C.C. Goldwater has her day in the N.Y. Times sun, talking about her grandfather, Barry Goldwater, and more particularly the doc she produced, Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater, which will debut on HBO starting 9.18. Directed by Julie Anderson and co-produced by Tani Cohen, it reconfigures the image of the late Arizona Senator and 1964 Republican President candidate as a kind of liberal-styled libertarian…a fair-minded, independent-minded guy in the vein of, say, John McCain or maybe even a bit to the left of that.
I saw Mr. Conservative in late June at the L.A. Film Festival. I always respected Goldwater for being a helluva lot more candid than most politicians and especially for sticking to his philosophical guns at all times, but this doc provided a fuller acquaintance. My two favorite bits from the doc: (a) Goldwater’s two points of advice to son Barry, Jr., about hound-dogging, which was to “keep it out of town”, and “if you’re not successful by midnight, go home and get some sleep“; and (b) a story about Goldwater being denied a chance to play golf at a certain country club back in the ’50s because of his Jewish name, and his replying that “I’m only half-Jewish from my father’s side so what if I play nine holes?”