By Peter Killip.
After being strong armed into sitting through 120 minutes of Hugh Jackman getting acted off the screen by Spielberg endorsed “Rock-’em Sock-’em” robots in “Real Steel”, I needed this. If you’ve not seen it, or like me, simply not seen it in an absolute age, allow me to recap: Robert Redford plays Bill McKay, an idealistic young liberal lawyer who gets persuaded to run against the Republicans in something of a thankless and uphill battle, convinced he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell, starts his campaign trail making hollow promises finding it an ideal platform to raise some issues that aren’t being broached by the old guard and speak his mind.
Being a rarity in politics, someone that is free of spin or backslapping, he’s seen as a breath of fresh air, it starts to look more and more like a winnable race for the democrats but that means compromise. A biting, straight faced look at the pitfalls of gaining absolute power and losing more than just votes along the way. George Clooney definitely had this handy when he directed the underwhelming “Ides Of March”, that wanted to be scathing but merely served as an exercise in baton passing between A-lister old to A-lister new before spending a brief moment or two on the liberal “Naughty step”.
It’s been aped many times since to varying levels of success but this one still manages to resonate to this day, with its moments of somewhat saucer-eyed idealism giving way to world weary resignation and the cyclical and cynical nature of society and politics in general. Oscar winning screenplay aside, this is an overlooked classic and any fan of Sidney Lumet’s more cynical work or David Fincher’s take on “House Of Cards” could do a hell of a lot worse than see where this one takes them.
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