Butterfly ballots, hanging chad, dimpled ballots, disenfranchised voters. You may not believe how much you don't remember about the 2000 presidential election until you watch HBO's brilliant Recount which premiered Sunday, May 25th.
Directed by Jay Roach, who avoids partisan positioning to an impressive degree, the film's cast is longer than this article . Recount's protagonist, Ron Klain, is brought to life by two time Oscar winner, Kevin Spacey. Klain's relationship with the Gore camp was complicated, beginning as the VP's Chief-of-Staff and ending as the lead council of the Gore Recount Committee with bad blood between both assignments.
On the opposite side we have James Baker, Bush's chief legal adviser who led his candidate's interests during the recount process. Tom Wilkenson's cunning portrayal of Baker allows us to appreciate the wit and savvy of this Bush family loyalist.
Denis Leary plays chief Gore strategist, Michael Whouley with passion and a flair for the F word. Laura Dern evades cliché as she channels Katherine Harris in all her Chanel glory. Warren Christopher is elegantly captured by John Hurt, and others are brought to life by faces you'll recognize playing people you may have forgotten.
I watched the film at my friend Katie's house last evening with other friends who hoped to see Katie's freckled Florida face among the crowd of extras. Sadly, she remains on the editing room floor, but that did not diminish her appreciation of the final product. Recount captures all of the frantic confusion that characterized the 2000 election as we see each side reacting to new allegations about electoral impropriety. Despite the fact that I knew how the election would end, the film was absorbing through the final frame.
For those people who were happy with the final result of the 2000 election, you'll find plenty to savor in this diplomatic dog fight. For others, like me, who were disappointed in the outcome, you'll remember how depressing December 12th was, but you may also feel more compelled to become active in one of the current campaigns. I wonder what our country might be like today if Al Gore's victory had not been overruled.
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Comments: 39
I believe there will be quite a few emmy nominations for "Recount"
Remember Kathryn, who was rewarded with a nice position for her part in this little charade? Bush certainly returned all favors received with handsome rewards.
Karen T: I think that if our nation had been attacked during a Gore administration, his response would have been appropriate. In fact, Osama Bin Laden may actually have been apprehended and prosecuted. Who knows.
I also think that there would never have been any outrageous WMD speculation and therefore we would not have attacked Iraq. Yeah, Hussein would probably still be alive, but he was never our problem.
As far as the economy goes- the mess we're in has everything to do with errors made over the last eight years.
I believe that if Gore had rightfully taken the presidency we would not have been attacked. Of course they would have still tried but they would have been foiled. Remembr that after the election Bush and Company dropped all pretenses of fighting terrorism. They ignored the Cole bombing and ignored the Richard Clarke the chief counter-terrorism adviser. In fact they did not have a high level terrorism meeting until after the 9/11 attack.
The dereliction of duty attributable to this administration is pathetic and criminal.
Kevin: (what is your icon? Is it a copper turtle?) I hope you find the film as compelling as I did.
Karen: Yes, we would have gone to war but we wouldn't have gone into Iraq. Gore would have focused on the capture of Osama bin Laden (he has stated this numerous times) and would have let the UN deal with Saddam Hussein and Iraq if there was a problem. Of course, this is assuming that President Gore wouldn't have ignored that memo entitled "Bin Laden to Attack in the United States" in August of 2001.
Mary: I'm sure you'll enjoy the film. Originally it was supposed to be directed by ~sigh~ Sydney Pollack. Jay Roach was a superb choice as Pollack's replacement.
Kimber L: It's only going to be aired on HBO until it becomes available on pay per view and DVD. If you're at all interested in watching a star-studded cast recreate one of the most significent events of US History, you won't want to miss this one.
I know I will make it through the whole movie one day. It took a lot for me to finish Shrub too for the same reason. And this was published pre President W aka "that's awesome".
If you have On Demand through whatever company you use to get HBO they, at least my cable does, has several short behind the scenes sneek peek sort of things on this show and it discusses how they were so careful to get it right, and as it actually happened.
I found it astonishing then and now how one side was fighting to make sure every vote was counted as to the other side fighting to stop everything so they could declare W the winner. Yet they tried to make him into a sore looser. I also did not know or had forgotten about a memo that Harris had written to a data firm that was supposed to compile a list of all felons who could not vote only to ask them to expand it to capture more names. I think it was like 20,000 who went to vote and were turned away because their name was similar to a known felon's name. I think they also estimated that 50% or more were minorities too.
I don't like that in my state we have to use a computer touch screen system that leaves no paper trail. To top it off a Computer Science professor of Princeton said they are so easy to tamper with. All you need is a locker key and memory card. I really hope that this year we are not bombarded with finding voter registration cards tossed in the trash if the person who registered was supporting a party that the "volunteer" to get people registered doesn't like. I hope that all eligible voters can make it to their polling places with ease and not be wrongfully turned away. I hope that there are no reports of machines crashing, or machines being tampered with.
I fear our country cannot withstand much more of the Rove ways that have plagued us in the last two elections.
I agree that reliving the 2000 election via RECOUNT was slightly less painful than childbirth for poor Rosemary, but an important reminder that our process has become so much more political than it needs to be. It should be straight forward with consistent national standards.
More people should see these stories in film because it will remind us of how the whole situation unfolded. You know that old adage if we do not learn from history- it will repeat itself.
No matter who you were for or against, it was an amazing event. (Okay, time to 'fess up people! Did you know what a CHAD was before this happened? Come clean now!)
We not only learned about chads but we learned about all the different types of chads there were, I particularly like the dimpled chad's first name -- the pregnant chad.
Oh, thanks for not giving the ending away! ;-)
Awesome review!