Recount
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Movie Reviews of Recount
Movie Review: Republicans: Before you scream bias ...
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm sure that a lot of Republicans who saw Recount complained that the film is biased towards the Democratic side of the story. To be sure, the Democrats (led by Kevin Spacey as Ron Klain, Denis Leary as Michael Whouley and Ed Begley as David Boies) are clearly meant to be way more sympathetic than the Republicans (led by Tom Wilkinson as James Baker, Bob Balaban as Ben Ginsberg and, hilariously, Laura Dern as Katherine Harris). I have to admit that were I a Republican, it would be very easy to label Recount as yet another biased Hollywood product. However, the bias that appears so blatant on the surface is not as glaring when one digs deeper.
First of all, at least some of the dirty tricks detailed in Recount did indeed happen. The Florida GOP did suppress the vote by striking voters from the lists in minority districts who happened to have the same names as convicted felons. The GOP did encourage their supporters to harrass and intimidate election officials who were reviewing the ballots. The incident where hundreds of angry Bush supporters banged on the door of the office where the ballots were being counted was recorded on tape (in fact, a clip of the real incident is shown over the closing credits). And while it probably won't count as a dirty trick, the Supreme Court's ruling in Bush vs. Gore did indeed contain a clause that said that decision would not be binding in future cases. All of these incidents are documented.
Obviously, Katherine Harris could not have been happy with her portrayal in Recount. (Most of the cast met with their real life counterparts with the exception of Dern with Harris) However, Harris never threatened legal action against the filmmakers, indicating that either she didn't feel taking legal action was worth the trouble or that what the film said about her, while extremely unflattering, was basically true. Harris is portrayed as stupid, shallow, vain and clueless so it's hard to believe that she, as a person with political ambitions, would let such a damaging portrayal slide if it wasn't based in truth.
In addition, James Baker and Ben Ginsberg have both given Recount largely good reviews (Baker even hosted a screening of the film). Baker did point out several inaccuracies in Recount, but did state that he thought that the filmmakers "went out of their way to reach out to both sides."
To be sure, many of the Democrats are not portrayed in a sympathetic light. Bill Daley (Mitch Pileggi) gives up and basically disappears halfway through the recount battle. Warren Christopher (John Hurt) is portrayed as effete, ineffective negotiator who is more concerned about decorum than actually winning the election for Gore. In fact, aside from Katherine Harris, the real life counterpart who had the most problems with his portrayal was Christopher. Even Baker defended Christopher, claming that the former Secretary of State wasn't nearly as "wimpish" as he was portrayed in Recount.
Hollywood always takes some license, no matter what the subject matter. The climactic meeting between Spacey's Klain and Wilkinson's Baker, for example, never happened (Baker claimed it was added to add a bipartisan touch to the film). However, Recount is hardly as radically biased as some might claim. For example, when James Baker tells Ben Ginsberg of his wife's death and George H.W. Bush's kind offer to run his Congressional campaign as a way to get his mind off his loss, I don't think anyone -- Democrat or Republican -- will not be moved by the story. Recount, despite any claims to the contrary, is much more shades of gray than simple black and white.
Movie Review: Every Vote Counts - Maybe
Summary: 5 Stars
"Recount" is a brilliant docu-drama using actors and lots of real television footage to encapsulate the 2000 election fiasco in which George W. Bush was given the Presidency by a 5 to 4 vote by the Supreme Court of the United States in an unprecedented intervention in a presidential election recount.
I was a resident of Florida during this fateful period in American history, and it was an embarrassing and enlightening moment for Florida voters.
Kevin Spacey does a superb acting job portraying the point man for the Gore recount in the Sunshine State. Ex-Secretary of State Jim Baker played smart hardball for the Republican cause while ex-Secretary of State Warren Christopher proved how gutless, prim, proper, and pitiful he was as Gore's first leader in the recount. Joe Lieberman, Gore's vice-presidential running mate, helped to undermine the Gore recount.
The deck was stacked against Gore by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (with a devastating portrayal by Laura Dern) and by Governor Jeb Bush. They had laid the groundwork for a Republican victory. Gore nationwide won the popular vote by a half million votes, but in Florida there were improper vote counting, all kinds of screw-ups, poorly designed ballots, undercounting, and the disqualification of thousands who were turned away from the polls because their names were incorrectly placed on a felons' list.
Does this movie make a compelling case that an election was stolen? Yes. Is the movie biased in favor of the Gore faction? Yes. Should the Democrats have been more
aggressive and fought harder, earlier in the recount? Yes. Should Gore himself have gone to Florida and led the charge thus showing himself as gutsy and strong-willed enough to be President? Yes.
If the Supreme Court hadn't acted, the Florida Legislature, Republican controlled, was ready to declare Bush the winner. Talk about a stacked deck. I think the villains in this whole piece are the American people who stood idly by and by their apathy and lack of involvement proved that a person to be president has to have that "fire in the belly," but when the people in this democracy lack that "fire in the belly" to preserve the right for every vote to be counted, we are in real danger of losing our democracy.
