The enduring power of ‘The Candidate’
In March 1968, a prize-winning novelist and freelance journalist named Jeremy Larner signed on as a principal speechwriter for Senator Eugene McCarthy’s insurgent campaign against the reigning president, Lyndon B. Johnson.
The 31-year-old Larner was a newcomer to the world of big-time politics. But like so many other young Americans who were drawn to McCarthy’s candidacy that year, he shared the senator’s strong, even fierce opposition to Johnson’s war policies in Vietnam.
As it turned out, of course, McCarthy’s quixotic campaign fell well short of its goal. Although the president chose not to run for re-election in 1968, LBJ still had enough power and influence to secure the Democratic nomination for his designated successor, Vice President Hubert Humphrey — who, in turn, went on to lose the general election that year to Richard Nixon.
Larner came away from his experience in the trench warfare of electoral politics with a sour aftertaste. And that lingering sense of disenchantment with the American political process eventually inspired him to write a screenplay about a fictional senatorial campaign in California. The result was a 1972 film called “The Candidate,” and it will be shown by Movies at the Library next Tuesday, October 28, at 7 p.m.
“The Candidate” is built around the star power of Robert Redford, who plays the title character, Bill McKay, a young idealistic liberal who has no stomach for partisan politics even though he’s the son of a former governor.
But McKay is lured into the political arena by a top Democratic strategist named Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle), who is looking for a sacrificial lamb to run against U.S. Senator Crocker Jarman, a longtime Republican incumbent who enjoys statewide popularity.
Lucas’s pitch to McKay goes something like this: Senator Jarman is a cinch to win re-election regardless of who opposes him and, that being the case, the campaign would not be bound by the usual fetters.
McKay would have the freedom to speak his mind on any of the principles or issues that matter so much to him. Idealist that he is, McKay finds that prospect appealing, and the film then follows the campaign as it marches inexorably toward Election Day. Needless to say, there are a number of unexpected twists and turns along the way.
When “The Candidate” came out in 1972, Redford was at the height of his movie stardom and his performance as Bill McKay is widely regarded as one of the best of his illustrious career. His co-star, Boyle, is also excellent in the role of Lucas, the devious campaign strategist, and so is that old pro, Melvyn Douglas, who plays McKay’s father, the former governor.
As for Larner, the guy who came up with the idea and wrote the script, he won an Academy Award that year for Best Original Screenplay.
Thornton Wilder once observed that “all masterpieces were written yesterday,” and elaborating on that point, he proceeded to assert that great works of literature — even those that seem to be firmly grounded in their own era — have the enduring power and quality to resonate with future generations.
“The Candidate” may or may not be a masterpiece — that’s for others to decide — but it clearly meets the test of Wilder’s criterion. The shabby compromises and cynicism that pervade the movie are bound to strike a responsive chord among those who have paid attention to the political campaigns of recent years, including the one that is drawing to a close this autumn.
The tone and spirit of “The Candidate” is sharply expressed in the picture’s most famous line, which comes in the form of a question uttered by McKay at the end of the film. It has been quoted many times over the years to describe challenges faced by real candidates in real campaigns. But you won’t be reading that line in this preview article because to appreciate its full impact, you need to see and hear it in the context of the movie itself. And the best way to do that is to join us at the library next Tuesday evening.
See you then.
