In keeping with the election season, I got to thinking of my favorite political themed movies. There are many that I like: SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, BEST MAN, FAIL SAFE, DR. STRANGELOVE: OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (the original). But the one that resonates the most with me, the one that I lived through, is the classic ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN.
I fully remember the Watergate saga. We were living in New Hampshire at the time, and I vividly remember watching the hearings. It was better than a soap opera, except that this was real. If you think about it, the hearings were the first live reality show.
Watergate spawned so many great characters (and dare I say, eve heroes): Martha Mitchell, Sam Ervin, Elliott Richardson, Judge Sirica, John Dean. It also launched the careers of Woodward and Bernstein, who grabbed the tiger by the tail and didn't let go. And the movie perfectly captured the time, the culture, and the fear. Yes, fear in Richard Nixon's Washington.
2 comments:
I've gotta tell you, your article in the latest Moviebytes newsletter was the most senseless, rambling bunch of boring nonesense I've ever read. You're a hack at best. For future reference, don't add political leanings to an article about screenplay contests again. We've been bombarded by enough of that lately. I've now removed myself from the newsletter because of you. Stick to blogging you hack.
Wow. Someone needs to take a chill pill. Guess you failed in "irony" and "sarcasm" in Creative Writing 101.
Truth be told, I've received a ton of great feedback on that essay, like this:
"Loved your list of Top Ten Ways to Lose a Contest. Wow! Right on the money. The strange thing is that I've been reading award winning scripts online (won't name the site) and many of these so-called "Winners" violate
many of the subjects on your list. It makes me crazy.
I just wanted to say that I found your list to be one of the best articles on this subject I have seen in a long time. I look
forward to reading more of your work."
But hey, different strokes for different folks.
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