Michael Cieply: From Campaign Flicks To ‘Civil War,’ The Political Genre Has Followed Us Down
deadline.comI’m not overly fond of politics. Given a choice, I’d rather talk food, or faraway places. But I do have a weakness for political films—or, more precisely, films about political campaigns.
The best of them have been sharp, often witty, and self-aware to the point of cynicism. Bulworth. The Campaign. Wag the Dog.
Primary Colors. Dave. As a genre, they tend toward satire, if not broad comedy. In one of my favorites, David Gordon Green’s Our Brand Is Crisis, two inimical American political consultants corrupt Bolivian politics by transplanting our worst habits to foreign shores.
It’s painfully funny stuff. Where serious, the campaign genre tends to be confessional. With The Ides of March, progressive filmmaker George Clooney, adapting a play be Beau Willimon, unmasked Faustian bargains behind the gleaming ideals of a “good” politician in a hard-fought Ohio primary.
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