The Candidate Rating: Release Date: 15 September, 1998 Retail Price: $19.98 OUR Price: $10.97 You SAVE: $9.01! Cast: Robert Redford Peter Boyle Michael Douglas K Douglas Complete Cast (11 total)

The Candidate Reviews

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You make it sound like a death sentence.
I watched The Candidate for my Civic's class a few weeks ago. It's really not good at all. If Robert Redford were not in the film I would have thought it was an educational film. The story started off promising, but it slowly got watered down by other factors. The film's storyline just cannot support it's two-hour runtime. The direction is nothing special. The acting is okay. Robert Redford is not that great. I do not recall the film's score so it must not have been that affective. Overall, The Candidate's plot is just not gripping and nothing else in the film can make it any better.

"So vote once, vote twice, for Bill McKay... you middle class honkies."
One of the best political films ever made, "The Candidate" (1972) is tough, honest, mature, cynical and absolutely authentic. Robert Redford, in probably the best performance of his career, portrays idealistic young lawyer Bill McKay, thoroughly involved with civil rights, legal aid and ecology, who agrees to run for the U.S. Senate--not to win, he tells himself, but to bring vital issues before the voters. He despises political deals and compromises, but when the possibility of victory overshadows what seemed like certain defeat, his integrity begins to weaken.

With an Oscar-winning screenplay by Jeremy Lardner (the former aid to Senator Eugene McCarthy), and stunningly crafted direction by Michael Ritchie, "The Candidate" certainly is one of the most authentic visions of American politics ever put on film. More importantly, it is a fascinating and dynamic character study showing all the inner conflicts of a decent man torn between his ambition and his conscience. It tells what it costs--emotionally, morally, financially--to run for public office, and conveys all the doubts, all the self deceptions and ultimately all the cynicism of a man who knows he has sold out for something he isn't sure he really wants.

As the reluctant candidate, Redford dominates the film, never more assured and appealing. Peter Boyle as his campaign manager, Melvyn Douglas as his father and Don Porter as the conservative incumbent are perfectly cast. For immediacy and accuracy, it's almost impossible to equal. After watching this film, you'll wonder why anyone would ever run for office--an impression that, ultimately, may have as much to do with the irony that McKay's candor and altruism are pleasing to the voters but have nothing to do with government. Ultimately, "The Candidate" succeeds as well as it does not because of what it says, but because of the details and the subtleties it observes while saying it. [filmfactsman]

More Customer Reviews (13 total)

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