The movie of HBO is based on the real and actual events that occurred in the 2000 presidential bid and contest between the Republican George W. Bush and the Democrat Al Gore. The events in and after the election were bizarre and marked a very tight and narrow presidential race. In this race, thousands of votes were alleged to have been botched in several counties and in Florida, the votes were never conclusively tallied. On the night of the Election Day, Gore is close to losing to Bush when the campaign adviser of the Democratic Party Ron Klaim noticed that the error factor made the vote too close to call (Ebert, 2008).
Therefore the Democrats file a lawsuit with the demand that the election is held as a hand recount of each ballot is conducted. The areas of fault and controversies in the elections as claimed by the Democrats are; faulty ballot machines in some areas of the urban neighborhoods, punch cards that were poorly designed and that some senior citizens voted for the wrong candidate as a result of confusion. The Republicans, on the other hand, wanted to continue sticking with the early polls that made Bush the clear winner of the election. The Republicans see the Democrats as desperately wanting to steal the White house and disqualify votes.
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The movie includes dialogues and scenes that are invented. The inventions play a role in condensing events and reflecting the actual happenings and also tries to create the essence of truth. Some parts of the film portrayed more of a fictional and personal perception. One of the incidences includes the perception that Warren Christopher was hoodwinked by Jim Baker. However, this film can be considered to be relatively sympathetic and fair to both ends. In one angle, the movie portrays or focuses on the conversion of Ron Klaim from his disappointments as a result of the sacking from his job to a fighter with renewed energy and zeal to get his office candidature.
It is clear in the end that James Baker, who is the Republican’s frontman also has personal interests since he is seen having and harboring emotional loyalty to Bush. He is seen as separate and distinct from the concerns considered dishonorable, like money, ideology, oil or power. In this movie, the main candidates themselves, have not been given the main focus but most of the focus has been directed to the campaign strategists’ personalities. However, the character of James Baker has been portrayed as a ruthless character while the character of Warren Christopher has been portrayed as weak and more of a wimp. The film did a mistake of misrepresenting the American democracy because it demonstrates the approval of political junkies and displaying the shallowest political interests. For example, the scene of an election night where Al Gore, thinks that he had clearly lost the presidential bid and thus motorcades across Nashville to give his speech of concession. Back in the headquarters of the campaign, it is decided that the victory of Bush is so narrow that a machine recount is needed. Structurally considered the hero of the movie, Kevin Spacey Gore’s senior adviser, is on a kind of West Wing autopilot. The performance of Laura Dern, who puts her elastic mug to unforgettable use as Katherine makes you wish that the play had been created as a sitcom of seven-episodes.
The film is a good one but the real issues should have been portrayed in it instead of minor issues. That would have created a more authentic demonstration of the election incidences of 2000. The representation of characters was not done well and their personalities were not truly represented in the movie. For instance, the presentation of Warren Christopher as a weakling and was not an accurate representation. The character of the James Baker has been portrayed as a ruthless person. The characters themselves in real life are opposing to the characters portrayed in the film. That shows that in as much as the film is good, it does not contain the real character representation and thus fewer efforts were made in the creation of real characters in the film. Another issue is that the roles of the real candidates of the election were quite misplaced. This is because they were given less attention as compared to their main campaign strategists. In the film, the chief campaigners of the two rival parties stole the show, being featured as the main characters as if the interest of the presidency office favored them more than their bosses. For instance, as Al Gore went to deliver his concession speech, the campaign team was deciding that the elections needed a recount because of the fact that Bush victory was too narrow. It shows that the Gore and his team were not in contact. The film triggers a question of if the claims by the Democrats that the win was so narrow and thus needed a recount were on a genuine basis or were triggered by selfish interest of the campaigners.
Reference
Ebert, Roger (May 25, 2008). "Recount" . RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC . Retrieved August 26, 2012 .
