Political films

[e_pepys]

So the programme, President Hollywood, that I mentioned when comparing the election to The West Wing, was fun enough, I suppose. It did mention a number of political films and TV programmes, some of which I'd not seen (although the programme's topic was the American presidency as depicted by Hollywood, it did mention other political films

Comments

[celestialweasel]

I thought Wag The Dog was a rare film in being utterly dire apart from one bit which was excellent, the American Dream song which is on YouTube here http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=enH2igVo55U
This is clearly a piss-take of We Are The World. Bizarrely, I understand (I think wikipedia said this) that a soundtrack album was released which didn't contain the 3 songs written for the film).
I am by coincidence rereading the book on which it is based (by which I mean 'is much better than the film with which it has nothing to speak of in common' - unless you count the book being about a film producer coming up with the idea of the Gulf War i.e. a real war rather than a fake one).

[e_pepys]

I don't remember Wag the Dog as being so bad, but then I remember very little about it which may be telling. It came out at about the same time as Primary Colors, which I have since rewatched and enjoyed (despite being about another bloody sex scandal - can't americans have a proper scandal? In this respect at least we can thank Blagojevich).

[celestialweasel]

Be fair, the scandal in Primary Colors was about sex and drugs.
The main thing I thought on re-viewing Primary Colors was 'but Abby's a nurse not a politico' (Maura Tierney was in PC but subsequently was in ER).
Also, Emma Thompson's accent was all over the place, I suspect because she got better as filming progressed but it was filmed out of order.