My Favorite Films, Plague Edition (Volume 29): Election Special Edition Part 3
The Best Man (1964)
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
Starring Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson
While dance has sadly come to a halt, I recommend this excellent YouTube video which shows the original Nijinsky choreography of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, performed by the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Ballet. This restoration was made famous in the late 1980’s by the Joffrey Ballet, and uses a primitive, toes-inward primal style of dance in which every angular beat is reflected in a physical motion by the dancers. No free expression here…instead close dance linkage to the revolutionary musical score. You actually see the score in physical motion. Put it on your big screen and check it out.
The 1960’s were a good time for cynicism about US elections. You might say “duh”, since Watergate and Trump have put the kibosh on any idealism we might have once had. But in 1964 we were still the era of Kennedy, so movies like last week’s The Manchurian Candidate and The Best Man strikes me a radically outside the then-accepted narrative of American Goodness. The Best Man is even more dark than The Manchurian Candidate. At least in the latter, it was a foreign government trying to bring us down. The Best Man critiques the U.S. political process itself, ironically using big heroic stars like Henry Fonda to do so.
The movie tells the story of William Russell (Fonda), a candidate for president in an unusual year when there is no clear favorite going into the convention. Fonda plays him as a flawed, cynical guy whose marital infidelities (post-Kennedy, pre-Clinton) and sham marriage are being carefully hidden from the public, but are known to all the insiders. Of course, the early 1960’s were an era when the press and opponents did not bring up such things---seems like the Pleistocene. But even with all of his flaws, he his preferable to his opponent, the populist Joe Cantwell, who will say and do anything to win, and seems to be driven by only his ego (sound familiar?). Like our current president, Cantwell draws a loyal, almost religious following. Rather daring for its time, the movie hints at how racist southerners were manipulating racism without sounding overtly racist.
In contrast, Russell is a Biden-like candidate, fully aware of every skeleton in every closet, but resistant to using such information, in the interest of decency and tradition. This includes a shocking bit of information that Cantwell, while in the military, engaged in homosexual acts and was saved from dishonorable discharge only by insider meddling. Russell chooses not to use the information against his opponent. In contrast, Cantwell puts a binder on the chair of every convention delegate detailing Russell’s past treatment for a “nervous breakdown”, foreshadowing the McGovern-Eagleton shock treatment fiasco in 1972.
The single one-on-one scene between Russell and Cantwell is every bit as caustic as our recent Biden-Trump “debates”. The two really loathe one another and what they stand for. Fonda and Robertson are excellent, and nicely convey the two different moral spheres which these candidates inhabit. Robertson, in particular, is outstanding in showing the contrast between the externally ebullient, charismatic public leader and the internally dark, suspicious private man (think Richard Nixon). Lee Tracy puts in a fantastic supporting role as the ex-president and power broker who tries to manage the convention and pull all the strings, hiding cutthroat behavior behind good-old-boy bourbon-drinking camaraderie. Director Schaffner (The Planet of the Apes, Patton) keeps this moving in a relentless, tense style, never allowing us to really feel sympathetic towards any of these characters, perhaps appropriate to the world of politics. There is a bit of Planet of the Apes in this film…both revel in cynical musing on the failings of establishment government.
What I most enjoyed about The Best Man was how it covered almost every major political type and scandal of the subsequent years: Nixon’s paranoia, Clinton’s philandering, Trump’s monomania, Bush’s amiable incompetence. It is a terrific primer for anyone puzzled by the U.S. system, but is not a reassuring guide. Even though, in the end, Russell withdraws, gives his convention delegates to a cypher-like third candidate just to prevent the evil Cantwell from winning, we are not encouraged that this is the triumph of goodness. More an expedient way of avoiding the worst outcome. Perhaps that is all we should expect of politics.
Dance Note
The movie tells the story of William Russell (Fonda), a candidate for president in an unusual year when there is no clear favorite going into the convention. Fonda plays him as a flawed, cynical guy whose marital infidelities (post-Kennedy, pre-Clinton) and sham marriage are being carefully hidden from the public, but are known to all the insiders. Of course, the early 1960’s were an era when the press and opponents did not bring up such things---seems like the Pleistocene. But even with all of his flaws, he his preferable to his opponent, the populist Joe Cantwell, who will say and do anything to win, and seems to be driven by only his ego (sound familiar?). Like our current president, Cantwell draws a loyal, almost religious following. Rather daring for its time, the movie hints at how racist southerners were manipulating racism without sounding overtly racist.
In contrast, Russell is a Biden-like candidate, fully aware of every skeleton in every closet, but resistant to using such information, in the interest of decency and tradition. This includes a shocking bit of information that Cantwell, while in the military, engaged in homosexual acts and was saved from dishonorable discharge only by insider meddling. Russell chooses not to use the information against his opponent. In contrast, Cantwell puts a binder on the chair of every convention delegate detailing Russell’s past treatment for a “nervous breakdown”, foreshadowing the McGovern-Eagleton shock treatment fiasco in 1972.
The single one-on-one scene between Russell and Cantwell is every bit as caustic as our recent Biden-Trump “debates”. The two really loathe one another and what they stand for. Fonda and Robertson are excellent, and nicely convey the two different moral spheres which these candidates inhabit. Robertson, in particular, is outstanding in showing the contrast between the externally ebullient, charismatic public leader and the internally dark, suspicious private man (think Richard Nixon). Lee Tracy puts in a fantastic supporting role as the ex-president and power broker who tries to manage the convention and pull all the strings, hiding cutthroat behavior behind good-old-boy bourbon-drinking camaraderie. Director Schaffner (The Planet of the Apes, Patton) keeps this moving in a relentless, tense style, never allowing us to really feel sympathetic towards any of these characters, perhaps appropriate to the world of politics. There is a bit of Planet of the Apes in this film…both revel in cynical musing on the failings of establishment government.
What I most enjoyed about The Best Man was how it covered almost every major political type and scandal of the subsequent years: Nixon’s paranoia, Clinton’s philandering, Trump’s monomania, Bush’s amiable incompetence. It is a terrific primer for anyone puzzled by the U.S. system, but is not a reassuring guide. Even though, in the end, Russell withdraws, gives his convention delegates to a cypher-like third candidate just to prevent the evil Cantwell from winning, we are not encouraged that this is the triumph of goodness. More an expedient way of avoiding the worst outcome. Perhaps that is all we should expect of politics.
Dance Note
While dance has sadly come to a halt, I recommend this excellent YouTube video which shows the original Nijinsky choreography of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, performed by the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Ballet. This restoration was made famous in the late 1980’s by the Joffrey Ballet, and uses a primitive, toes-inward primal style of dance in which every angular beat is reflected in a physical motion by the dancers. No free expression here…instead close dance linkage to the revolutionary musical score. You actually see the score in physical motion. Put it on your big screen and check it out.
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