HBO's "Game Change"

[Dick Whitman]

Did anybody else watch it this weekend?

If you follow the news at all or have read the book, you'll already know most of the material. It ignores the Democratic side of things that was pretty prominent in the book and just focuses on the Sarah Palin narrative. Woody Harrelson (as Steve Schmidt) and Julianne Moore (as Palin) are both fantastic.

It's really fast-paced, but I thought it was compelling to see the Palin drama reenacted on the screen like that. She starts off being overwhelmed, then turns into a total beast after she clocks a decent effort in the debate against "O'Biden."

 

[SellOut]

Thought it was pretty great. I liked the fact they didn't make Palin a one-note character, though I think they kind of lionized McCain a bit. Not quite as good as Recount (the one they did about the 2000 election) but easily could have (and maybe should have) been something that you saw the your local multiplex first. And man I just love Harrellson these days. He kind of owns everything he does.

 

[Lugnuts]

Totally different take-- I thought Harrelson was stilted as Schmidt. Moore did okay, but her accent was so forced.

I agree it wasn't as good as Recount.

The book was amazing, so this pales.

I did see where the real Nicole Wallace said the film (and book) pretty much hit the mark in terms of getting the story right.

 

[Harry Doyle]

Random note: Danny Strong, who wrote the film, played Danny last season in Mad Men. Of course, folks here are more likely to remember him as Doyle in Gilmore Girls.

 

[rmanfredi]

Random note: Danny Strong, who wrote the film, played Danny last season in Mad Men. Of course, folks here are more likely to remember him as Doyle in Gilmore Girls.

Or, depending on your nerd quotent, Jonathan in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

 

[J-School Blue]

I did see where the real Nicole Wallace said the film (and book) pretty much hit the mark in terms of getting the story right.

I found the bit at the end, where Nicole Wallace admitted she hadn't actually voted in the election after putting in so much time with Sarah Palin during the campaign, both hilarious and very telling. Supposedly, in addition to all the background in the book, the screen writers did interviews with 25 McCain staffers. So whatever details may've been imperfect or dramatized, that's too many people to shrug off as a couple of hacks with an axe to grind.

I'd somehow missed that Jonathan from "Buffy" wrote "Recount."

I haven't read the book, though after seeing this I'm interested to pick it up. I came away with the impression that Sarah Palin is a perfectly nice woman who should not be in power of anything. It also made me wonder where the Republican Party would be if McCain had run with Lieberman, like he apparently wanted to. Would the Tea Party have existed? Would it have put the country in a more bipartisan place post-election, or would the GOP have radicalized even further as a response to a loss it could blame entirely on the moderates (a loss whoever the veep pick was appears to have been pretty inevitable)?

It's hard not to be a cartoon when you're playing a figure like Pailn, but I thought Moore did a compelling job. The scene where she was on the phone with Palin's son in Iraq really got me.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I think my favorite line was when Schmidt/Harrelson looks at the screen during the Couric interview and shouts: "Just name one ****ing newspaper!"

 

[The Big Ragu]

I think my favorite line was when Schmidt/Harrelson looks at the screen during the Couric interview and shouts: "Just name one ****ing newspaper!"

The problem with Woody Harrelson in any role like this. ... is that he's Woody Harrelson. I couldn't see Steve Schmidt. I just saw Woody Harrelson.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

It impresses the hell out of me that Harrelson can be such a burned-out stoner in real life and be so amazing in movies like Rampart and The Messenger.

I haven't seen Game Change yet, but will if it's still on when we get our free HBO weekend in two weeks or so...

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

I came away with the impression that Sarah Palin is a perfectly nice woman who should not be in power of anything.

That's where I think they went a little wrong. She's not exactly a nice person. Her record of backstabbing and bullying is well known in Alaska.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I came away with the impression that Sarah Palin is a perfectly nice woman who should not be in power of anything.

That's where I think they went a little wrong. She's not exactly a nice person. Her record of backstabbing and bullying is well known in Alaska.

I would disagree with J-School Blue's assessment to a degree. I think that they tried to humanize her a few times in the movie - the old Chekhov trick of giving the villain a dog that he loves. But overall she came off very, very poorly.

 

[Boom_70]

Interesting memo published today in Politico. It was written 10 days before election and discussed how to
preserve Steve Schmidt's reputation from the pending fallout of McCain loss.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=9247F184-3283-4D54-9730-7159FD70F3F5

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I think my favorite line was when Schmidt/Harrelson looks at the screen during the Couric interview and shouts: "Just name one ****ing newspaper!"

The problem with Woody Harrelson in any role like this. ... is that he's Woody Harrelson. I couldn't see Steve Schmidt. I just saw Woody Harrelson.

Totally true.

I remember seeing Ted Danson in the small cameo role in "Saving Private Ryan" and thinking to myself, "What the hell is Sam Malone doing in World War II?"

Some actors can never get away from the character that has made them famous. When I see Woody, I always see the Indiana farmboy who told stories of his weird relatives in a bar.

 

[micropolitan guy]

I though WH was excellent in "No Country for Old Men." "Cheers" may be his best-known role, but he's still a fairly talented actor. And Ted Danson was pretty good in 'Body Heat."

As for Sarah Palin, I think she totally epitomizes how sstyle has completely replaced any substance in much of national politics. I don't think she could effectivley lead the local PTA.

 

[The Big Ragu]

I though WH was excellent in "No Country for Old Men." "Cheers" may be his best-known role, but he's still a fairly talented actor. And Ted Danson was pretty good in 'Body Heat."

As for Sarah Palin, I think she totally epitomizes how sstyle has completely replaced any substance in much of national politics. I don't think she could effectivley lead the local PTA.

I agree with you, but I don't think the style over substance thing is really all that new.

Franklin Pierce was made a household name in a fictionalized biography of Pierce by Nathaniel Hawthorne, when Hawthorne was at the height of his fame. And then Pierce ended up the "compromise" candidate a year later, for a party trying to decide between Steven Douglas, James Buchanan and William Marcy, among others.

 

[Bubbler]

I'm surprised anyone still thinks of Woody Harrelson as Woody from Cheers these days. He's been in so damn many movies since then, sometimes in very iconic roles, I barely think of Cheers anymore.

 

[Starman]

Cheers went off TV 19 years ago. It's not even on most of the rerun channels any more.

 

[Lugnuts]

Interesting memo published today in Politico. It was written 10 days before election and discussed how to
preserve Steve Schmidt's reputation from the pending fallout of McCain loss.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=9247F184-3283-4D54-9730-7159FD70F3F5

That doesn't bother me. I still like Schmidt. I'd love to see him take a job with a moderate Democrat.

Schmidt was very much the "tragic hero" of this tale. Yes, he made a huge mistake picking Palin. He created the monster. That's on him. But his reasons for picking her were not wrong. There's NO WAY a McCain-Pawlenty ticket would've won. I applaud his boldness-- he was just too reckless. If he'd picked a different woman.....

 

[RickStain]

He'll always be Billy to me.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

As for Sarah Palin, I think she totally epitomizes how sstyle has completely replaced any substance in much of national politics. I don't think she could effectivley lead the local PTA.

"There goes that lamestream media again. We had chocolate chip cookies at our fundraiser, not brownies."