TELLURIDE – It may prove bizarre and hard to believe given today’s political climate, but it wasn’t that long ago when major news outlets wouldn’t report on the private lives of political figures. A president, senator or congressman could engage in trysts and affairs without any real political consequences. Putting moral and ethical considerations to the side for a moment, it’s a legitimate question to ask when this changed. Many would say the game-changing shift began with the campaign of Sen. Gary Hart for president in 1988. What moral lines Hart crossed and how the media reacted is the subject of Jason Reitman’s latest drama “The Front Runner,” which premiered Friday night at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival.
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As the race for the Democratic nomination for president began in the late ‘80s, Hart (Hugh Jackman) was the long-assumed front-runner (hence the film’s title). He had put up a significant challenge to the party’s nominee four years earlier, Walter Mondale; a battle fought all the way to the Democratic convention. Hart was also a good-looking, charismatic, relatively young and a policy wonk focused on improving the inner cities and jobs for working-class Americans. What many in the Washington media corps had heard, however, was that Hart was not that faithful to his wife. At one point in the picture, a Washington Post reporter remarks that if they took down Hart for his extracurricular hanky-panky they would have to go after half the Senate. But events would force the Post (and other top newspapers) to dip their toes into what, at the time, was considered “tabloid” journalism.
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Note: If you’re unaware of this moment in history there are basic-fact “spoilers” ahead that are included in the recent trailer.
Based on Matt Bai’s novel “All The Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid”—and written by Bai along with political consultant Jay Carson and Reitman—”The Front Runner” focuses on a three-week period in ‘87 where Hart went from officially announcing his candidacy to ending his campaign after both he and his family were besieged by the press following a scandal. And, notably, like most films, it plays with real-life events somewhat even if the essence of what occurred is correct.
In the film, Hart’s troubles began after a Washington Post reporter, a fictional A.J. Parker (Mamoudou Athie, very good), asks him if he and his wife (Vera Farmiga, a rock) ever experienced marriage troubles. It was public knowledge the Harts had been separated for a time, but in the movie, an offended Sen. Hart gives him the quote “Follow me around. I don’t care. I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’ll be very bored.” In reality, he gave that quote to a New York Times reporter. Why Reitman and company felt the need to make it a Post reporter is quizzical, but the movie correctly notes that knowledge of the quote was used by the Miami Herald to justify tailing Hart— an exploit only tabloids magazines like the National Inquirer would have engaged in at the time. The Herald took this action after receiving an anonymous tip that a local woman, Donna Rice (Sara Paxton, fantastic), was headed to D.C. to rendezvous with the Senator. After witnessing Rice enter the Senator’s residence the Herald reporters confronted Hart about it and their reporting sparked a media tsunami around the candidate.
The events that ended Hart’s presidential ambitions are obviously prime cinematic material, but Reitman and his co-screenwriters also to consider how this infamous incident irrevocably changed American politics. After Hart, the media eventually reached a point where anything in the life of someone involved in or running for elected office was fair game. And in doing so, they helped sway public opinion and made such scrutiny acceptable in contemporary society (it’s noted in the film that 64% of Americans polled at the time thought the treatment of Hart was unfair). This thematic point is so well made you could even argue the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would side with the “this is none of your business” arguments Hart made 30 years ago. This is likely not Reitman’s intent, but it certainly makes the film much less partisan than you might have initially assumed.
Reitman chronicles this sprawling opera by taking a layered and ensemble-heavy page from legendary director Robert Altman. Yes, Jackman’s impressive portrayal of Hart is at the center of “The Front Runner” (it’s one of the best performances of his career), but Reitman uses a large cast of characters to give depth to the events in question. Beyond the aforementioned Farminga, Paxton and Athie, Jackman is surrounded by notable performers such as J.K. Simmons as his disheartened campaign manager, Alfred Molina as the editor of the Post, Ari Graynor as Post reporter Ann Devroy, Steve Zissis as an Herald reporter in over his head, Molly Ephraim as a member of the senior campaign staff sympathetic to Rice, Kevin Pollack as the editor of the Herald who eventually comes in direct conflict with Hart, and both Josh Brenner and Alex Karpovsky as campaign advisors, among others. Similarly to Mike Leigh‘s “Peterloo,” also screening at Telluride, Reitman finds moments for them all to shine.
He also employs Altman’s technique of panning across a scene without cutting and zooming in on one conversation, pulling back and then focusing on another. It’s a new ground for the “Up In The Air” director and you often wish there were more opportunities in the film for him to use it. When a scene is constructed in a conventional manner the film often lacks the same energy and stylistically feels flat. In those moments, it’s that exceptional cast that keeps you engaged even if you’re well-aware of Hart’s fate.
Obviously, context matters and the world has radically changed. The internet and social media have amplified a corrosive political atmosphere that is now hyper-partisan compared to the late ‘80s. And we now recognize that what was once considered simple philandering can lead to illegal actions tied to a host of other crimes (not to mention how the media’s role in #MeToo movement has shattered privileged social protections for serial abusers). But if an elected official and their spouse have an open arrangement should it be any business but their own? Should that even matter to the electorate at large? Is there a line where the privacy of an elected official or presidential candidate should not be crossed? “The Front Runner” is at its best when it makes you reconsider your own answers to those questions. [B/B+]
Check out all our coverage from the 2018 Telluride Film Festival here.