Movie Review: Brings It ALL Back
Summary: 5 Stars
Ah, yes. November, 2000. Florida. Palm Beach County. Hanging chads. Jim Baker. Katherine Harris. Lawsuits. Noisy demonstrations. The Florida Supremes. The U.S. Supremes. More lawyers than ants at a picnic. A nation in suspended animation.
As Dickens would say, it was the best of times. . .it was the worst of times, and the HBO film RECOUNT brings it all back--from the tension and drama to actual CNN, FOX, and network news clips. The story is told mostly from the Democratic point of view, but why not? Their side ultimately lost (which subsequently meant the entire country lost), so isn't this perspective inherently more interesting? We get to meet Gore campaign operatives Ron Klain (Kevin Spacey is superb) and Michael Whouley (Denis Leary, whose expletive-laced description of Florida voting machines had me rolling on the floor), who experience endless frustration and setback after setback in their attempts to get all the votes counted. The Gore legal team is led by former Secretary of State Warren Christopher (John Hurt), who (according to the film) gives up his strategy of diplomacy and appeasement and makes way for the more aggressive Klain. I also got re-acquainted with Gore legal beagle David Boies (Ed Begley Jr.), who argued so eloquently before the U.S. Supreme Court.
On the Bush side, Tom Wilkinson is fantastic as feisty ex-Secretary of State Jim Baker; while Bob Balaban gives a most admirable performance as Bush campaign strategist Ben Ginsberg. But Laura Dern steals the entire show as Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris; from her Frankenstein makeup to her obvious cluelessness, this was one lady in way over her head.
RECOUNT brings back all the machinations and manipulations of the legal struggle for the Presidency of the United States, but it also gives us a very human component. For instance, at the end of the film, Baker gives Ginsberg a very moving anecdote about his switching political parties many years back. The human aspect adds to the drama and the intrigue, which makes reliving the 2000 election in RECOUNT a most rewarding experience.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
Movie Review: HBO DOES IT AGAIN WITH EMMY NOMINATED DOCUDRAMA
Summary: 5 Stars
We all know the outcome of the 2000 Presidential race so why would you want to watch this HBO made for TV movie? Like watching a movie about a sporting event or athlete where you know the end, it's about the game itself. This film is about the Florida recount in 2000 as seen mainly through the person of Ron Klain, Al Gore's former Chief of Staff who was dispatched to Florida to head up the Democratic team pursuing the recount. The acting is terrific and so is the writing. Since the event is so recent and all the players are still living, getting the story straight was important and it seems that they did. Even knowing the ending, this movie draws you in so that you almost forget what happened as you follow the events and drama within the inner circle of each party as they fight for Florida's 25 electoral votes and the Presidency. It's really a story about democracy and how it does and doesn't work, about our legal system and how it does and doesn't work and whether a Republic like ours can survive a crisis like that. Whether you think the system works, depends, of course, on what side you were on but our country did survive and I think some credit must be given to the parties involved, particularly Al Gore as the underdog, who could have gotten their supporters all riled up and created a very ugly situation. There were hardly any demonstrations by Democrats. Gore also called off the pursuit in the end when he could have continued to the further detriment of the country. It seems that there was a tangible case of 'Country First'. It is also a reminder that we still don't have this voting thing figured out in our country. We can put the proverbial man or woman on the moon but can't develop a consistent, reliable national voting system for national elections. Maybe there's a case for letting each state and precinct determine its own way, but in an election that affects every one of us, I'd like to think we were all playing by the same rules. This is another outstanding docudrama by HBO. Enjoy during this election year. Who knows, maybe it will be deja vu all over again. www.lusreviews.blogspot.com.Movie Review: Bush Gets Bush-whacked by Pregnant Chad
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is one of the most riveting I've seen, and not for anything other than the pure simple truth.
Here we have the story of the Gore campaign for the presidency in 2000...the Republican strategy to throw Gore off his feet...the hullabaloo over the stupid voting machines and incredibly, it lessens the idea that the voters were the stupid ones.
This film actually teaches us what happened in the presidential race of 2000--which wasn't actually settled until March, when the Supreme Court gave Bush the presidency. Finely cast, though no attempt is made to render good portrayals except for John Hurt's rather flawed Warren Cristopher and Tom Wilkinson's brilliant Jim Baker. I found the chemistry raging between Dennis Leary and Kevin Spacey to be the best on film, and the tension this film manages to generate gives the viewer a clue about what it was like participating and voting in that election.
One of the most chilling scenes (I was cheering because I knew the truth at the time) was when crowds of people stormed in to protest the original hand recount. It turns out they were Republican go-fers, flown in by the Republican leadership to disrupt--and stop--the hand recount. My wife and I saw this activity live at the time and we knew immediately that those people were NOT ordinary citizens. It wasn't until this movie that the truth was brutally stated. It's worth it for that sequence in our history alone, because as the film stated, this was the first time in our history that Congress hired out a mob to take direct action in public.
This film MUST be shown at schools everywhere, even if it's only to understand where the term "chad" originated! (Spacey to Leary: :The plural of chad is CHAD?!) ;)