'Reel'-life politics sometimes trumps real life

Bill Knight column for Oct. 1, 2 or 3, 2018

            In a few weeks, the midterm elections will end campaigns that too often have “stooped to conquer,” but movies can offer an escape to familiar political contests and characters, from heroes to cads, candidates showing idealism or seeking graft.

            For decades Hollywood has given moviegoers a pleasant and familiar, inspiring and amusing mix of hope and corruption, demagogues and Everymen. Films about politics can be about federal offices ("The Senator Was Indiscreet") or local elections ("The Glass Key"). Movies about politics are varied, too. There are crime dramas ("Bullets or Ballots"), comedies ("Beau James"), biographies ("Abe Lincoln in Illinois," "The Missiles of October"), suspense yarns ("Suddenly," with Frank Sinatra), and dramas "Nixon" and "JFK," both directed by filmmaker Oliver Stone).

            Here are 10 of the best:

            "Advise and Consent" (1962). Henry Fonda stars in this gripping film version of Allen Drury's bestseller about inside-the-Beltway politics in Washington. Charles Laughton is outstanding as a Southern politician, but Otto Preminger directed a solid cast also including Burgess Meredith, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford, Don Murray, Franchot Tone and Gene Tierney.

            "All The King's Men" (1949). The rise and fall of a country lawyer who becomes a rural fascist (based on Huey P. Long) is showcased in this entry written, produced and directed by Robert Rossen (who a few years later would be targeted during the McCarthy Red Scare). Broderick Crawford stars in the story, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren. The film won a Best Picture Oscar, but Crawford stands out as a shrewd, ambitious, brutal politico.

            "The Best Man" (1964). Backroom politics in Washington is the subject of this drama by Gore Vidal, who adapted his play. Cliff Robertson and Henry Fonda star as political rivals competing for their party's nomination for President.       Ann Sothern, Edie Adams, Shelly Berman and Lee Tracy co-star.

            "Bob Roberts" (1992). Tim Robbins' directorial debut is a hilarious mock-umentary of a Right-wing folk singer's campaign for the Senate.            Featuring finny song parodies like "Wall Street Rap" and "This Land (Was Made for Me)," it co-stars Alan Rickman, David Strathairn, Susan Sarandon and James Spader.

            "Bulworth" (1998). Warren Beatty wrote, directed and stars in this quirky comedy/tragedy about race, class, media and politics. He's an incumbent Senator on the verge of emotional collapse when he sets up an assassination -- of himself -- then reconsiders. The cast is terrific: Halle Berry, Paul Sorvino and Don Cheadle

            "The Candidate" (1972). An apolitical attorney (Robert Redford) becomes a politician, competing against an incumbent, and it doesn't take long for him to realize he's sacrificed his values and more. Peter Boyle and Melvyn Douglas co-star

            "Election" (1999). Matthew Broderick is almost a grown-up Ferris Bueller in this dark comedy about a too-good-to-be-true high schooler running for class president. Mudslinging ensues, and charges of a rigged election. Reese Witherspoon co-stars in the best glimpse of high schools since "Heathers.

            "The Last Hurrah" (1958). John Ford directed Spencer Tracy as a political boss in this look at a party's lust for power and an individual's conscience. As a cynical newspaperman and the boss's nephew, Jeffrey Hunter is terrific as he comes to respect the old man's grit and heart. A classic, it co-stars Pat O'Brien, John Carradine, Jane Darwell and Basil Rathbone

            "Meet John Doe" (1941). Frank Capra directed this tribute to populist America – and warning of red-white-and-blue fascism – with Gary Cooper in the title role. A Right-wing tycoon (Edward Arnold) takes over a big newspaper; manipulating stories, the unscrupulous media magnate is revealed as a paramilitary fascist willing to use Doe to "crash national politics." The social commentary, which co-stars Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Brennan, was shaped in part to fight Nazi sympathizers then in the United States

            "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939). Jimmy Stewart stars in one of Hollywood's best movies, about a reluctant, idealistic Senator who runs afoul of a Congress built on favoritism and graft. Stewart's performance personifies liberty, democracy and morality, and Claude Rains is great as a fallen Senator. Also starring are Jean Arthur and Thomas Mitchell.