The Best Man (1964)

Literate and sophisticated political drama

"It did Adlai Stevenson great harm not having a wife and trying to be funny all at the same time".So declares a delegate at a party convention and it seems equally apt of its author Gore Vidal whose political hopes were shattered by a mixture of his sexuality and a patrician ironicism (twin and insuperable barriers to political advancement in Amaerica then -and maybe still)
The Best Man sees Vidal adapting his own witty play about personal and political morality ,the plot of which unfolds in a party convention seeking to nominate a candidiate for the Presidency.There are two main candidates .One is the intellectual ,Liberal figure of William Russell ,played by Henry Fonda and clearly based on the aforementioned Adlai Stevenson .His chief rival is the younger ,reactionary and unscrupulous figure of Joe Cantwell (Cliff Robertson) a Nixon /Senator McCarthy composite .Both seek the endorsement of the former President ,the terminally ill Art Hockstader played by Lee Tracy in his first movie in 17 years and his last overall.(A Truman figure mayhap)
Both candidates have damaging information about the other -Cantwell on Russell's previous nervous breakdown and Russell on Cantwell's homosexuality when in the Army. .Should either use this information to damage their rival and what is the personal price to be paid for political advancement ?

The movie is shot in semi-documentary style and features great ,razor shatp monochrome photography by Haxell Wexler and is forcefully directed by Franklin Schaffer .Vidal's script is witty rather than profound and provides a lucid and engaging dramatization of the always fascinating political power struggles behind the scenes .The ending is a little too pat for my taste and may help explain why the movie got lost alongside the similarly themed Advise and Consent ,not to mention the more cynical Dr Strangelove .It still remains a mature piece of cinema that politics devotees would enjoy especially but its appeal goes wider than that.

Fonda and Robertson are fine but Tracy takes the acting honours with a moving performance .There are fine supporting turns from Margaret Leighton as Russell's estrabnged wife and Edie Adams as Cantrell's less than intellectually stimulating trophy wife.Nods also to Ann Sothern ,Kevin McCarthy,and Richard Arlen with only an over the top display from Shelley Berman failing to deliver the acting goods.
This a mature and adult movie that should be better known than it is
May 31, 2008

In this corner ...

Great movie. Great Gore Vidal script. Great acting by Henry Fonda. Great acting by Cliff Robertson. Great pair of ... lungs ... on Edie Adams. Great, great, great-great-great! Ok, now for what I *didn't* like about the movie. ...

Frankly, there was no one in the movie I recognized by the name of Frank. But seriously, folks, this movie has the production value of a made-for-teevee flick actors walking into a room, actors walking out of a room; drab props, drab scenery, washed out film stock, cut aways to stock newsreel convention footage. Very *claustrophobic.* Which is not only disconcerting from a viewer's point of view, it's also the biggest word I know. (So there!)

Still, it's a great movie, and it's all due to the acting and the writing. I especially like the part where Gore Vidal alludes to the idea that there is no afterlife, a belief held by the former president in the story. I doubt if such an atheistic riff would have gotten by the movie execs had it not been a Gore Vidal script. (Nice goin', Gore; another victory for godless heathenism.)

What's also interesting is that the two leading characters, Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson, are obviously supposed to represent Jack Kennedy and Ricard Nixon, respectively. The thing is, the Kennedy character is clearly portrayed as a womanizer, a fact that was not at all known to the general public when the movie came out in 1964. Gore Vidal, no doubt, knew it but John Q. Public would have been shocked (I tell you SHOCKED) had they know where John-boy was and where key parts of his anatomy wound up from night to night, if not day to day.

The script also intimates that the Nixon character was a homosexual. This is disproven by the Nixon character but, nevertheless, a doubt still lingers. It's interesting that Gore, a self-professed homsexual, would draw such a suggestive possibility about what has to have been one of his arch political enemies, Tricky Dicky Nixon.

All in all, a rarity: a film with weak, teevee-movie-like production values and yet written and performed exceptionally. March 19, 2008

A nice period piece about conventions and that is all.

In 1964 I might have given this five stars. I was a liberal then before I grew up. Viewing the film this afternoon on the Turner Movie Classics I was struck at how slanted the film was for the year it came out. Much more so than the book it was based on. That was the year people in both parties were upset over Barry Goldwater and at the same time not in love with LBJ. The film doesn't identify party, but it does push a liberal agenda. Proper in areas like Civil Rights, but very much full or stereotypes of people on the right and left. It is almost as though the producers, directors and actors feel the pain over losing Kennedy and want an Adlai Stevenson type with a bit of Kennedy in him. The Kennedy looking candidate is the bad guy in more ways than one and the whole story centers around the back room activities at a national convention. Having been to a couple national conventions (one Democrat and one Republican) and many state and local conventions I found that part very good. It is worth seeing the film to look at a period in history when conventions were more important in the nomination process. This coming election we have the possibility of primaries selecting candidates for both parties months before the conventions. While that seems more democratic than holding national conventions, finance laws have made this a rich man's race for both parties. I have no problem with the primary system, however the way it is run now is ridiculous. Also running the election period for four years, this current one began December of 2004, is equally ridiculous. It could be that in 2009 we'll look back to this film and think maybe what went on wasn't so bad afterall. We're seeing worse right now and it is July 2007 as I write this. July 8, 2007

Welcome to the Political Snake Pit

"The Best Man" is one of the most underappreciated political films ever made. That may sound like a sweeping statement, but I'm confident that one viewing will have you agreeing with me. In one of the finest performances of a distinguished career, Henry Fonda plays William Russell, the "thinking man's" candidate. The sitting President (played with good-ole-boy bravado by Lee Tracy) is stepping down, and Russell is the front-runner to get the party's nomination at the convention. His primary opposition is the fire-and-brimstone reactionary Joe Cantwell (played brilliantly and without caricature by Cliff Robertson).

The film provides one of the American cinema's earlier looks at the back-room deals that go into the making of a President; special interests, marriage-as-show, fringe groups, bribing off ugly pieces of the past, the whole works. The script by the legendary Gore Vidal (adpated from his stage hit) weaves a snake pit of fascinating detail, with Fonda holding it all together at the middle as he so often did (the man was born to play the President, or at least someone seeking to be the President). And just when you think you know who'll get the nod, the screw turns nicely at the end.

Treat yourself to "The Best Man." It has slipped through the cracks in our cinematic lore, which is a shame. If you're like me and you love a good political film, there are few better or with a more impressive cast. July 27, 2006

Top-notch political drama

Crackerjack political melodrama pitting the intellectual, idealistic Henry Fonda against the ruthless Cliff Robertson at the national convention for the Presidency. Both men have dirty secrets up their sleeves about the other man, but only Robertson is willing to use them. When the convention becomes deadlocked, Fonda resigns from the race and throws his delegates to a third party. Both Fonda and Robertson are excellent, as is Lee Tracy as the politically/worldly-wise ex-President. What really makes the movie a standout is the stylish and smart script by Gore Vidal - it crackles with great dialogue. It's hard to imagine any real-life politician doing what Fonda does at the end rather than dish the dirt (what politician is THAT non-selfserving and decent?), but the movie in building up to that point shows great verve and insight in the political process. And Fonda, Robertson, and Tracy all go beyond being mere political stereotypes and show the human side of their personalities. SO WHERE'S THE DVD??!! March 26, 2006

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