director/producer
Mike Nichols
screenwriter
Elaine May
based on
the novel by
"Anonymous" (Joe
Klein)
cinematographer
Michael Ballhaus
music
Ry Cooder
Carly Simon
editor
Arthur Schmidt
cast
John Travolta (Jack Stanton)
Emma Thompson (Susan Stanton)
Billy Bob Thornton (Richard Jemmons)
Kathy Bates (Libby Holden)
Adrian Lester (Henry Burton)
Maura Tierney (Daisy)
Larry Hagman (Gov. Fred Picker)
Diane Ladd (Mamma Stanton)
Paul Guilfoyle (Howard Ferguson)
Rebecca Walker (March)
Caroline Aaron (Lucille Kaufman)
Rob Reiner (Izzy Rosenblatt)
Allison Janney (Miss Walsh)
Robert Klein (Norman Asher)
Mykelti Williamson (Dewayne Smith)
Bonnie Bartlett (Martha Harris)
Tony Shalhoub (Eddie Reyes)
mpaa rating: R
running
time: 143m
u.s.
release: 3/20/98
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
other mike
nichols films
reviewed on this website:
- closer
- what
planet are you from?
- wolf
|
The
most enjoyable thing about Primary Colors, like the bestseller
that inspired it, is its smooth mixture of cynicism and idealism.
For two and a half hours, we're submerged in an insiders' world
of major politics -- the frazzled men and women who give up their
lives to get someone elected. The movie won't have the cultural
impact that many hope (or fear) it will, but it should serve
as a wake-up call to those who are shocked when a politician
turns out to be a slick dissembler or worse. Of course
he is -- how do you think he got there? Power corrupts, baby.
The movie, and the book by "Anonymous" (Joe Klein),
parallel real-life events and persons in ways I choose not to
discuss here, particularly given the current headlines. Directed
by Mike Nichols from a witty script by his longtime collaborator
Elaine May, Primary Colors is more tragic than tabloid,
its concerns more timeless than timely. Its central figure is
Henry Burton (Adrian Lester), a smart young campaign advisor
seduced into the presidential race of Governor Jack Stanton (John
Travolta). Henry, like everyone else, isn't quite prepared for
Stanton's personal magnetism -- he finds himself on board before
he's even accepted the job.
As played by the donut-wolfing Travolta, Jack is easy and flexible
in public, explosively moody in private (there's a great comic
moment involving a cell phone). Travolta turns on the charm;
his performance is itself a masterpiece of politicking. Yet he's
most charming at his least ingratiating, when he gives us a peek
at Jack's shrewdness, competitive panic, or irrepressible libido.
Travolta's contradictory Jack Stanton refutes the very American
notion that great politicians must also be everything we want
them to be as human beings.
Jack's team, including the sardonic Richard Jemmons (Billy Bob
Thornton) and the no-nonsense Daisy Green (Maura Tierney), lose
sleep over the campaign without necessarily believing anything
they're saying. Even Jack's loyal wife Susan (Emma Thompson)
has a hard-bitten, realistic attitude towards him, an attitude
born of years of weathering his little flings. Thompson is terrific
here -- she almost steals the movie with one line, when someone
apologizes to her for talking shop with Jack over chicken wings;
Thompson's delivery of Susan's expertly plastic response, "Of
course I don't mind! How else will I learn?", is
worth the price of admission by itself.
When Jack is pulled into mud-slinging tactics, in self-defense
against Democratic opponents, Primary Colors successfully
straddles the line between comedy and tragedy. Both are present
in the character of Libby Holden (Kathy Bates in the great performance
of the new year so far), a self-styled "dustbuster"
who specializes in neutralizing scandals. Libby goes way back
with Jack and Susan, back to the days when everything seemed
simpler and clear-cut. Problem is, Jack and Susan have gotten
older, smoother, ethically relaxed; Libby has remained a blunt
and rigid person, traits that the movie admires. Libby is the
film's holy fool, who digs up dirt on Jack's competitor (Larry
Hagman) and delivers the info to Jack and Susan as a test: Will
they use it or spike it? Bates' reaction when Libby discovers
the answer is the finest work she's done in a movie.
Jack has a scene with Henry, late in the film, in which he talks
about the political bullshit necessary to get to the top -- and
then, once you're president, you can be honest and get
things done! It's one of the saddest-funniest scenes in recent
memory, a succinct capsule review of the life of a politician
-- a life so tainted by illusion and delusion that even Jack
doesn't seem to know any more whether he believes what he's saying
or is just seducing himself into believing it. We know Jack will
triumph (if for no other reason than that his real-world counterpart
did), but his victory leaves us feeling both satisfied and hollow.
Satisfied, because we're fond of him, flaws and all; hollow,
because we're still not sure, even as the end credits roll, whether
we should trust our fondness. |
