Last night I rewatched Primary Colors (’98), the Mike Nichols-directed roman a clef that was adapted from Joe Klein’s same-titled 1996 book about Bill Clinton‘s 1992 campaign. It was well reviewed but Joe and Jane Popcorn recoiled and it financially flopped. Everyone was mystified but now I understand.
Six words: Too much poison in the well.
The story basically treats Bill’s hound-dogging as a manifestation of demonic evil that eclipses every rancid saga of political corruption you’ve ever heard or dreamt of. Jesus, the Clintons weren’t this dirty and depraved.
The same passion that propels charismatic politicians to electoral success is tied on some level to compulsive sexual hunger and adventurism (i.e., the JFK syndrome), and it’s not that awful to indiscriminately have it off with babysitters, colleagues and willing volunteers on the campaign trail. It goes with the territory.
The film starts out as a cynical but light-hearted dramedy about the rough and tumble of waging and winning elections, but it swerves too hard into dark melodrama toward the end. The problem is basically Kathy Bates‘ “Libby Holden” character, a hard-boiled political operator who knows all about the ropes, dirty tricks and buried bodies, but suddenly melts into disillusionment and then a mind-boggling violent suicide…c’mon.
I was reminded here and there of Robert Redford‘s The Candidate (Bill McKay‘s sexual appetite doesn’t wind up destroying or even hurting anyone) and mostly of Robert Rossen‘s All The King’s Men (’49), which also ended with a shooting.
The performances hold up pretty well (John Travolta as Clinton or “Jack Stanton”, Emma Thompson as Hillary/”Susan Stanton”, Billy Bob Thornton as James Carville/”Richard Jemmons”, and Adrien Lester as”Henry Burton”, a smart idealist who truly believes in the Stanton charisma. Plus the always reliable Maura Tierney, Paul Guilfoyle, Larry Hagman…everyone delivers in believable, compelling fashion.
But it leaves a bad taste. Too much heavy sauce.