The Contender (2000)

Director: Rod Lurie
Starring: Gary Oldman, Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges, Christian Slater, Sam Elliott, William L. Petersen

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I'm a little upset that the reviews for this movie weren't a little better. Both The New York Times and Salon.com laughed it off as completely unrealistic. I, on the other hand, laugh at Stephen Holden, NYT review, because he's a bit of a pretentious poo and pretty much everyone at Salon because...well pretty much for the same reasons. Salon calls it Capra-esque, and that much might be true. Well, it would be Capra with a gang bang, but the statement still strangely holds true. As far as realism in political fictions, let's take a look here: Dave? Hm, nope. The American President? Nnnope. Nixon, perhaps? We'll slide The Manchurian Candidate in there. How's about The West Wing? I hope you're seeing the pattern. Why in God's name would anyone want to watch a realistic political fiction? We don't have Parliment where our guys sling insults back and forth. Our politics is a little...wooden. Then again, C-SPAN isn't really my thing. As I said before, however, I'm pretty biased in my opinion about the movie. It's got a strong liberal bent (I'm a fan). It was directed by my director's (Danielle's) brother *cough*name drop*cough*. I've got to say, the thing is really wittily written, too. Sure there are some really unnecessary camera moves in there but hey, directors show off. That's kind of what they do. Do I even need to mention the immaculate casting? Gary Oldman is on fi-ya with his portrayal of an American Senator. Whose truly inspired idea was it to cast Sam Elliot as the president's right hand man? And who doesn't want more Christian Slater?

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Hm. Am I forgetting anything? Probably. Ah well. This is a fluffy, entertaining movie. Enjoy it if you're liberal. Despise it if you're conservative.

July 5
apartment TV, evening

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