I watch the movie as a narrative drama, I sympathize with the characters. When I watch it as a piece of history, I'm horrified all over again, thinking how easy it is to empathize with the people responsible and understand their choices. Sarah Palin never should have been on the ticket for a major political party, but in the name of ambition and expediency she was put on the fast track to power without being properly vetted first. It's a dire warning about how we choose candidates and the pitfalls of putting a campaign ahead of the nation, and for all that I want to point partisan fingers at the Republicans I think the movie does a good job of so completely removing specific policy aspects that I am able to believe it was less their platform in particular, than Washington politics -- and the human ability to rationalize -- in general. Both parties take heed.
(Of course, Palin is still around and shows no signs of having grown, intellectually or morally, but I don't think she will ever have legitimacy as a national candidate. A demagogue, yes, but it's not like the right has ever lacked for any of those.)
One particular bit I certainly didn't hear about in 2008 was the part where Palin thought the head of government in England was the queen and not the prime minister (which is the exact moment Steve Schmidt starts to get a glimpse at what he's gotten the campaign into, and help me if I couldn't but pity the man a little). It's so outrageous my initial reaction was that HBO must have made it up, but apparently they did confirm it with Schmidt, although some are disputing it since Palin had named Thatcher as one of her idols before the conversation took place -- although I for one have no problem imagining Palin had heard of Thatcher as a beloved conservative icon but had no real idea what her actual position was or entailed. She didn't know what her OWN job was going to entail!
Anyway, I liked it, and would recommend it if you have any interest at all in political drama.