Recount

source: Recount

Moviecut—Recount

Generally speaking, the performances are good and this film is entertaining. Is it completely accurate and forthcoming? No. But neither was "Patton" and it didn't do any permanent harm. What is fascinating to me are the reactions this film generates. Reviewers and critics (both professional and amateur) have really shown their liberal leanings on this one. Ebert, for example, spends most of his review commenting on the "appropriateness" of the Florida recount and how smarmy Katherine Harris is/was. Now, I don't have a problem with a film critic having an opinion about the real world, but it seems to me that what happened in Florida actually happened and that the majority of a review of a film about an historical event should address the film itself...not the event. Furthermore, many film critics think that Dern does a great job playing a clownish, buffoonish Harris, while the fact that Harris was indeed clownish (or evil, for that matter) seems to be a given. Again, entertaining and well-acted, but not a history lesson.

Terrific television movie dealing with the questionable 2000 presidential election. The movie should be in for a large number of Emmy nominations no matter what the Republican Party thinks. The National Education Association should easily recommend this as a tool for teaching social studies classes in our schools. You're in for a bumpy ride so fasten those seat belts. The film deals with the emotionally charged issues confronting the nation after the election. Bob Balaban, as Republican operative Ben Ginsberg, is great here. He is a slimy character here similar in nature to Snee of Peter Pan fame. He is corrupt and will go to any length to get his candidate, George W. Bush elected. Ditto for Tom Wilkinson who turns in an amazing performance as James Baker, Jr. Ruthless to the core, he will pull out any trick possible to thwart Democratic ambitions. Equally impressive is Laura Dern as Katherine Harris,Florida's secretary of state who really handed the election to Gov. Bush. She comes across as dim-witted, yet ruthless to the core. She will ask the counties why they need more time to count ballots. She appears delusional at times when she identifies herself with Queen Esther. Who did the make-up on Ms. Dern? What a fabulous job that was. Kevin Spacey is in fine form as a Gore operative. As we approach the 2008 election, this film was very timely. It gives the viewer much to pond over. You remember butterfly ballots, chad, the role of the Florida supreme court and the hypocrisy of the U.S. Supreme Court as well. The Republican Party is certainly not cast in a good light here at all. I imagine that they will be screaming about the bias of a liberal media in the making of this film. You have to give credit to Al Gore for finally knowing when to stop for the nation's unity and to V.P. Candidate Joseph Lieberman who wanted questionable military ballots counted knowing full well that those voters had probably voted for Bush. Surprisingly, nothing is said about V.P. candidate Dick Cheney during this entire fiasco. Obviously, he really must have literally been behind the scenes. We must be thankful that this American nightmare was settled peacefully. There were no tanks in the street as our constitution was upheld. This is a beautifully realized film. It certainly may have been titled "The Stealing of An American Election." The judge and jury will always be out on that one. Those of you who do not like this review are probably ardent Republicans. The truth be told, we will never know who won the 2000 election.

If you were paying attention to the United States presidential election in 2000, then I suppose you must have a streak of masochism in order to watch this recapitulation--it is bound to stir up the powerful emotions experienced at the time, no matter what side of the divide you were on. Just read some of the reviews and comments to verify what a hot button issue this still is. If you were not paying attention in 2000, or you are too young to remember, then this film will certainly introduce you to all the major events and issues: hanging chads, dimpled chads, recounts, court cases, accusations of voter suppression, confusing ballots, the status of military votes, and so forth. The major players in this high-stakes drama are all here too, and documentary footage is inserted for believability. The film is definitely more than loosely based on fact, since most of the public statements are taken from the record. It's the extrapolations to what went on behind closed doors that is open to question. This plays like a thriller, even for those who are familiar with the story. If none of this ever happened, then I think all would agree that this is a good movie with a great plot and fine cast. Laura Dern, as Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, creates a memorable character and Tom Wilkinson is a standout as Bush's legal adviser James Baker (Secratary of State under George H. W. Bush). Wilkinson captures Baker almost to the point where you could mistake him for the real person. I think it came as a surprise at the time that the United States election process could ever be so fouled up. If there is a non-partisan message to be had from this movie it is that measures should be taken to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. While the 2000 election led to the Election Reform Act of 2002, the process is still far from perfect, especially since implementation details are left up to the individual states. Much controversy still exists over electronic voting machines, requirements for user ID, and so forth. And the current Coleman vs. Franken senate contest in Minnesota, now in its fourth month and still undecided, proves that extremely close contests are still messy affairs. Since there are so many arguments to be made on either side in such cases, I often think that such close elections should be decided by a coin toss. It seems impossible to find a generally-accepted unbiased telling of the 2000 election. The reviews for all books I have looked into seem to split on party lines. Maybe it is impossible to be impartial on this one.

