You won't be disappointed!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Disappointment for a huge fan!

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Bill Mccay is prepositioned by a political analyst to stand against a Republican elective who is such a sure-shot guarantee that other established democrats are refusing to run against him. Mccay being young, handsome and idealistic is chosen to lessen the blow according to the analyst. Mccay enters the challenge hoping to impart his message to the masses- regardless of the outcome. Unfortunately, he is found to be too good and ends up winning the election. This is a great comedy drama in the political realm and Robert Redford is excellent as the handsome idealistic Mccay. The film has garnered much acclaim since release and if you enjoy a good political movie then the Candidate is a fine choice.

Excellent film where a young, good looking attorney is nominated by the Democrats for the governorship of California, opposing the Republican who believes strongly in the typical Republican line of Herbert Hoover-Individual initiative.The surprise in this film is Don Porter, a veteran character actor of television and the film, who gets the role of his life as the incumbent senator, ready to take on Bill McKay's (Redford)idea of A Better Way with McKay.Peter Boyle shines as the political operative and we see all the preparations that go into the making of a candidate. We see a candidate who refuses to compromise on his views, while seeing better days ahead.

The Polished Veneer of Politics has Become Unvarnished Since this "Insider" Uncovering Circa 1972. It was Much More Interesting, For Sure, During it's Initial Release (now this stuff is common everyday knowledge), But that Doesn't Mean that it is Irrelevant or Dated or Uninteresting.The Perfect Casting of Robert Redford as an Idealist Lawyer with No Interest in Politics is Recruited to Run for U.S. Senator and Convinced to do so Because He is Told that He Can Get His Ideas Heard and in The End..."You Lose".Peter Boyle is Quite Good as the "King Maker" and the Media Machine Behind The Candidate is Convincingly Portrayed. In Fact the Whole Political Scene from the Early Seventies is Given Gravitas by the Screenplay Penned by Former Eugene McCarthy Speechwriter Jeremy Larner, and Received an Oscar for This Work.Overall, it is a Bit Startling, but Maybe Not, that the Issues Presented in the Campaign are Still Debated and Divisive Today. Also, the Rules of the Game Haven't Changed That Much Either. The Preparation, the Concessions, the Presentation, the Do's and Don'ts are Pretty Much the Same Now as Forty Years Ago.The Film was a Big Hit, a Liberal Wish Fulfillment During the Nixon Years and the Vietnam Era, but it Wasn't the Electorate or Electrifying Left Wing Candidates that Silenced (at least for a little while) the "Silent Majority". It was "Tricky Dicks" Dirty Tactics and the Cover-up and His Loathsome Vice President's (Spiro Agnew) Corruption.

The Candidate is a film starring Robert Redford. Its themes include how the political machine corrupts and the need to dilute one's message to win an election. There are many parallels between the 1970 California Senate election between John V. Tunney and George Murphy, but Redford's character, Bill McKay, is a political novice and Tunney was a seasoned Congressman.The film was shot in Northern California in 1971. Peter Boyle plays the political consultant Marvin Lucas. The screenplay was written by Jeremy Larner, a speechwriter for Senator Eugene J. McCarthy during McCarthy's campaign for the 1968 Democratic Presidential nomination.Director Michael Ritchie and executive producer/star Robert Redford satirically explore the machinations and manipulations of media- age political campaigns in this cynical political drama.Rumpled left-wing California lawyer Bill McKay, the son of a former governor, is enlisted by campaign maestro Marvin Lucas to challenge Republican incumbent Crocker Jarmon for his Senate seat. McKay agrees, but only if he can say exactly what he thinks. That approach is all well and good when McKay does not seem to have a chance, but things change when his honesty unexpectedly captivates the electorate. As McKay inches up in the polls, Lucas and company start to do what it takes to win, leaving McKay to ponder the consequences of his political seduction. Working without studio interference from a script by Jeremy Larner, a speechwriter for 1968 Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, Ritchie enhanced the behind-the-scenes realism of Larner's insights with a realistic, cinéma vérité approach. He orchestrated a campaign parade for "candidate" Redford that drew such a considerable unstaged audience that local politicians wanted to draft Redford for a real election. The first and arguably the sharpest expose of the new media-determined American political process, The Candidate offers producer-star Redford one of his strongest dramatic roles; Michael Ritchei's cautionary tale became prophetic in its message.Also,Redford's resemblance to the telegenic Kennedys, and his character's resonance with the future career of California governor Jerry Brown, only emphasized how close to the bone The Candidate was (and is). Released the fateful year of Richard Nixon's reelection, the film garnered accolades, if not substantial box office; Larner won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and thanked the "politicians of our time" for inspiration.Creating a documentary fiction about the semi-truths manufactured to market a candidate, The Candidate shrewdly exposed the effects of the media on the increasingly cynical political process, posing unanswerable questions that have become all the more pressing with every soundbite-ruled election.