A screen shot from the closing credits of
"Recount", the political drama about the 2000 U.S. presidential election
directed by Jay Roach. The film will be shown on HBO on May 25 and
repeated on May 26.
THE POPCORN REEL FILM REVIEW/"Recount"
Florida's
2000 Election Scorcher: When Too
Close To Call Became Too Political To Handle
By
Omar P.L. Moore/May 19, 2008
Eight years ago, when many in America panicked
about Y2K, the year 2000 adjustments of clocks and electronics, none
could have fathomed in their wildest concoctions the imbroglio of the 2000 U.S.
presidential election, in which the Sunshine State of Florida was center stage.
The new film "Recount", a
riveting and fascinating political drama, examines the calamitous events that
electrified and polarized the country. The film, which will be shown on
television in the U.S. on HBO on May 25 at 9 p.m. Eastern/Pacific (and repeated on
the following night at the same time) is a meticulous and entertaining and
stirring account of the strategy and politics of the 36 days following November
7, 2000 election. "Recount", which isn't a polemic by any stretch, manages
to evoke a feeling of tragic nostalgia, with Dave Grusin's music score conveying
a sense of innocence lost forever as well as a deeply despairing melancholy.
The drama manages to leave some devastating ironies for the viewer to ponder
(including the fact that Mr. Gore won the total popular vote in America over Mr.
Bush in 2000 by more than 500,000 votes -- 50,999,897 to 50,456,002).
Jay Roach, director of such fun frolic flicks as the "Austin Powers" trilogy and
"Meet The Parents" films, ventures into political waters with his stewardship of
"Recount", and he captures some comedic elements, specifically in the portrayals
of Katherine Harris, former Florida secretary of state and co-chair of the
Florida Bush 2000 presidential campaign (Ms. Harris is played by Laura Dern in
hilarious and campy fashion -- excessive makeup included), her stalwart deputy
Clay Roberts (Gary Basaraba, whose nervy Mr. Roberts is a study of smirks and
tight half-smiles); former FEMA head and Bush 2000 campaign manager Joe Allbaugh
(Stefen Laurantz) and former U.S. secretary of state James Baker (snakily
rendered by Tom Wilkinson). Ms. Harris was elected to the U.S. congress
following George W. Bush's controversial ascendancy to the presidency, and
"Recount" spares no blushes in detailing the whole messy, scandalous affair,
encompassing the complications and ambiguities of "butterfly" ballots in
Florida counties like Palm Beach county where predominantly elderly Jewish
voters voted -- many mistakenly for Pat Buchanan. Mr. Roach even inserts
some "Saturday Night Live" humor for good measure.
Early on, a crucial question is asked in both the Bush and Gore camps: "are we
going to win?" One camp seems more sure about the outcome than the other.
"Recount" feels like a documentary and what's more, it gets its facts right.
Mr. Roach intersperses his drama with actual cable and broadcast news footage
from election night 2000 and the ensuing 36-day fight. The remarkable
shift of the mainstream media calling the winner (from Gore to Bush) by CBS, NBC
and CNN in particular is shown. Curiously absent however, is Fox News
Channel's early morning November 8 declaration that Mr. Bush won Florida and by
electoral votes (271 to 266) the presidency. ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN
followed Fox News Channel's lead just minutes later that same morning.
(The 2004 documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" chronicles this fact, as well as that
Mr. Bush's first cousin John Ellis, the political news desk chief at Fox News
Channel made the decision to call the election for Mr. Bush. A revealing
study was also conducted about the way the television networks behaved in their
election night 2000 performance.)
"Recount" simplifies some of the complexities, with a clear, concise and amusing
explanation of hanging "chads", comments on ballot design and its history,
constitutional background, recount standards and conditions in numerous Florida
counties plus issues of state and federal importance, at which point the
controversial U.S. Supreme Court Bush v. Gore decision is also mentioned.
"Recount" is ambitious and contains an astonishing number of characters on the
landscape but neither overwhelms itself nor its audience in compiling lots of
facts and information to ponder. The photo snapshot that leads this film
review showing the percentages between the two presidential candidates of 2000
don't tell the whole story: the recount in Florida was triggered when Mr. Bush
had a total of 2,909,135 votes to Mr. Gore's 2,907,351, an advantage of just
1,784 votes.
While the numbers in Florida are a prominent issue they are not the sole engine that drives "Recount"; rather the essence of two political factions in America fighting for their man to occupy the White House. In a contrast of styles between the two campaigns a pugnacious Mr. Baker insists that "[t]his is a street fight for the presidency of the United States", while Gore man Warren Christopher (whom actor John Hurt gives a milquetoast demeanor) says that "we want to proceed as if this is a proper legal process, not a political street fight."
