Republicans Archives - Movie SmackdownÂ®

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: Republican National Convention (2012) -vs- Democratic National Convention (2012)

September 6, 2012 Mark Sanchez 6

In less than two months Americans will write the final chapter of the recurring reality show we once called the presidential election. Former Massachusetts Governor Willard â€œMittâ€ Romney emerged from testy GOP Smackdown primaries with his haircut intact. President Barack Obama didnâ€™t have a Democrat opponent, but faced a tougher job: He had to govern during the run-up to the conventions.

Now the conventions are over, and itâ€™s our turn to cast a pre-vote of sorts. Just how well â€“ as TV events â€“ did the parties establish their candidates and focus their messages for November? […]

The Ides of March (2011) -vs- Primary Colors (1998)

October 11, 2011 Bryce Zabel 3

The list of more-than-decent films about political campaigns is a short one. Nobody will ever forget Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson in The Best Man or even The Candidate with the Kennedy-esque Robert Redford. During the Years of Lewinsky, Primary Colors took us into the thinly-disguised 1992 Clinton campaign. Now we have The Ides of March, proudly wearing its cynicism on its sleeve at a time when Obama gets pilloried for being practical. In the most recent films, the candidates have that certain problem we mentioned earlier. (Redford is famously remembered in The Candidate as muttering, after winning, “What do we do now?”, but there’s also a quick moment of a campaign worker leaving his room in the morning earlier in the film.)
[…]