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Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

An astute political film about an idealistic liberal lawyer concerned
with community grass roots issues. Bill McKay (Robert Redford) is the son
of the former legendary political machine-sponsored governor of California,
John J. McKay (Melvyn Douglas). Redford is talked into running for California
senator against an incumbent Republican Reagan-like conservative, Crocker
Jarmon (Don Porter). The film is so realistic, probably, because it was
written by a Senator Eugene McCarthy speechwriter Jeremy Larner,
who won an Oscar for his original screenplay. It is directed by Michael
Ritchie (Downhill Racer), who does a good job keeping the
film afloat with black humor and tension. It thankfully never sinks into
melodrama because it stays with the campaign without padding on an unnecessary
plot.

The only difficulty I had is that it is not easy to parody the political
scene, which is already a parody of itself. But what the film successfully
brings to the table, is it clearly shows how a candidate might start out
sincere hoping that the power of the job would allow him to do the things
he wants to do to make things better in society; yet, the candidate thinks
he must compromise and play the political game in order to get elected.
This intelligent film shows that better than any other political film I
have seen thus far: it magnifies what the seduction of power can do to
someone, even an idealist like the Redford character. The candidate, though
compromised, still remains a somewhat ambiguous sympathetic figure, someone
who still might be effective as a senator, even though he is flawed.

The film opens as there seems to be little hope for the Democrats
to win in the senate race in California against an excellent campaigner
and a veteran silver-tongued politician, the incumbent, Senator Jarmon.
Therefore, Democrat campaign manager, Marvin Lucas (Boyle), decides to
take a chance and get a fresh face with blue blood political credentials
to run for office, the handsome and articulate Bill McKay. He gets Democrat
media consultant Howard Klein (Garfield) to run the TV and ad campaign,
who is one of those loud-mouth, opinionated, irksome individuals who always
has to be busy doing something. When he is at his desk, he pounds his hammer
on some walnuts while conducting business. McKay is a do-gooder, working
out of a makeshift lawyer’s office defending environmental and local community
issues, and is not interested at first in the senate office. But Lucas
pushes the right buttons. He tells him he can say what he wants to and
go where he wants to go, and by securing this powerful office he can be
more influential in getting his political agenda across. In his understated
salespitch to Redford, Lucas writes on the cover of the matchbook that
he hands him: You lose. Which supposedly means, for the moment, what do
you have to lose, just be yourself, no one expects you to win. Nancy (Carlson),
the candidate’s attractive wife, also, applies pressure on him as she encourages
him to run, seeing herself in a more important light as the wife of a senator.
Later the matchbook message will mean that he lost his soul, as Redford
tries to be humorous in a droll way and says the message means the results
are of the early returns.

Behind in the polls by 14 points, McKay’s campaign is preaching to
the choir until he is told by Lucas that he must now reach out to other
voters or else he will lose in a landslide. The change in McKay’s message
is not without misgivings on his part, but what the film does well is keep
the focus on the campaign. Soon, McKay’s ratings go up in the polls while
drawing women voters to him because of his virile looks. He also energizes
the apathetic electorate with basically the same tired political rhetoric
his opponent is saying, but he has charisma and it somehow sounds fresh
coming from his lips. During the TV debate Redford transposes his face
on Jarmon’s and there is no distinction between the two of them, except
he still suffers from the conflicts of his conscience and still thinks
he can overcome the political scenario and do good on his promises. But
this is shown as being rather dubious as his father’s old political ally,
the labor leader Starkey (Tobey) promises to deliver the vote for him with
the tacit understanding of the favors he expects if his candidate should
become senator.

When Redford wins in an upset but is perceived as having sold out
for the victory, talking in meaningless soundbites to appeal to the masses
… his appreciative father comes up to him and offers him the left-handed
compliment: “Son, you’re a politician.” Amidst the hysteria of the victory
celebration of the party faithful, he asks Lucas with a confused expression
on his kisser: “What do we do now…?”

In “The Candidate”, the Redford character has no one to blame but
himself for his decisions. He was the one who sold himself out. It would
be too easy to blame it on the system, which this film correctly doesn’t
do. This Hollywood film has passed the test of time and is still a good
watch, especially, during an election year. And, even though the times
have changed from the 1970s, the political process still looks the same–
if that is possible to believe.