The Candidate (1972)

 

The Candidate tracks the campaign for U.S. Senator from California pitting the incumbent Crocker Jarmon (reliable supporting player Don Porter) against Bill McKay (Robert Redford at his most handsome and charismatic), the son of a former governor who is recruited to run because there’s no expectation that he could actually defeat his opponent. That expected loss is supposed to give McKay the freedom to speak his mind on the issues, but once he begins to close the gap in the polls, the political machine starts attempting to “handle” him and mold him into the more typical kind of candidate. The filmmakers use a documentary style to present the narrative; it’s clearly influenced by the cinema verite movement, and one could easily mistake it for an actual campaign documentary. We see it all: the handshaking, the back-room endorsements, stump speeches, photo opportunities, encounters with supporters and detractors, even a debate that turns rancorous in its final moments. There are also moments of absurdity, such as when McKay does some ridiculous verbal exercises in the back seat of a car on the way to another stop; in particular, he butchers his standard and oft-repeated campaign speech by twisting the words around and inserting weird noises, much to the bewilderment of his handlers in the front seat. Throughout the film, there is a sharp contrast between the candidates. As the establishment candidate, Jarmon, who is a Republican (naturally), displays the habits of a long-time politician whose ideas are stagnant and whose key talking points all seem to be jingoistic bumper stickers. His crowds are overwhelmingly white, largely male, usually somewhat older, and wealthier looking. McKay’s crowds tend to be younger, more ethnically diverse, more middle class than Jarmon’s. However, McKay isn’t always the savviest politician, and he often risks alienating some of his potential voters. He sometimes speaks his mind bluntly even though his handlers (chief among them Marvin Lucas, played by Peter Boyle) tell him that, for example, you can’t talk for too long on television and you have to keep your positions somewhat vague. The more popular McKay becomes, the more the press speculates about the reasons for why his father, former governor John J. McKay (the great Melvyn Douglas in a small but pivotal part) hasn’t endorsed him. A sequence involving the younger McKay visiting his father in order to ask for support is a lesson in humility; his father wasn’t universally popular during his tenure, but without his backing, McKay seemingly has little chance to break the stranglehold that incumbency typically has. When Election Day arrives and he actually wins, McKay utters the film’s great closing line. On his way to accept the nomination, he and his advisor escape to a room where he briefly asks, “Marvin…what do we do now?” The film provides no answer, suggesting that maybe so much energy is devoted to winning that candidates aren’t really prepared to govern. It’s quite interesting to watch this film more than forty years after its release and realize how it still rings true. The ways that candidates are packaged and presented—described in clear detail in the film by actual newscaster Howard K. Smith—has only gotten worse since 1972, and each election year (are there any years that don’t have elections anymore?) demonstrates just how prescient in many ways The Candidate was/is.

Oscar Win: Best Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced

Other Oscar Nomination: Best Sound