The Contender

Dogburt

The political film "The Contender" is a thinly veiled (or not so thinly veiled) re-examination of the political scandal that was a media dream several years ago. Featuring a stellar cast that includes Joan Allen, Gary Oldman, William Petersen, Christian Slater, Sam Elliott, and The Dude, er, sorry, Jeff Bridges (he'll always be The Big Lebowski to me), "The Contender" revisits the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair with a delicate twist of events to see what kind of double standards we live by.

The film opens with two scenes that look tailor-made for each other- a president looking for a vice president to replace his recently deceased VP, and a senator on a routine fishing trip who witnesses a car flying off of a bridge with a woman trapped inside. Without hesitation, the senator jumps into the icy water to try and save the woman. The American public loves stories such as this, and it would appear as if this senator was simply in the right place at the right time, the recipient of good fortune despite the unknown woman's untimely accident. But it doesn't go quite as planned. I'll let that cryptic sentence hang for you to ponder until you see this intelligent film.

President Evans(Jeff Bridges), looking to secure his legacy and leave his "swan song" for his tenure in office, bypasses the heroic senator and chooses another, a woman. He selects Laine Hanson (Joan Allen), a democratic senator from Ohio, to be his VP, who has political views similar to his own. In the advent of this surprising selection, wheels begin to be set in motion to do two simultaneous things- one, to destroy this woman, and two, to put somebody else in the white house. Enter Gary Oldman as the GOP representative who will be responsible for chairing the VP confirmation. Oldman as Sheldon Runyon is a hateful, despicable little man and Oldman completely disappears into Runyon's villainy- we hate him because he hates others- an excellent jump from his usual array of goofy villains that he played in such movies as "The Fifth Element."

Runyon wants to destroy Hanson, and here is the only part of this film where I feel it is slightly lacking, as the motivations for wanting to eliminate her so badly are not concrete. The only conclusion I can reach is that Runyon's Machiavellian mode is a true reflection of Orwell's "1984," as the pursuit of power is to lead to ultimate power itself. Either that or he's a soulless misogynist. Either way, trying to buy this kind of character as real, even as flawed as Runyon is, is a somewhat difficult leap. But if you can accept Runyon's motivation, then he is 100% believable. Early in the film one of his staff members sneaks out of the shadows of a dark-lit meeting room to utter, "we're about to destroy a life" and Runyon and others accept it as a necessary move, not even a casualty, but a cost of winning. Perhaps it just disgusts me to think that there are quite possibly real people in our highest offices who lack remorse for attaining their personal objectives at any cost. I don't want to believe that there are Runyons out there. It frightens me to think that there are.

The premise of the personal attack that Runyon leads against Hanson and Evans involves an alleged event that occurred while Hanson was in college, involving a sorority initiation that required group sex with a fraternity. There are photographs and witnesses, and Runyon's people go on the offensive to secure anything vile and useful to destroy Hanson. The parallel with reality is obvious, as the Lewinsky affair involved similar behind the scenes shades of gray and partial truths about an alleged sex act between someone in the white house and sexual relations that occur outside of what is considered morally decent. Clinton was put on trial and was interrogated by Ken Starr, who spent millions to try and uncover every sordid detail of the truth. The difference that this film portrays is, what if, instead of denying the act and then getting caught in a lie, what if Clinton had simply said "it's none of your business?" This is what Senator Hanson does, refusing to stoop to the level of her opposition.

The power in the film is that we get caught up in the tension of the moment. We can feel Runyon seething behind his horn-rimmed glasses and snarling demeanor. We can see the strength that Hanson is displaying, wanting her to not break form, wanting her to win. It is rare that a woman in film can portray strength, sincerity, and vulnerability all at once, but Allen does it masterfully and allows us to forget about the politics she represents, so that it doesn't matter if we disagree with her political platform. We want her to win because she represents that American ideal of standing up for what you believe in, and are prepared to suffer the consequences as a result. In fact, there is a moment during the confirmation where Hanson is equipped with the power to return fire to Runyon's merciless attack; she has a loaded gun, she has a hollow-point bullet in the chamber...and still maintains her dignity. I for one wish she had fired back, and that's what makes the moment all the more difficult to watch.

I'll close by saying again that I really disdain politics, and this film outlines many of the reasons why. Yet it is still convincing, believable, and poignant all at the same time. Fine acting by all involved, with a special shout-out to Sam Elliott, who takes his bad biker image to the Oval Office, and that makes him pretty darn cool. While the ending is slightly predictable, the arrival is intelligent, doesn't rely on Hollywood gimmick, and underscores the integrity that we hope our nations' leaders would seek to possess in all aspects of leadership.