Four years ago on the evening of Election Day, my husband
and I watched the movie Dave rather
than be subjected to the interminable banter of newscasters plying us with the
latest election results. I don’t
care for that kind of nail biting, anxiety provoking TV as the ballots are
counted, so suggested we see a good political movie. If you’ve never seen Dave,
you really must. It’s a
heart-warming comedy starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver where a look
alike to the President fills in as the man in the oval office when illness
besets the real President.
But this year on election night I selected Swing Vote, a PG-13 2008 comedy starring
Kevin Costner. I again didn’t want
to subject myself to the above nail biting, anxiety producing network coverage
of the election and we had a great time watching Kevin as Bud Johnson, a man
who has the unenviable task of casting the sole vote that will decide the next
President of the United States.
The film was shot on location in New Mexico (Belen, Albuquerque,
and Santa Fe), so of course I relished picking out landmarks. But I also loved the story. Bud is a single parent of a precocious
5th grader named Molly, who embraces her education and is
enthusiastic about everyone’s civic duty to cast his or her vote for President. Bud is, shall we say, not the brightest
star in the sky, and through a chain of unusual events, has both the Republican
incumbent and the Democratic candidate courting him for his vote.
What ensues is sheer comedy, with not a little commentary on
the current flawed political campaign and lobbying process in America. The other significant theme of this
film is the network news, individual reporters and producers seeing the
coverage of Bud and his choice as a ticket to big time network stardom. Through this unique situation of one
man casting the deciding vote, each person has to think about their own
personal values, what is important and how much they’re willing to sacrifice
for success.
The film also stars Kelsey Grammer as the President, and
Dennis Hopper as the Democratic candidate, with supporting roles by Stanley
Tucci and Nathan Lane as their campaign advisors. Also appearing are George Lopez, and Judge Reinhold, someone
I hadn’t seen in a movie in a long time, but that I’ve heard lives up near
Santa Fe somewhere.
I highly recommend Swing
Vote and also encourage you to make your own Election night tradition in four years with
a political film to pass the time until the results are in. The two I’ve mentioned are comedies,
uplifting with a definite message or moral to the story, but there are many
other political themed movies that you could pick. I wanted something more light-hearted, but another I saw
this year was The Ides of March, which was a drama and much more serious.
I’d love comments about your favorite political movies and
why you enjoy them.
