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Wednesday, 07 May 2008
Arrgghhh! It was painful enough the first time
Among those who lived through the Florida Long Count in 2000, who would want to live through it again? Not me. But HBO is betting I'm in the minority:
REVISIT THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN U.S HISTORY
AS KEVIN SPACEY LEADS AN ENSEMBLE CAST IN RECOUNT
PREMIERING SUNDAY, MAY 25TH AT 9 PM ET/PT ONLY ON HBO
Two-time Oscar® winner Kevin Spacey (“American Beauty,” “The Usual
Suspects”) leads the ensemble cast of HBO Films’ RECOUNT, debuting SUNDAY, MAY 25 (9:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO.
Shot on location in Jacksonville and Tallahassee, RECOUNT revisits one of the most dramatic moments in U.S. history, portraying the turmoil of the 2000 presidential election in Florida
. The film also stars Bob Balaban (“For Your Consideration”), Ed Begley, Jr. (“Living with Ed”), Laura Dern (“Year of the Dog”), John Hurt (“The Elephant Man”), Denis Leary (“Rescue Me”), Bruce McGill (“Cinderella Man”) and Tom Wilkinson (“Michael Clayton”).
RECOUNT follows the Florida recount from Election Day in November 2000 through the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of George W. Bush over Al Gore five weeks later. This illuminating, hugely entertaining film pulls back the veil on the headlines to explore the human drama surrounding the most controversial presidential election in U.S. history.
Kevin Spacey portrays Ron Klain, Vice President Al Gore’s former Chief of Staff. Tom Wilkinson portrays James Baker III, who was previously Secretary of State to President George H. W. Bush. Denis Leary plays Michael Whouley, national field director during the Gore campaign. Laura Dern portrays Katherine Harris, Secretary of State of Florida. Bob Balaban portrays Ben Ginsberg, national counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign in the 2000 election. John Hurt plays Warren Christopher, former Secretary of State to President Bill Clinton. Bruce McGill plays Republican lobbyist Mac Stipanovich. Ed Begley, Jr. portrays attorney David Boies, who represented the Gore campaign before the Supreme Court.
For more details on the film and to view the trailer go to: http://www.hbo.com/films/recount/
Laura Dern as Katherine Harris?!?! Have mercy! Please, let me remember her as she was in "Wild at Heart
" -- or almost anything else you can name...
Tell you what -- why don't y'all watch it, and tell me about it...
Posted by Brad Warthen at 06:14 PM in Elections, History, Movies
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Comments
If they were going for truth, they'd just broadcast what actually happened(they can add direct interviews with folks who did the counting or whatever). The second they put in 'stars' you just know this is going to be fiction. Give me a break. We have enuf divisiveness at this point. Don't fictionalize it. Work to keep it from happening again.
Posted by: Karen McLeod | May 7, 2008 6:21:05 PM
Amen!
Posted by: Brad Warthen | May 7, 2008 6:27:22 PM
If it doesn't show the part where the Gore team already has planned to challenge every close vote with a canned set of claims, then it is not the truth.
We know from the investigation that they had the Florida protest already drawn up weeks before the election, ready to turn in with a shotgun list of bogus claims.
Luckily, the GOP stood up and stopped another Democrat election theft.
Posted by: Lee Muller | May 7, 2008 6:33:29 PM
No film, on HBO or on the big screen or even documentary, can say more about the 2000 fiasco than the recent "60 Minutes" interview with Scalia and his comments about it. Talk about barely disguised contempt for democracy and one's fellow Americans! His words and more importantly, his body language, said it all.
Posted by: Phillip | May 7, 2008 6:45:07 PM
George Washington and all those who drafted the Constitution had contempt for democracy, and rightly so. Democracy is one of several fair processes for operating a republic, but it is not a stable form of government, because it lends itself to demagogues pandering to groups who want to rob wealth from more industrious members of society.
Scalia has the utmost respect for our limited republican form of government, and seeks to save it from the abuses of judges and legislators seek unlimited power.
Posted by: Lee Muller | May 7, 2008 8:41:50 PM
Once again Lee is dead on the money correct. Once again the democrats parrot hearsay. I'll give you one good example of the problem with democracy, the O.J. Simpson trial.
Posted by: Richard L. Wolfe | May 8, 2008 9:00:07 AM
Speaking of painful, today's editorial cartoon demonstrates the worst taste of anything I've ever seen in a newspaper.
A horse's broken ankles in the Kentucky Derby and euthanization are no laughing matter.
Somebody's head ought to roll.
Posted by: penultimo mcfarland | May 8, 2008 9:42:43 AM
232 years as of this July 4, or a few years less if you want to date it from the Constitution...either way, hard to defend the position that American democracy has been an "unstable" form of government.
Who's the anti-American around here?
Posted by: Phillip | May 8, 2008 10:20:07 AM
America's legal construction is a republic.
Subversives have tried to degrade it to a democracy as an interim step to something worse. Initially, some wanted to transition to a monarcy or an oligarchy. Since Lincoln, most of the subversives have had a socialist ruling class as their goal.
Today's subversives are millionaire socialist elites like Hillary Clinton, and more populist communists on the South American model like Barak Hussein Obama.
Posted by: Lee Muller | May 8, 2008 11:01:22 AM
Arrgghhh! It was painful enough the first time.
Yes, Saturday, it was.
From Wikipedia:
Eight Belles (2005 – May 3, 2008) was a gray filly thoroughbred racehorse owned by Fox Hill Farms. She finished second in the 2008 Kentucky Derby, a race run by only thirty-nine fillies in the past, but collapsed during her cool-down after the race. She suffered compound fractures of both front ankles and was euthanized immediately following the race because of the nature of the injury. Dr. Larry Bramlage, the on-call veterinarian, stated that the filly's injuries were too severe to even attempt to move her off the track.
According to the The Louisville Courier-Journal, Bramlege said the filly had fractures of the cannon and sesamoid bones in both front legs. That is the same type of break that was suffered by 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro in one leg.
You and your editorial cartoonist have stepped across the line with both feet on this one, Mr. Warthen.
Posted by: penultimo mcfarland | May 8, 2008 11:02:46 AM
Since Al Gore was the inspiration for Love Story maybe Ryan Oneil could play the former Vice President.
Posted by: bud | May 8, 2008 1:46:42 PM
Wonder if they'll dramatize the fact that the "citizens" trying to shut down the recount were all GOP congressional staffers and other operatives?
Not that they aren't citizens, but you all know what I mean...
Posted by: James D McCallister | May 9, 2008 5:20:41 AM