"Recount" mentions that Ms. Harris' Florida
government (whose governor in 2000 was Jeb Bush, the current president's younger
brother) paid a total of $4.3 million to private company Database Technologies
to manipulate and purge the voting rolls of black voters in Florida, where
felons' names were substituted for names of legally-registered and law-abiding
voters that sounded alike, invalidating the legally-registered voters from
voting in the election. Anywhere from a minimum of 22,000 to a maximum of
100,000 mostly black voters were purged from Florida's voting rolls, and with
blacks known to vote predominantly Democratic, Mr. Gore would have won very
comfortably in Florida, every conceivable full state recount in his favor
notwithstanding. (Investigative journalist Greg Palast's 2002 book The
Best Democracy Money Can Buy details this purging of legally-registered law
abiding black voters from the rolls in Florida in a fascinating chapter entitled
"Jim Crow In Cyberspace".) In every sense "Recount" doesn't choose sides,
it plays the facts as they lay.
"Recount" stars Kevin Spacey as Gore attorney Ron Klain, former chief of staff
for the vice president's campaign. Mr. Klain is a determined warrior,
committed to the end amongst a sea of doubters and political pacifists in the
Gore camp, especially Mr. Christopher. Mr. Spacey gives Mr. Klain a
methodical crusader's appetite for justice and a sympathetic air. Denis
Leary is Michael Whouley, a Gore political operative who has some funny and
colorful things to say. He too is a fighter, and he curses like a sailor.
Ed Begley, Jr. is especially good in his portrayal as Gore lawyer David Boies.
And although the vice president is played by Grady Couch, the face of the
fictional Mr. Gore isn't seen, but the real Mr. Gore is, in news video footage.
Even Donna Brazile, the Gore 2000 campaign manager seen a couple of weeks ago on
CNN dressing down fellow Democrat Paul Begala, gets her brief moment in the sun
here. (She is played by Olgia Campbell.) On the Grand Old Party side
Brent Mendenhall plays Mr. Bush and he is seen, as is Jeb Bush, who is portrayed
by Matt Miller. Bob Balaban exhibits a self-satisfied smugness as Bush
2000 chief counsel Ben Ginsberg. Ted Olson, who made arguments on behalf
of Mr. Bush in 2000 before the U.S. Supreme Court on the recount issue in the
election, is played Paul Jeans. (Mr. Olson also lost his wife Barbara on
September 11 of the following year, on one of the planes that crashed into the
World Trade Center.)
Some people will cynically feel that "Recount" comes too late or is meaningless
at this point in American political history -- as if the film's makers felt safe
to let the film see the light of day with just eight or nine months remaining in
George W. Bush's second term before his departure from the White House on
January 20, 2009. The film maintains both its relevancy and its
entertaining tone while serving as a cautionary tale for both the 2004 U.S.
presidential election (where the state of Ohio was concerned) and this year's
upcoming presidential election (between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama).
Others will be disappointed by the film's positioning and depiction of Mr.
Christopher even though Mr. Hurt's character portrayal gets minor screen time.
While "Recount" brilliantly gets things just about right in every instance,
there are the obligatory dramatizations of some facts in the service of
entertainment. "Recount" has no coda or epilogue (although there
is a mournful, elegiac feel in its closing); the film is a snapshot of a
hectic and extraordinarily contentious time that many will argue changed and
charted the fated course of America if not the entire world long before
September 11, 2001 did, although in a far less cataclysmic way.
Mr. Roach's film makes the most of one moment showing Ms. Harris in a
semi-languorous catwalk, strutting to a table to announce and certify that
George W. Bush had won Florida by a scant 537 votes. There is even a
dramatization of the phone call that Mr. Gore makes to Mr. Bush, revoking his
concession of the election, complete with the "you don't have to get snippy with
me" utterance. The "Recount" script by Danny Strong contains some great
dialogue and quite a bit of humor. There's a cheeky moment in the final twenty minutes when Mr. Whouley muses to
Mr. Klain about the what-ifs of it all: Clinton, Gore, Bush et al. It is
amusing but also quietly painful when reflecting in hindsight.
Likely painful too for many viewers will be the final public remarks in 2000 of
the two presidential candidates at the center of "Recount":
"Whether you voted for me or not, I will do my best to serve your interests
and I will work to earn your respect," says the current U.S. president in
his post-recount 2000 speech during the last moments of "Recount". By
contrast and ironic counterpoint to Mr. Bush, outgoing vice president Gore in
his concession speech says in part that "[o]ur disappointment must be
overcome by our love of country . . . This is America. And we put country
before party. We will stand together behind our new president."
History, however tragic, however sad, has the last, cruel laugh.
"Recount" is not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.
The film will show on numerous occasions on HBO cable television, including May
25 and May 26 at 9 p.m. Eastern/Pacific time, as well as additional dates in May
and throughout June. The film's duration is two hours and contains some
foul language. "Recount" also stars Jayne Atkinson, Bruce McGill, Eve
Gordon and Patricia Getty.
Related:
Eight Years Ago . . .
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