The Candidate

The title of the film I watched was called “The Candidate” with Robert Redford. It is a story about a lawyer and environmentalist named Bill Mckay who is persuaded to run for the Democratic nomination for the state of California U. S. Senate race. He is a staunch liberal with no political aspirations of his own but his father was previously governor of California so McKay’s backers feel he would give the Republican incumbent a run for his money. The Democratic election manager gives McKay a proposition that he can get out of the race at any time and that he is sure to lose but they need a familiar name to place on the ticket. Mckay is persuaded because it gives him the chance to speak to groups of people and spread his liberal values -which include the rights of a woman to choose abortion, busing, environmental regulations and welfare. The film chronicles everything a political candidate has to endure to run for office and how the process changes a person’s ideals.

Bill Mckay ends up winning the primary and then realizes he can’t back out of the race now. He starts broadening his liberal message to sound more palatable to moderate and conservative voters. His campaign is reduced to using broad clichÐ"©s and catchy slogans in place of real messages.

The view of politics presented in the film is that image is rewarded substance in many modern elections. How a candidate looks, present themselves and “hypes” people up is usually want wins over the public as opposed to real solutions to problems. The view that politics corrupts any good intentions is presented as well.

The story lines illustrate this view by showing how Mckay was falling behind in the polls until he has a debate with the incumbent. Mckay doesn’t have any real answers but presents himself as a compassionate liberal who wants to help everyone out of their predicaments by government intervention. All of his answers are tailored by the campaign manager but although he doesn’t offer any specifics, his sincerity and obvious good looks seems to turn the downhill slide and he gains a huge amount of momentum going into the fall election.

Mckay really wishes to “shoot straight” with the audience in this debate but he is coached by his campaign managers on how to phrase things and how not to offend anyone’s positions. The