Primary Colors

Now that the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton circus has played itself out, I finally saw Elaine May's excellent, under-appreciated rendering of the tale of a thinly disguised American politician and his campaign to become President of the United States. The performances in "Primary Colors" are remarkable. John Travolta does an astonishing impersonation of Clinton without being a Saturday Night Live caricature. Emma Thompson is perfect as his long-suffering wife, always waiting for the other shoe to drop revealing his indiscretions. Kathy Bates deserved her Academy Award nomination as his public relations trouble-shooter. Her not quite over-the-top performance is the heart of this opus. Last, but not least, Adrian Lester is the idealist young African American in charge of his campaign. This impassioned portrayal bodes well to a successful future in films. Mike Nichols has directed Miss May's script with intelligence and humor. See it now, after all the gossiping has died down, for an insightful, entertaining glimpse into the world of politics.

Primary Colors (1998)

This starts off really great, and gets the flavor of a real campaign, without too much Hollywood hype (campaigns have their own kind of falseness, which is played up here). John Travolta not only hits it just right as a feeling and determined candidate, he also nails Bill Clinton pretty well, too. I don't suppose Emma Thompson is supposed to match Hillary quite as well, but she's a perfect running mate, and throw in Billy Bob (Thornton) as a sidekick and you have a really solid working trio.

But it doesn't quite keep the focus or momentum, or honesty, of the opening scenes. Or humor, sometimes. (This is a comedy, by the way, and director Mike Nichols knows comedy, as does his screenwriter and longtime collaborator, Elaine May. They used to do stand up comedy together in the 1950s!)

What begins as a kind of revelation and interior exploration digresses into more and more clichés of what campaigns do, and what they have to do (sleaze wise) to succeed. We know this stuff. It isn't the facts that enchant us, it's the exceptions to the facts, and it's the nuances between them. It never quite flags, though twenty minutes less screen time sounded good by the end. And Travolta and Thompson hold up their roles consistently.

The real saving grace in the second half is the bursting on the scene of Kathy Bates, who is herself at her best. It might be the best Kathy Bates Kathy Bates has ever done, including some impassioned, tearful stuff. The opposing candidate is remarkably convincing--you even want to vote for him--played by Larry Hagman. On the other hand, the young clerk and campaign manager Adrian Lester is a bit too restrained and dull to make him even noticeable.

Nichols is best when he gets two or three or four people interacting as real people, with flaws and intensity and passion (as in "The Graduate" and "Closer"). And those moments here are terrific, and sometimes hilarious, and make the rest easily worthwhile.

"Primary Colors" is about a fictional American politician named Jack Stanton and his attempt to obtain the Democratic Party's nomination for the Presidency. At least, it's ostensibly about a fictional politician. On another level, it is a film a clef about a real American politician named Bill Clinton and his attempt to obtain the Democratic Party's nomination for the Presidency in 1992. The parallels between Clinton and Stanton go much deeper than the deliberate similarity of their surnames. Like Clinton, Stanton is the Governor of a small Southern state. Like Clinton, he has an idealistic streak in his nature and a talent for putting his ideas across in a relaxed, folksy way. (Clinton should have inherited Reagan's title of "The Great Communicator"). And, like Clinton, he also has a talent for getting himself enmeshed in scandal, particularly of a sexual nature.

Other players in the Clinton drama have their equivalents in the film. The Hillary-figure is Stanton's wife Susan, ever supportive and forgiving in public but in private much less ready to pardon her husband's misdemeanours. Stanton's campaign chief Richard Jemmons is presumably based upon James Carville, who fulfilled the same role for Clinton. Stanton's early rival Lawrence Harris parallels Paul Tsongas, who initially led the race for the Democratic nomination but later faded. There is a Gennifer Flowers (or Paula Jones) equivalent in the shape of Cashmere McCarthy, who claims that she had an affair with Stanton.

Although Stanton is, in one sense, the pivotal character (if he were not running for President there would be no film), in another sense the main character is one of his campaign team, Henry Burton, the grandson of a noted black civil rights activist, as the action is seen though his eyes. Henry is an idealistic young man who is caught in two minds about his boss. On the one hand he admires Stanton for his drive and energy and his sincere determination to improve the lot of ordinary people. On the other hand, he is disillusioned with the corruption involved in politics and with the dirty tricks played both against Stanton and on his behalf. The audience are often in two minds about Stanton as well, as he seems to be a fifty-fifty mixture of sincerity and sleaze.

