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The Candidate
Bill McKay is a young Democrat running for the Senate for California. He does not expect to win and therefore can afford to say what he really wants to. He is the candidate with a conscience and we see through his eyes how the campaign machine works.
Toward the end of the campaign his chances improve and he becomes a litttle more predictable, a little more tame. He repeats the same speech to exhaustion, the same speech that everyone wants to hear and eventually he wins the election.
The film ends with a terrified new Senator asking his Campaign manager "What do we do now?". But the spookiest line in the movie comes from his father when they realize that he may just win the election: "Son, you are a politician", followed by a ghastly grin of a smile.
I really enjoyed The Candidate, one of those political films of the seventies that were supposed to question and dissect the machinery of democracy. Is Michael Moore a loner in carrying this tradition?