It's pretty clear that the people who made this film love politics, good for them, folks who should watch this movie must. Most others, well, it would be someone hating football forced to watch the Super Bowl (not to say this has anything super about it though). Unfortunately for those folks making the movie, they love Democratic politics, a very partisan view point. There really isn't any question as to tendentiousness, the protestations of Kevin Spacey and such notwithstanding. He has claimed that this is an objective attempt to characterize and explain what actually happened. Hardly. It's a funny movie in ways, that's true. There's a classic scene between Denis Lery (always funny, even when bad, funny, and a Republican in his own way) and Kevin Spacey (ehh, a touch over rated) where they discuss how weak the Democrats are initially fighting the recount issue. Hard to describe without spoiling it, so I will refrain. The movie is wonkish in its own way, describing technical details, which I do appreciate (who knew that "Chad" was also the plural of "Chad"? Kind of like fish is plural for fish). But the partisan bias is undeniable. According to the thesis here, the GOP folks are truly attempting to steal an election, while the Dems are attempting to fight for truth and justice. Mmmmm, uhhhh, right, well not so much. There's an irony in places, which the movie ignores. The Supreme Court of the U.S. overruled the Florida Supreme Court, one activist court overruling another irrationally activist court which completely ignored the plain state law. Not sure if ever they mention that the blatant unfairness of the recount procedures in Florida were overturned with a solid seven to two Justice decision on the Supreme Court. If one wants to re-argue the whole 2000 election, at least let's get the facts right. It's likely hard for anyone to set aside opinions of the election of 2000 in viewing the flick, but this doesn't do anything to help. Republicans are villains and Democrats heroes. Too bad, again. Hollywood might do better to be fair, and for that matter, be fair and do better. It's interesting that Al Gore Jr. quoted his segregationist father closing credits -- sort of amusing when thinking of the idea of free votes.

I only tivoed this movie because Denis Leary & Kevin Spacey were in it. I was afraid it would be boring because of the subject matter. Boy, was I wrong. This is a fascinating look at the mess in FL in 2000, and goes through everything that happened step by step. I remember it happening, but don't remember any details because I wasn't involved in politics then. To see what a true mess was made of the situation, and the political games that were played to prevent a true counting of the votes of the citizens of FL is very disturbing. Very, very disturbing. I kept getting so caught up in it, getting exciting for the Gore legal victories, & then would remember, duh, they lost, remember! Kevin Spacey is a standout as Ron Klain, who put his heart and soul in to the fight and didn't want to give up, even at the end. Denis Leary was great as Michael Whouley, in his natural kind of role: sarcastic, caustic, funny. Laura Dern was amazing as Katherine Harris. That woman must be a total nut job in real life. She basically singlehandedly corrupted the democratic process in the state of FL. Tom Wilkinson, who I almost didn't recognize from The Full Monty because of his different accent, was excellent as James Baker. I give this a movie a 10. It kept me enthralled about a subject that I didn't think I would care enough about, & the actor's performances were top notch.

Given the circumstances of the Florida recount and the subsequent damage that the Bush administration has done, it would have been east to take a lot of cheap shots in this film. For the most part, the film avoids this temptation and presents an accurate chronology of the events. The actors seldom overplay their characters.... except for maybe Laura Dern as Harris (though this can be forgiven Harris is such a pathetic and cartoonish character in real life). It was pretty engaging even though most viewers know the outcome in broad strokes. When the authoritative book is done on the last 8 years, these events will be a prominent part in the history. Congrats to HBO for getting there first.

I watched this movie in spite of the bias obviously present. Anyone who believes this movie is anything but an ad campaign for Al Gore is fooling themselves. The fact that Kevin Spacey signed on to this TV movie alone is enough to make that clear. He is one of the most outspoken liberals on TV. As noted by one of the posters, in this movie, what is portrayed is that "democrats didn't argue strong enough, while republicans were bullies". Doesn't that just reek of bias? The democrats have never let the myth that Bush stole the election die. The fact is that they had six days to validate, but in the end EVERY vote gets counted. It just takes until the first few months of the following year. So, in spite of the questions raised, in the end Bush won. The movie also touches much more heavily on the disenfranchised voters in the two counties, but fails to bring up the military votes that Al Gore tried to block. Anyway, sorry for the rant, but all the gloaming on about how this movie was so amazing just made me want to write in.

To be perfectly honest I couldn't sit through this whole movie. From what I did see it was a "poor Al Gore" scenario though. Did anyone even mention the fact that while Al was saying "we need to count all the votes" he was also saying "we can't count the overseas military ballots". So wasn't that being a bit disingenuous? And wasn't it also a bit odd that the major media did go back and recount and recount and recount and not one of them ever came up for Gore? So this movie was more a Gorbasm than anything else from the little I saw. I did think the acting was well done though and particularly liked Laura Dern's Katherine Harris.