Review of Primary Colors (1998) by Rodney E — 30 Dec 2012
Directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate (1967), Catch-22 (1970) and The Birdcage (1996)), and adapted from the 1996 book by Joe Klein (credited as Anonymous), this is a biting political satire which came out when Bill Clinton was being scrutinised for the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
The fact that it's stars actually resemble the Clintons make this a bit too close to home for comfort, but it's still a good film. It has political idealist Henry Burton (Adrian Lester) being asked to join the campaign of Governor Jack Stanton (John Travolta), who is running for the Democratic candidate of the U.
S. Presidency. By Jack's side is his wife Susan (Emma Thompson), redneck political strategist Richard Jemmons (Billy Bob Thornton), Daisy Green (Mauria Tierney) and Howard Ferguson (Paul Guilfoyle).
All seems to be going well, but when a sex scandal threatens to harm Stanton's campaign, Burton finds himself with tough "dustbuster" Libby Holden (Kathy Bates) to help clear up the mess, and there's a lot of it.
It's a good film, and Nichols has fun with the cutthroat world of campaigning, even if it did alienate cinemagoers at the time. With Travolta and Thompson doing good Clinton impressions, Lester beautifully underplaying his part as the novice and Bates nearly stealing the film.
It has brilliant support from Rob Reiner, Tony Shalhoub, Diane Ladd and Larry Hagman.
This review of Primary Colors (1998) was written by Rodney E on 30 Dec 2012.
Primary Colors has generally received positive reviews.
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