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Bulletin
Tired of real politics? Try the silver screen instead.
By Jess Bidgood
As 2024 comes to a close, you may be tired of watching politicians act like they are the stars of an epic movie.
So, as the holidays approach and you settle into the middle of the proverbial fire, why watch a genuine movie about politics?
The films confuse and satirize a political formula that fully deserves both. They can warn us of the risks of the lust for strength and expose the human weaknesses and egos that are at the center of everything. And from time to time, they may give us an explanation of why in the higher goal of politics.
Last week, I asked you to tell me your favorite movies about politics — and I asked around our newsroom, too. Maggie Haberman’s favorite politics movie is “The Parallax View,” the 1974 Warren Beatty thriller about a newspaper reporter investigating an assassination. Dick Stevenson, our next Washington bureau chief, went with the 1976 classic “All the President’s Men.” Lisa Lerer added a deep cut: the 2008 romantic comedy “Definitely, Maybe,” about the romantic misadventures of a former political consultant played by Ryan Reynolds.
And then there’s Carl Hulse, our chief Washington correspondent. I spoke to him on the phone while he was in the halls of the Capitol, in the front row of the government-funded holiday blockbuster that no one wanted. Carl He loves the 1964 film “The Best Man” and HBO’s “Recount” , a recreation of the 2000 presidential election that he said was true to life. (He would know: he was there!).
If Real Politics were a movie, I asked, would it be a thriller? A tragedy?
“A comedy, a doubt,” he said.
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