ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 26, 1996 TAG: 9610280123
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B12 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
Maybe you don't want a reminder of the Chuck Robb vs. Ollie North Senate battle. Maybe you'd just as soon forget the whole thing ever happened - that Robb said he'd take food from the mouths of "widows and orphans" if it would help cut the deficit. Or that North put on a plaid, flannel shirt and pretended for weeks at a time to be an Everyman.
Still, you may want to see "A Perfect Candidate," which chronicles North's campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1994 and leaves no doubt that it was one of the most ignoble political battles in recent memory.
Produced and directed by R.J. Cutler, who put together the award-winning film about the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign, "The War Room," and David Van Taylor, "A Perfect Candidate" follows the North race from beginning to end. Like "The War Room," it focuses on the tacticians - chief strategist Mark Goodin and Mark Merritt - and the press, particularly Washington Post writer Don Baker.
Goodin and Merritt aren't half as interesting and colorful as James Carville and George Stephanopolous, although Goodin lets his hair down once or twice expressing frustration about the press (``There's always some guy with an English accent - works for The London Tabloid - who shows up at a news conference to say, `Colonel North, how do you respond to allegations by your detractors that you are a lying, cheating, dirty, scum-sucking so-and-so?''').
The most intriguing members of this cast are the voters of Virginia, who came out in droves wearing "Ollie!" stickers. When Baker describes them as "young, white, male fascists" and "menopausal women," it feels wrong - not just unfair. He must have closed his eyes at some point and kept them shut.
Just for the fun of it, Roanoke and environs practically co-star, with lots of shots of the City Market area.
But there aren't many lovely images or moments in this movie. It's about politics, after all, and an awful - but fascinating - example of a modern political campaign. Ultimately, an African-American man interviewed about the candidates for the film sums it up pretty well. "It's like - the devil or a demon. It's like, do you want the flu? Or do you want the mumps? Choose your disease not what will cure America."
A Perfect Candidate ***
A Seventh Art Releasing film, showing at The Grandin Theatre. Not rated, but there's lots of profanity. 106 minutes.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: File 1992 Retired Marine Corps Lt. Oliver North ran anby CNBunsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1994. color