HBO's Recount, no thread?

I think they went out of their way to poke fun of Dan Rather. The on-air clips they picked of Rather made him look like a doofus.

 

Loved it. It seems to have been based on a book Klain and Bash contributed to, so that's why the story was tilted more to their perspective.

 

Tom Wilkinson is becoming quite a highly-in-demand character actor. If you recall, he was the laid-off middle manager in "The Full Monty." He had probably the funniest line in the movie: "I got a stiffy!"

 

Got to inspect this more closely this afternoon and agree that it was fair to both sides, as it needs to be. The movie is ambitious and risked dullness, but never was.

 

I thought it did a pretty good job of illuminating the buffoonery displayed by the left, the right, the...aw fuck it, everyone.

I'd agree with the Dan Rather point, but the problem is, they used actual clips. The actual news clips were a sensational touch.

 

Finally got around to watching it today, via Netflix.

Agreed on the alley scene, that's when I really started to get into the movie. And agreed on Wilkinson, who I first remember as Cornwallis in "The Patriot." Definitely worth watching during an election year.

 

Loved Spacey and Leary. Also enjoyed the scene where the Palm Beach supervisor of elections is squirming very uncomfortably when she's being asked why the ballot was designed the way it was.

Hope the Democrats in that county are still losing sleep with the knowledge that they would have won Florida, and the election, if they had let a 16-year-old from a high school graphics art class design their ballot.

 

Odd timing, but I watched this tonight (Netflix) just a few hours after Scalia's interview on 60 Minutes his "get over it" response to the Bush v. Gore question made me feel very uneasy. It's not like things wouldn't have been different for the last eight years if Gore won. The gutless decision (while I have no problem with the Supreme Court stepping in and ruling one way or the other, the legal yoga it required did not serve the country well) reeked of partisanship.
The way the networks screwed the pooch on their projections, the fiasco that followed, learning of how screwed up our elections are, the faux protests, a pretty disheartening beginning of the new millenium.
And for all the griping about HBO's lefty tilt, you should remember that John Adams was an original righty.