THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610180065
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 132 lines
``What is the greatest spectator sport in America? No, it's not basketball. It's politics.''
- Spencer Tracy as the aged political candidate in ``The Last Hurrah'' (l958)
UP UNTIL the largely ignored presidential campaign of this year, there has been a running battle between Washington and Hollywood.
Politicians usually depict Hollywood as the Sodom and Gomorrah of the modern world. Movieland is sin city, where traditional American values are distorted and destroyed. In seeking favor with voters, politicians have crusaded for control, if not censorship, of the entertainment industry.
On the other hand, Washington has most often been pictured in the movies as a city ruled by greed and ambition, run by fat, old coots who were past the sexual prime.
That fight has cooled since the most Hollywood-oriented of American presidents came into office. And, no, we aren't talking about Ronald Reagan.
Reagan may be the only Hollywood actor to be elected to the office but he wasn't nearly as popular in Hollywood itself as the present White House resident - Bill Clinton.
On Sept. 16, 1992, Clinton appeared before more than 1,000 of his big-star Hollywood supporters, who called themselves ``Voices of Change, '92,'' and actually said ``I've always wanted to be in the cultural elite.''
Since then, his friendship with the movie industry has perhaps been closer than any past chief executive, with the possible exception of John F. Kennedy. Contributions from the industry's deepest coffers have been running seven to one over those to his challenger, Bob Dole.
After one of the most star-studded inaugurals ever, Clinton was advised that he looked too ``star struck'' and the glitterati was pushed into the background. But they're back - at his most recent birthday party, Whoopi Goldberg was mistress of ceremonies and performances were contributed by Tony Bennett, Jon Bon Jovi, Aretha Franklin and Kenny Rogers.
Alex Benes, director of the Center for Public Integrity, while saying it was ``no more than business as usual,'' released a report stating that the largest show business contributors invited to be overnight guests at the Clinton White House have been Lew Wasserman, former chairman of MCA Inc. (who contributed at least $450,000 to Clinton and the Democratic Party since 1991) and David Geffen, co-founder of the DreamWorks SKG studio, who has contributed more than $380,000 since 1991.
But does all this mean anything in terms of the movies we've seen this year?
You bet.
Take, for example, the movies of 1992 (the year when George Bush was the incumbent seeking reelection) vs. the movies of 1996. There is a subtle difference.
In 1992, and the Reagan years before, the most persistent Hollywood villains were smarmy representatives of the U.S. government, often crooked CIA or FBI agents. Authority was often pictured as oppressive and restrictive.
``Bob Roberts'' starred Tim Robbins as a folk-singing, conservative near-fascist who was seeking a seat in the Senate. Earlier, in ``Power'' (1985) Richard Gere, as a ruthless political hustler, advises his candidate that ``if you want to win the uncommitted, you have to stay uncommitted'' and that, in debates ``you can turn any question into what you want to say.''
Even ``E.T,'' in 1982, was threatened by the evil forces of the U.S. government.
After more than a decade of this relentless ``fear government'' message, such executive-friendly flicks as this years ``Independence Day'' and ``The American President'' are obvious suggestions that we should be comfortable with a younger, and more casual, president.
In ``Independence Day,'' the most popular movie of the year, Bill Pullman plays a youthful president who actually takes to the sky aboard a jet to personally lead his people in a fight against invading Martians. In a rousing call to arms that was a rip-off from Shakespeare's ``Henry V,'' Pullman as the president waves the flag vigorously in a summer feel-good movie that was designed not only to sell tickets but to make Americans feel comfortable about the status quo. Both Clinton and Dole said they liked the movie.
``The American President,'' a romantic comedy, had both a title and a plot that was noticeably pro-Clinton. Politicians were depicted as noble. The prez, Michael Douglas, is dating a pretty Virginia lobbyist (Annette Bening) but his opposition, smarmy Republicans led by a super-evil candidate, seek to make something dirty of it by criticizing his private life. The inference clearly was that the personal life of the president should not be an issue - even when Bening's character was brash enough to leave her car parked in front of the White House during an overnight stay.
In traditional Hollywood, the president was a father figure who could be trusted to take care of us all. The 1996 movies pictured a younger, looser, more human, more accessible, human being in the White House.
``First Kid,'' a Disney release this year, suggested another youngish president - and one who has to learn that he needs to pay attention to his child. The comparison is obvious.
Dole, probably realizing he had nothing to lose, chastised Hollywood as the corrupter of morals, claiming movies were a major force in the casual national approach to violence, drugs and the breakdown of family structure.
More often than not, Hollywood has pictured politicians as inept charlatans who are easily bested by an honest man, as in ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' (1939). America, in the wake of the Great Depression, wanted to think that one man, FDR, could make a difference.
In the '40s and '50s, with the advent of radio and television, movies took a suspicious look at media-bred politicians who manipulated mass opinion in simple ways. Broderick Crawford as a Huey Long-like populist in ``All the King's Men'' (1949) used the system as did the politician played by James Cagney in ``A Lion is in the Streets'' (1953).
In the '60s, the Cold War spawned more paranoia. In a movie like ``The Manchurian Candidate'' (1962), Laurence Harvey is brainwashed by his Commie mother (Angela Lansbury) to assassinate the president.
In the '70s, in the wake of the Kennedy assassination, there was a plethora of films suggesting right-wing conspiracies. During the Reagan '80s, governmental manipulation was plentiful in movies.
With the Cold War over, and Russians no longer viable villains, Hollywood has had trouble finding bad guys. Ethnic groups, such as Italian gangsters, couldn't be used anymore - and there hasn't been a war-whooping movie Indian (Native American) since long before John Wayne's death. For awhile, South Africans were used as villains, but no more. For awhile, it looked as if only Nazis and politicians would be ``safe'' villains. That changed when Hollywood embraced the White House - leaving only Nazis.
The most frequent current villains are either the Russian mafia or terroists.
Winston Churchill once said that ``Mrs. Miniver'' (1942), depicting the plight of the British being bombed by Hitler, was more valuable than 100 battleships - and was instrumental in persuading the American people to back aid to the Brits.
Visual imagery is a powerful force. ILLUSTRATION: Photo illustration
FILE PHOTO
Tim Robbins starred in ``Bob Roberts'' as a folk-singing,
conservative near-fascist who was seeking a seat in the Senate.
KEYWORDS: MOVIES POLITICS by CNB