The Front Runner [Blu-ray]

Actually, I had forgotten all about Gary Hart. I do recall when he was a “Frontrunner”. I liked him and the issues he was addressing were pertinent and timely for the period. He was a liberal democrat, very relaxed appearance. Average looking man whom probably could have had a chance at the Presidential run. But, like so many before and after he had an amorous personality that overtook him. I still see him in white shorts with two bimbos on his knee. Tsk Tsk lol that picture means nothing but I believe like the movie implies that he was indeed having an affair with a blonde. Why so many politicians whom are aware this behavior is wrong continually get caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Especially, when you have announced your candidacy. Did he think he was infallible and could just keep up this adulterous actions. I feel that because Kennedy and Johnson got away with it Gary Hart thought he would be just like his counterparts. Gee, it backfired and he bowed out of the run for President. I enjoyed it felt that the performance by Hugh Jackman strained dragged out. Point I have got to emphasize is Hugh Jackman is far more handsome than Gary Hart. I never liked his looks or his attitude, I feel like he just dodged the issue by resigning. In politics you need a hard backbone and must strive to push ahead regardless. You Gary Hart were unfaithful and as this movie hints at have had many affairs.This movie was too long, boring, and laughable during some scenes. The point that comes across reel after reel is that what was once protected by the press and society in general to cover up improprieties no longer exists. Sen. Hart was the first politician that I can remember who proved it correct gloves are off no more coverups. A lesson politicians after him ignored and ended up resigning from office. When will married men learn to keep faithful and loving to their families making their lives and relationships protected. Ironic, that he stay married to his wife and maintained his Senate spot.

I remember well Gary Hart's climb to contention and, of course, his downfall (something that would not have even registered with our current president). With Hugh Jackman in the lead, you con't go wrong. I thought Hart's character came off as kind of arrogant and dismissive. But according to some friends of mine that worked with him when he campaigned in CA he was usually warm and very approachable.

It is a sad commentary that the movie did not get a wide release in the USA or an international release in many countries. The movie may be set in political America, but in other parts of the world the scenario and the characters bear some amazing resemblances. The drama itself is absorbing and provokes thinking on what might have been. The storytelling by Jason Reitman is smart and very mature ( I wish movies were more like this than the kind of fare we get these days via tentpoles). The acting, especially that of Hugh Jackman, is very strong and elicits praiseworthy nods. Jackman shows that he is arguably one of the most, if not the most, versatile actors on the planet. It is noteworthy that he has now turned towards the dramatic genre ( while not forsaking other film genres) more emphatically these days. I have read parts of the book of Matt Bai but the movie puts the characters into a more compelling focus! Go see it!

Written by Matt Bai and Jay Carson, and directed by Jason Reitman, The Front Runner (2018) dramatizes the news media’s role in U.S. Senator Gary Hart’s 1988 Democratic presidential primary campaign implosion. Filmed like a docudrama, the 113 minute period piece alternates between Hart’s campaign and the journalists covering it, to the detriment of both perspectives.As the film opens, Senator Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman) is riding high off an energetic but ultimately unsuccessful primary campaign for president. Flash forward four years, Hart prepares to make another run for it with his veteran campaign manager, Bill Dixon (J.K. Simmons), and a cornucopia of campaign staff, including body man Billy Shore (Mark O’Brien) and a fictional scheduler named Irene Kelly (Molly Ephraim). Hart tries to maintain a cozy relationship with the press, including with inexperienced Washington Post reporter AJ Parker (Mamoudou Athie).Things get complicated when Hart attends a party on a yacht called the Monkey Business and reporters at the Miami Herald begin receiving strange phone calls about Hart cheating on his longtime wife, Lee (Vera Farmiga). Frustrated, Hart challenges AJ to “follow him around.” Miami Herald reporters Tom Fiedler (Steve Zissis) and Pete Murphy (Bill Burr) take this as an invitation and begin surveilling Hart’s apartment, where they see Donna Rice (Sara Paxton) leaving at night. Can Hart extinguish this media firestorm before it’s too late?With a cast of literally dozens of minor characters competing for screen time, your effort to keep track of them all will be as ambitious as the filmmakers’ efforts to tell this story from every imaginable angle.Historically, Gary Warren Hartpence (1936 - ), aka Gary Hart, was a U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1975 to 1987. He ran in the Democratic primary for president in 1984 and again in 1988. Media furor over an alleged affair with a Florida model named Donna Rice led to Hart withdrawing from the race, though he later tried to restart his campaign. To this day, Hart and Rice deny having an affair and Hart and his wife of 61 years remain together. Some commentators point to this scandal as a turning point in the way presidential candidates were covered by the press.According to the real Bill Dixon, there were never any incriminating photos of Hart kissing Donna Rice, as depicted in the film. The National Enquirer did publish a photo of Rice sitting on Hart’s lap while the senator was wearing a “Monkey Business Crew” t-shirt, but nothing as explicitly damning as shown in the film.By choosing to include these fictional photos, making Hart look guilty, the filmmakers implied members of the media were justified in pursuing Hart. There’s even an entire scene in which Washington Post reporters discuss jumping on the story based on the incriminating photos. Yet throughout the film, reporters are cast as sleazy and opportunistic. Should journalists ignore a candidate’s personal failings, even in the face of incontrovertible evidence? The Front Runner seems to be saying, ‘yes’.Like The Front Runner, Chappaquiddick (2017) also dramatized a political scandal involving a Democratic senator. In 1969, an inebriated Ted Kennedy drove into a lake, leaving campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne to drown. That film focused primarily on Kennedy’s actions and his efforts to rescue his political career, so there’s no confusion over what the story was about. The Front Runner should have followed a similar course and focused on one perspective.The consensus among critics and viewers seems to be that The Front Runner is boring and lacks depth, though critics favored it more (59% critic rating vs 39% audience rating on RottenTomatoes). In my mind, it looks too much like a documentary and not enough like a feature film. The film spent too much time establishing the hustle and bustle of an active presidential campaign and not enough on the actual plot. At least 20 minutes could be cut without changing anything.

I'm a big Hugh Jackson fan and he did not disappoint. This is one of his better efforts and it's an interesting chronicle on an important episode in American politics. It seems almost quaint today, in an age of a pussy grabber president, but in a bygone era of morality, this was quite a scandal. In the Trump era, it's almost laughable. Be that as it may, the material is handled well, and I enjoyed the picture very much.