Politics, American Style-- THE CANDIDATE (1972)-Robert Redford, Peter Boyle, Michael Ritchie, director

Her's another film from 1972 I enjoyed which might even be very relevant today in light of the endless campaign machinations of Senators Obama and Clinton. It's the trailer for the 1972 political drama, The Candidate, starring Robert Redford as Bill McKay. The actor plays a young offspring of a famous father who is talked into running for governor of California. The film is one I haven't seen in full in a while but I've seen it enough in the past to recall often how much the material in this film matches up well with the inside stories I've read on campaign manipulation of the voting public.

It's one of the smartest political films ever made--in part because its not an "us vs. them" story but raises questions about the very nature of "democracy" and how a inexperienced non-incumbent candidate would actually go about getting elected--and then the price he or now she could pay in personal compromise to his family and his core beliefs.

It's also very funny in parts, as some of this trailer shows. I love the scene where Redford is in the back of a limo and starts acting the fool--it has the ring of truth to it.

I always thought this film might have been inspired by "The Selling of A President", a 1969 or 70 book by Joe McGiness about the repackaging of Richard Nixon as "The New Nixon" in the turbulent 1968 campaign. The book and the film do have a similar philosophy

Redford, who also co-produced the film, has talked for years about a possible sequel to the film, with McKay as an old political warhorse. But this one tells you a lot about American politics even today I'll bet--only the media and the money amounts have changed.