Primary Colors
USA -1998
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Movie Review By Monica Sullivan
Since November 22, 1963, American voters have been in pursuit of the elusive American dream: a flourishing economy, stable leadership and peace. By the year 1998, the economy is indeed flourishing, with the first balanced federal budget within living memory, but our Presidents (with, perhaps, the exception of Ronald Reagan, who played out the American Dream for 28 years on the silver screen before he entered politics) seem mired in everlasting scandals and our collective fingers and toes are crossed whenever we speak of lasting peace. Mike Nichols and Elaine May, the most brilliant social satirists of the late fifties and early sixties, have a deep understanding of the Depression era generation with which they grew up.
He, born Michael Igor Peschkowsky in 1931, fled from Nazi Germany with his parents at age seven. She, born Elaine Berlin in Philadelphia in 1932, acted in Yiddish theatre with her father Jack. They met at the University of Chicago, developed an act, and went on to win a 1961 Grammy as well as three other nominations. Their eventual split was professionally better for him (as the Oscar-winning director of "The Graduate" and the recipient of a fistful of Tony awards) than for her, but both thrived during their association on 1995's "The Birdcage" and a follow-up project seemed inevitable. "Primary Colors" is it and it unlayers the underlying national malaise of the last seven Presidencies.
Behind every hard-boiled political strategist is a broken-hearted idealist who once believed in the innate decency of the candidates s/he supported, but who no longer expects anything but super spin maestros. Governor Jack Stanton (John Travolta) oozes charisma and sincerity: He could talk anyone into anything & does for 135m. Susan Stanton (Emma Thompson) shoots straight from the hip. She's a realist: This is as close as she's ever going to get to real power and she knows it. For the most part, she wields it as best she can under the circumstances and those always seem to include Jack's sexual escapades with her hairdresser or underage babysitter or some bureaucratic klutz. She persuades prospective team members to join by appealing to their logic while Jack pours on the butter & syrup.
Adrian Lester is Henry Burton, like Susan, a realist who wants a shot at achieving real change. Billy Bob Thornton is Richard Jemmons, a nut who's discarded when Jack and Susan's campaign hits the Northern cities and hastily re-employed straight afterwards. But the heart and soul of the campaign is Kathy Bates as Libby Holden, who was once confined to a mental hospital when she burnt out on politics twenty years ago. Libby is gay, rough, tough and a fearless fighter, but her Achilles heel is that she will do anything in the world for the Stantons since she hasn't quite abandoned her youthful hero worship that drove her mad in the first place. No one in "Primary Colors" is evil, just intensely human.
Major stuff happens out of frame, as it would in real life, and the folks stuck in the frame have to clean up. And the campaign barrels on and we're still looking for Abe Lincoln or Mr. Smith or Camelot in every fresh political face, but, since these fantasies don't exist in the real world, we never stop looking over our shoulders for disasters that fantasies can't solve. "Primary Colors" is a political fable that only Nichols, May (and 'Anonymous') could conjure up with such funny, ferocious accuracy.
© 1998 - Monica Sullivan - Air Date: 3/25/98
