There is often debate about whether or not a person should see a movie without having read the novel first. That said, I will admit that I never read the novel "Primary Colors"; I only saw the movie. It was of course loosely based on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign and the various vicissitudes therein. John Travolta plays the Clinton-like Gov. Jack Stanton.
Then arises the problem. When I took an ethics class, one of the issues that we discussed was "what if so-and-so happens?". Well, guess what? "So-and-so" happened right before this movie came out. I'm talking of course about the whole Lewinsky thing. Since "Primary Colors" focuses a little bit on Stanton's possible marital infidelity, that might have doomed it, as we were already tired of hearing about it on the news ("Wag the Dog" did a neat job looking at these sorts of things). And if we were going to talk about it, people were more interested in the apparent stain on the dress.
All in all, stories of politicians' sexual mishaps just don't make for interesting movies; Mike Nichols should know better than to do this. The best scene in the movie is when Libby Holden (Kathy Bates) threatens to deprive a man of his manhood (you know what I'm talking about). Also starring Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Adrian Lester, Maura Tierney, Larry Hagman and Diane Ladd.
And one more thing about the whole Lewinsky thing. It should only show what the whole thing involved, that the drive to impeach Clinton was led by the now-discredited Tom DeLay. Moreover, they had about $52 million to spend investigating a stain on a dress - by comparison, the commission investigating the September 11 attacks only had $13 million. Like I said, it just goes to show what all we're dealing with.
Then arises the problem. When I took an ethics class, one of the issues that we discussed was "what if so-and-so happens?". Well, guess what? "So-and-so" happened right before this movie came out. I'm talking of course about the whole Lewinsky thing. Since "Primary Colors" focuses a little bit on Stanton's possible marital infidelity, that might have doomed it, as we were already tired of hearing about it on the news ("Wag the Dog" did a neat job looking at these sorts of things). And if we were going to talk about it, people were more interested in the apparent stain on the dress.
All in all, stories of politicians' sexual mishaps just don't make for interesting movies; Mike Nichols should know better than to do this. The best scene in the movie is when Libby Holden (Kathy Bates) threatens to deprive a man of his manhood (you know what I'm talking about). Also starring Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Adrian Lester, Maura Tierney, Larry Hagman and Diane Ladd.
And one more thing about the whole Lewinsky thing. It should only show what the whole thing involved, that the drive to impeach Clinton was led by the now-discredited Tom DeLay. Moreover, they had about $52 million to spend investigating a stain on a dress - by comparison, the commission investigating the September 11 attacks only had $13 million. Like I said, it just goes to show what all we're dealing with.