PRIMARY COLORS (1998)
Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 4.0) ******************************** Key to rating system: 2.0 stars - Debatable 2.5 stars - Some people may like it 3.0 stars - I liked it 3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie 4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out ********************************* A Movie Review by David Sunga
Directed by: Mike Nichols
Written by: Elaine May (screenplay), based on the novel by 'anonymous' (former NEWSWEEK political commentator Joe Klein)
Starring: Adrian Lester, John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Maura Tierney, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates
Ingredients: Presidential primary elections, Bill Clinton-type candidate, Hillary-type wife, young idealist
Synopsis: Is he or isn't he? That is the main question in this documentary-like portrayal of a 1990s Presidential primary campaign. Is presidential hopeful Jack Stanton essentially a decent man who must be ambiguous and ruthless, and play hardball politics because the Presidential race demands it, or is he an ambiguous and ruthless hardball politician who is only playing at being a decent man in order to get votes?
This is the main substance of the movie PRIMARY COLORS, and the question remains unresolved even at the end of the movie. As a vehicle for getting the audience to ask the question, PRIMARY COLORS follows the 'coming of age' of Henry (Adrian Lester), a young black idealist who joins the staff of Governor Stanton's presidential campaign. Henry is similar to real life former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos. Other campaign staff members in PRIMARY COLORS include strategist Richard (Billy Bob Thornton), gay Libby (Kathy Bates), and media relations expert Daisy (Maura Tierney).
At first Henry is enthralled and charmed by Stanton because he believes he has at last found a decent politician. But as the campaign winds its way through two sex scandals and mudslinging attacks by political opponents, Henry learns that Stanton might in fact be a ruthless pretender. So is he, or isn't he? Henry ponders.
John Travolta plays Presidential hopeful Governor Jack Stanton and Emma Thompson plays the governor's wife Susan Stanton. They seem to look and act exactly like Bill and Hillary Clinton (including Bill Clinton's silvery hair, high pitched voice, and Southern accent). Because the movie is based on a 1996 'Washington insider' book about Clinton, the movie dramatizes events that parallel Clinton's first presidential primary campaign. A large part of their campaign involves dodging a big sex scandal involving a Gennifer Flowers-type hair salonist named Cashmere McCleod.
Opinion: The movie PRIMARY COLORS cannot be separated from the events of real life. In WAG THE DOG the fictional American President was hit with a sex scandal and responded by deflecting media attention to a bogus war with Albania. In real life President Clinton was hit with allegations of sexual misconduct, and media attention soon turned to an impending showdown with Iraq.
Today, fresh from the Monica Lewinsky scandal, in which President Clinton was criticized for deliberately obstructing people from knowing about his sex life, President Clinton faces more sex allegations from Kathleen Willey. Similarly, in PRIMARY COLORS, zipper-guy candidate Stanton faces pressure from accusations that he had sex with a hairdresser and impregnated a teen baby sitter. And just as the fictional Stanton beats the scandals, it seems very odd, but Clinton's approval ratings seem to rise after each new woman.
So what are we to make of PRIMARY COLORS, a movie which concentrates not on policies or issues, but on whether or not we should trust the lying, philandering Stanton to be a good President?
In my opinion PRIMARY COLORS is not particularly exciting, and it never really answers its principle question. It is a well acted movie, and does an excellent job of depicting complex and relevant people in thinly disguised real life situations.
Reviewed by David Sunga March 20, 1998
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