The Contender

First off,the acting is first rate. So good that the rest of the cast almost performs at the Gary Oldman level. That's high praise,indeed.

With that out of the way,it seems like the real purpose of this movie was to take a cheap shot at Republicans in general,and conservatives in particular. The Dims are saints,and the Republicans are evil.

This message couldn't be clearer than when Joan Allen gave her little speech about "I'm for a woman's choice,I'm for the government taking the guns out every house in the country",etc,etc,etc.,and the speech she made about leaving the Republican Party because it had shifted away from the values that formed this country. That had nothing to do with movie making,and everything to do with political propaganda. Stalin couldn't have came up with a more left-wing rant.

After all,how can you take a movie seriously when it shows a vice- presidential candidate giving a speech to a committee that states she wants to see every gun in the country confiscated by the government? We are supposed to believe the voters would take a direct assault on the Bill of Rights so casually they would elect someone who said that?

It's a damn shame the director and writers of this movie decided it was more important to make a propaganda film than a movie for entertainment.

Not that the Republicans aren't guilty of sleaze. They most certainly are. They are mere amateurs compared to the Dims,though. As the writing,editing,and directing in this movie proves.

The Contender is a film with the potential to take any conscientious person with even a mild interest in how governments are run , and who the leaders are through a non-stop roller-coaster ride of challenge, triumph, pain, failure, and morality. Although I intensely appreciated this movie, I do not believe this could have been an oscar-winning film because the truths it expresses with regards to the presence of women in high ranking political positions far outway its acting and directing talents, with the possible exception of Gary Oldman's role as Shelly Runyon, who was frighteningly convincing at being an absolutely awful man. I enjoyed this movie because of its intention to show what women in politics really face. The strength displayed by Laine Hanson (Joan Allen) while up for vice president is nothing short of inspirational. Gary Oldman's character provides us with a good idea of how manipulative and ruthless people can be when in a position of power and, ironically, when they have been put in a position to judge another's morality. This film seems so realistic that we tend to forget it's a movie. It makes us question, why does a person have to be surrounded by such controversy and be forced to take on such a defensive position, simply for being a woman? What I appreciated is the refusal of Hanson to succomb to the pressure of taking that defensive position, regardless of the truth. Of course, the other refreshing aspect in this movie is Jeff Bridges' role as an ideal president.

All in all, it is a long overdue account of reality, with great character development but not recommended for those with short attention spans, as it is dialogue, and lots of it.

This is a really good film, much better than the 6.9 it has here. However, if you watch it on Amazon Video, DO NOT watch the trailer. Incredibly the idiots who set this up make the actual key scene, the whole twist upon which the movie stands, the trailer.

The WHOLE SCENE.

Absolute idiots.

Did you ever notice how the losers; the baddies and the incompetents always have thinning hair or are outright baldies in the movies?

Talk about typecasting: Jeff Bridges as the Prez. Full head of hair, high energy, masculine, physically fit and pretty funny, too. Pretty cool, even for a Democrat. Golly, gee whiz, are there supposed to be any similarities drawn between him and Clinton?(I think he stole this movie, BTW).

Gary Oldman as Shelly Runyon, Thinning hair (to be charitable), four-eyed geeky tubercular physique, and quivering jaw, with mean little spitting cobra-like malevolence that only Gary can portray. Oh yes, he plays the EVIL Republican.

Joan Allen...uh, who? What a wussy. Was this the best they could do for a representative of Yearning American Womanhood straining at the Chains of Inequality? For most of the movie, she does nothing to move beyond precisely those reasons that are put forth as Bridge's motivation for nominating her in the first place-namely that he wants a Woman named to the V.P. slot as a part of his "legacy". Not once does he or his chief aide (well played by Sam Eliott) discuss her politics nor is she shown to be any sort of a leader. Mostly, she is so self-effacing; so in awe of all these Big Strong Men, that she makes one ill (snif!). Only towards the end, do you get an idea that maybe she is substantive and that she actually has an opinion on something. They might as well have been picking a S,F and D housefrau out of the phonebook.

Bridges and Eliott seem to regard political investigations as something shameful and dirty and only reluctantly, when they had no other choice, do they finally, reluctantly, (sighing all the way) take advantage of information provided by a plucky (and cute) (OW! take that! sexist pig!) FBI agent. But only in the interest of the American People, you understand...

One last: the ambitious little weasel turncoat representative played by Christian Slater. Does he ever show any emotion besides barely held in eagerness? He seems forever on the verge of anticipating some impending event, like the water bucket above the half-open door trick.

The music was way too loud and way too epic. Way too obvious that this was meant to be a Big Event.

Greetings again from the darkness. Director Rod Lurie is living my fantasy. After a career as a movie critic, he is now directing some of Hollywood's best (and under-utilized) actors and actresses. This little thriller is fun to watch thanks mostly to the skills of those on the screen. All of these actors should work more ... SHARE your talent. Jeff Bridges is a very pompous, yet charming, smooth talking president. I assume the list to play the president was short, thanks to a couple of script lines about Clinton. Joan Allen is excellent as the cool senator with the lurid past (?) who is nominated for the VP slot. Gary Oldman, who continues to reinvent the role of CREEP, steals every scene he is in. Of course, this happens in all of his movies! It is always nice to see Sam Elliott and William Petersen on screen. And I guess Christian Slater is trying to salvage a career after the disastrous "Very Bad Things". He has lost some smugness and tempered his Jack Nicholson dialect. My only disappointment with the movie was in the script. Although I love the subject matter and the issues raised, I kept waiting for the shoe to drop on Gary Oldman's charater's deep, dark secret. Jeff Bridges stifling his political career seem quite the letdown. Would have really enjoyed a few more plot twists to really test the audience and cast. My tidbit for this one comes from the career of Sam Elliott. Next time you are watching "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", check out a young Sam Elliott in the early card playing scene. Also, William Petersen's power-hungry wife in "The Contender" is played by Kristen Shaw, a carry-over from Rod Lurie's film, "Deterrence".