I have never read the novel (originally credited to "Anonymous", but now known to have been written by Joe Klein) on which the film is based, but from what I have heard Stanton was considerably less sympathetic in the book than he appears in the film. (Perhaps traditionally liberal Hollywood did not want to give the Democratic Party too rough a ride). As portrayed by John Travolta, Stanton is in many ways a likable figure, whose flaws are outweighed by his good qualities. Besides his sincere idealism he also shows courage (he tells an audience of unemployed New England shipyard workers that there are no easy answers to their economic problems). In the first half of the film, in particular, it seemed that the film-makers wanted to acquit Stanton (and by implication Clinton) of any serious wrongdoing. Cashmere McCarthy, for example, is exposed as a liar (her surname is presumably borrowed from the notorious Senator who specialised in smearing his opponents) and a supposedly incriminating tape as a fake. Clinton must have wished that the Flowers, Jones and Lewinsky affairs could have been explained away as easily. There is a reference to Whitewater in the shape of the "Freshwater affair", but this is attributed not to Stanton but to one of his opponents.

In the second half of the film, the plot starts to diverge more from real events. Stanton is hit by a second sex scandal, potentially more damaging than any of those Clinton faced, as it involves allegations that he fathered a child by an under-aged girl. In reality, Clinton had a fairly easy ride to the Democratic nomination, but the film-makers obviously wanted to introduce a greater element of drama, as Stanton faces a tough challenge from a late entrant in the race, Fred Picker, the Governor of Florida. (Picker is not based on any actual politician). The climax of the story comes when the Stanton camp discover evidence that Picker, hitherto regarded as scandal-free, has been involved in cocaine-taking and a gay relationship. This presents Stanton and his aides with a moral dilemma; do they use this information to discredit Picker or do they bury it (with the attendant risk that the Republicans might discover it if Picker becomes the Democratic candidate)?

The film is helped by some excellent acting. Travolta is an actor who seems constantly to be re-inventing himself, particularly since "Pulp Fiction" took his career in a new direction, and Stanton is one of his best performances, clearly based upon Clinton but different enough to emerge as a character in his own right. Larry Hagman makes a plausibly charismatic Picker, proving that there is more to him than JR and "I Dream of Jeannie". Special mentions must also go to Emma Thompson's long-suffering Susan, Billy Bob Thornton's Jemmons, a hard-bitten, cynical practitioner of Realpolitik, and, above all, Kathy Bates as Libby, another Stanton aide. Some actresses would have struggled to make Libby- a tough, foul-mouthed lesbian recently released from a mental hospital who at one point threatens to shoot a man in the genitals- anything more than an over-the-top caricature, but Bates manages the difficult task of making her a believable character. Her "Best Supporting Actress" nomination was well deserved.

One reviewer complains that "Travolta does a poor Clinton impression", but despite its obvious relation to real events, "Primary Colors" is more than just a satire on Bill Clinton and his associates. It is a wider satire on American politics in general and a drama that asks some difficult questions about political morality. 7/10

The much under-rated Primary Colors represents the zenith of its genre: a consistently excellent political satire armed with a stellar cast, an involving, intricate plot, and some of the finest direction in recent times from the sporadic (yet always reliable) Mike Nichols. John Travolta's portrayal of a Clinton-esquire Southern governor with a weakness for women and doughnuts is note perfect, encapsulating the flawed yet undoubtedly brilliant Jack Stanton with effortless flair and charisma. Travolta is ably supported by English character actors Emma Thompson and big screen debutant Adrian Lester, as well as an Oscar nominated Kathy Bates, Billy Bob Thornton and a resurgent Larry Hagman.

The film is, in essence, a chronology of Stanton's rise of the political ladder and the struggles encountered by his vibrant team in keeping their man in the race, despite numerous setbacks and tragedies along the way. The script gives Travolta a perfect platform to express the very human emotions that both constrain and encourage us: his early speeches (particularly at an adult literacy centre) are punctuated by salient (yet entirely falsified) anecdotes, and were are given equal insight into Stanton the man and Stanton the politician. Thus the film's fundamental paradox arises: the audience is clearly conditioned to sympathise with Stanton as a result of his remarkable eloquence, yet we are frequently undercut by revelations of sex scandals, endless untruths and the often heartless pragmatism he embarks upon. This conflict for the audience is superbly manipulated so that, at the film's conclusion, we are unsure as to what our own emotions should be. Few films manage to pull this off: fewer with the nuanced skill of Nichols' political odyssey.

