The Candidate Reviews

To be honest, since it is a rather obscure feature, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from it but since I always had a weak spot for Robert Redford, I was quite eager to check it out. On top of that, I have always been a big fan of movies dealing with politics so I was definitely intrigued by the whole thing. Eventually, I thought that Robert Redford gave a very good performance and the whole movie was rather fascinating. Basically, it is some kind of mockumentary but it never goes over-the-top and I really enjoyed the realistic approach their took. What was also uncanny was that even though this flick is already more than 40 years old, the mood around a political campaign and the rather dirty tactics are still pretty much the same nowadays. On top of that, also something quite brilliant displayed here, is the fact that no matter if someone shows up with some fresh new interesting ideas, someone radical pretty much doesn’t stand a chance and, to have a shot at winning, you always have to moderate your message, you always have to avoid any possible controversy and therefore, as a result, give a really bland and generic message that can be easily swallowed by the lowest common denominator. To conclude, even though it was not a masterpiece, I thought it was a really good political satire and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.