Watched Man Of The Year last night, had never seen it. Came out in ’06. Somewhat prescient, regarding what we see today and what has been going on for a while now, in terms of red and blue labelism, if that’s a word, not to mention the whole voting machine kerfuffle.
Once again, the story is about a candidate who shakes things up, who uses his comedic chops in combination with a serious take on issues to garner a following. Without rehashing too much, a computer/election machine glitch– something its makers are aware of but which is ignored in the interest of garnering serious profits for the company– has him winning the national election for POTUS, even though he really didn’t.
Before this truth is revealed, this Independent candidate gets to unload on special interests and the skewed influence of big oil and pharma and the rest of the usual suspects who donate megabucks to campaigns and who expect a quid pro quo, a candidate who is beholden to them or at least is expected to give special consideration when it comes to friendly legislation, etc.
Good story, and it gave Robin Williams, Christopher Walken, Laura Linney, and even Lewis Black a chance to shine. Seems like a good one to rewatch sometime in the coming days and months, if for no other reason than that it tries to drive home the point about representatives in Congress being distracted from actually representing the people of their districts, and instead being in somebody’s pocket, whether it’s the NRA or Exxon or name-the-pharmaceutical-behemoth.
It also may add fuel for the current batch of deniers who think voting machines are near the top of the enemies list…
Lots of threads to pull, I guess. But hey, it’s only a movie.
3 Cents' 