I want to add a few words about the female performances in the film. Emma Thompson, as the Hilary Clinton of the the cast, nails both the accent and mannerisms of her model with a convincing determination. Her character is often the mediator among the campaign team, yet there is a ruthlessness about her, a quiet conviction in her actions that her husband is clearly sustained by. Kathy Bates is the unhinged lesbian media consultant who is drafted in to nullify the potent threat of negative media reporting. She clearly gets all the best lines (a prize shared with the equally crazy Billy Bob Thornton character) including a memorable reference to Stanton's string of lovers as "sorry trash bins": scrupulous editing on my part here. At the film's conclusion, Bates comes to the fore, spelling out the impossible conflict between what is politically right and what is humanly right with an intensity that few actors could accomplish. Her subsequent Oscar nomination was well deserved and she was unlucky to be pitted against a triumphant Judi Dench in the Best Supporting Actress category.

That said, this is Travolta's movie. This is a career-defining performance from an actor unfortunately sullied by a series of mind-numbing duds (Battlefield Earth, anyone?), yet had he chosen his roles more wisely (as, say, Pacino has done) a more creditable media image would most certainly have been forthcoming.

Don't be put off by its subject matter: this is film making at its best and is a credit to its highly talented cast and crew.

10/10

Having heard the book was an unbridled attack on Clinton, I was afraid this film would be the same, but it wasn't. "Primary Colors" was definitely better than I thought it would be.

First, there was Elaine May's script: Funny, well-written, lean, tender at moments, never taking things to the camp level, like so many modern Hollywood movies do when it doesn't work. And it wouldn't have worked for this movie. The thing that kept me watching was that, like Henry, I *did* believe in Jack Stanton, or at least I wanted to. The tender moments, like those at the beginning in the literacy class, kind of endeared me to the Stanton character and made me understand how Burton was drawn in so irrevocably.

Then, there was the acting: marvelous. Travolta, Thompson, Bates: need I say more? Thompson's underlying, clipped accent adds a brittle note to her delivery that fits right in with Susan's repression and humiliation. Travolta was just nice enough to make you believe in him (although, in my opinion, he was ultimately unable to fully portray that "je ne sais quoi" that Clinton possesses, which makes him so charming to many). Bates was riveting and harrowing as the faded liberal clinging to her ideals.

But in addition to the "name actors" there were others who were fantastic: Adrian Lester, as the tortured campaign aide, wants to believe but feels unsure of Stanton's worth as a candidate. Maura Tierney (best known as the wife in "Liar Liar") as the bubbling, funny sidekick to Lester (probably based on Dee Dee Myers), lights up every scene she's in. Larry Hagman, in a wonderful cameo, plays Stanton's opponent and his foil in the morals department.

Billy Bob Thornton plays the James Carville role, and I wasn't sure what he added to the film. Since I constantly compared his character unfavorably to James Carville (the Thornton character was shown as a real rotter, sexually harassing aides, etc.), I'm not sure if my dislike of Thornton was more my dislike of his character than that of his acting.

The production of this film also added to its wonderful feel: the Governour's Mansion, the local ribs place, the constant red/white/blue theme (sometimes it seemed like a Kieslowski film), all of it added to the ambiance. I was not surprised to learn that the Michael Ballhaus, the cinematographer, also filmed the sumptuous "Age of Innocence." Quality tells.

Mike Nichols's directing was also effective: in one especially harrowing scene, Emma Thompson's tormented face fills up the foreground, while Bates's character (in the background) rips into the Stantons' morals. I almost felt like I was at the theater.

This film made me think about Clinton as well as politicians in general. What is admirable, what is not acceptable, what is it we really *want* in our public officials? I don't think "Primary Colors" will change anyone's opinion of the Clintons (in the final analysis, it isn't about them at all) -- but it is a very funny as well as thought-provoking look at modern American politics.