BuzzFlash Reviews

April 2005

The Contender (2000) DVD

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

If you aren't into politics, you won't like this film. If you are into progressive politics, you'll love it.

We almost forgot about "The Contender," but we were reminiscing as we approach our fifth year of publishing BuzzFlash and recalled seeing the film at the time we were launching Buzz, and we recalled it being insightful as to the basic conflict going on in America today: white males and their subservient wives who are opposed to the rise of women in American life, especially politics.

"The Contender" reminds you that the right wing will drive an "uppity" woman into the gutter in order to preserve power, at whatever price. The wingnuts are delusional about their own immorality and firmly believe that practicing evil in the pursuit of some illusionary moral code is permissible, when in fact they just are evil. The "religious morality" they claim to uphold is like a practicing prostitute leading a crusade for virginity.

So why should BuzzFlash readers see a film from 2000?

Because this Hollywood delight -- and it is a Hollywood film to be sure -- brings to the foreground the Democratic/Republican conflict through the story of a female U.S. Senator (Joan Allen) who is nominated to become vice-president to fill a vacancy after a death. Jeff Bridges plays the Democratic President who squares off with the vile Gary Oldman, the Republican chair of a House Committee, who is determined to drag Joan Allen through the gutter and see her nomination defeated, almost solely because she is a woman.

As is par for a fire and brimstone Republican, Oldman has the usual hypocrisy piled up in his closet. And Bridges is not your usual Democrat; he has spine and an uncanny ability to manipulate politicians of either party. And unlike most Democrats in leadership positions; he plays to win. He isn't about to back to down from this fight. His legacy is going to be a female vice-president who is worthy of the job because she embodies integrity, even if she doesn't wear it on the sleeve of her blouse.

Republicans talk integrity but gain power by practicing gutter politics; Democrats generally embody fair play and Constitutional principles, but fear the call to battle.

Fortunately, Jeff Bridges is one sly president, a poker player extraordinaire, assisted by the profane advice of Sam Elliot as his chief advisor.

Allen plays an uncompromising political figure who would have lost the poker game, because she was the only one who wasn't cheating at the table. Bridges knows how everyone is cheating and what their vulnerabilities are. He's as at ease being president as Clinton was.

In her closing statement before Oldman's committee, after being dragged through a Matt Drudge slime attack, she declares, something like, "Yes, I am for the separation of church and state, but I worship in the chapel of democracy."

We said it was a Hollywood film and it tugs at your heart strings, if YOU worship in the chapel of democracy. But what's so bad about a couple of hours about feeling good about virtue and principles and putting up the good fight?

What's changed since 2000 is that the Gary Oldmans of the rabid GOP are in power. His character is a combination of Tom DeLay, Jerry Falwell, and Rick Santorum -- or a slew of other GOP moral hypocrites. These guys are running the show, not Jeff Bridges.

In 2000, in a Hollywood film, the patriots triumphed. We won't make you sweat it out.

But we can't protect you from the fact that after the lights come on you have to return to the reality of a nation run by delusional demagogues.

The acting is superb. Much of the political detail is dead on accurate. It may be a bit mawkish at times, but you'll love it just the same.

Does one have to be a liberal to love democracy?

See "The Contender," if you haven't already. So many lessons to be learned.

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS