The Campaign

Lexington is blessed with a dollar movie theater.  I personally LOVE the dollar theater because I am a poor graduate student and can't afford to see a $10 movie anymore.  Don't y'all miss the days when a ticket to a movie was $5.25?!  My friends and I went to see the movie "The Campaign" staring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis this week.  It is a hilarious movie, with lots of underhanded jabs at politics and the U.S. Government.  I think most people would understand the film and the things that they are making fun of, but there are definitely terms and ideas, such as a super pac and an incumbent, that the average viewer might not know.  If you are politically aware, the movie takes on a whole new level of mocking politics.  If you haven't seen it, I suggest going.  Because the class is about visual culture and movies are a huge part of American culture, I decided to blog about the movie.

The movie is about two men, one a Democrat and the other a Republican, running for Congress for the town of Hammond, North Carolina.  The writers of the movie wrote two really interesting parts for each party's candidate.  The characters are over exaggerated and play up certain stereotypes.  Will Ferrell plays the candidate for the Democrat party, who is running for his 5th consecutive term.  Even his name, Cam Brady, screams all American man.  He doesn't know what he is doing and comes across as a southern "good 'ole boy" who lost all of his brain cells when he was drinking on a hunting trip with his buddies.  He uses the same line over and over again when trying to attract voters. "Because ____ is this nation's backbone" gets used to describe potential candidates that are farmers, school teachers, even Filipino tilt-a-whirl operators.  His campaign slogan is "Yes We Cam" which is a total nod to President Obama.  Brady gets caught up in a cheating scandal and at one point tweets a picture of his genitals, which is an obvious mock of all of the cheating and nude pictures from different senators and congressmen.  Ferrell's character is also good friends with the media, an attribute often given to Democratic candidates.  His wife is a hard ass, who is only with him to further her political career (Hillary Clinton anyone?!) and as soon as Ferrell's character starts doing poorly in the campaign, she leaves him.  His go to reply for anything is support/God bless the troops and his go to symbol is the eagle.  At one point he says that he never does anything in D.C. related to Congress, except play on his I-Phone.... definitely a comment on today's government officials.  You can watch his campaign video from the movie below.

Zach Galifianakis' character, the Republican nominee named Marty Huggins, is the director of the local tourism center.  He is flamboyant, overweight, and although somewhat stupid and silly, he is a good person.  He was encouraged to run by two CEO's from Washington D.C., the Motch brothers, which sounds a lot like Marx if you ask me.  The Motch brothers back candidates all over the country, creating super pacs in order to get the candidate of their choosing in office.  Huggins' knows nothing about politics and is very naive, which is why he was chosen because he can be made into the perfect candidate.  The Motch brothers hire a campaign advisor who completely makes over Huggins' home and family, giving his wife a "Katie Couric" haircut, placing a painting of an eagle over the fireplace, and replacing his two dogs with a chocolate lab and a golden retriever, which are described in the movie as the highest polling dogs.  While Huggins is very passionate and wants the best for his small town, he does not really have what it takes to be a political candidate.  He is perhaps a little too small town and naive to really make it in D.C.  It is interesting to note that Huggins comes from a very rich family who has been involved in politics and he wants to run for office to get his father's approval and fit in with his family, perhaps mocking other republicans like former president George W. Bush.  His political ad from the movie is here:  

    

There are a couple great scenes in the movie that deal with the interactions of the two candidates at the political debates.  In the first one, the two candidates have a moment where they are trash talking to each other, but Mary Huggins can't really get it right.  It makes you wonder what sort of things Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama say to each other before and after the debates.  I wonder if there is any smack talking or if they are too esteemed and grown up for that.  They are men though, and men do have a tendency to build themselves up by knocking the other one down.  Perhaps the only smack talking that goes on is in the back rooms before they get on stage.  It always amazes me that the second the debates end, they suddenly have smiles on their faces and are talking to each other like they are old friends.  How is this even possible after having such a heated and impassioned discussion?  They are always laughing and joking with each other, but what are they really thinking?  I thought it was also interesting that Brady's wife was wearing a blue dress and Huggin's wife was wearing a red dress, the colors that are typically associated with the parties their husband's are representing.  Brady is unable to make any coherent responses or sound ideas in the debate, speaking only from a place of emotion instead of fact, which I think is representative of how democrats can sometimes be in debates.  Huggins', on the other hand, takes low blows at Brady, like republicans often do.  He says that Brady is a communist, using an example of a book Brady wrote in elementary school about rainbow land and everything being shared.  Huggins' also says that Brady isn't really a Christian and Brady is unable to recite the Lord's Prayer.  Both of these, in my opinion, are comments on the parties and their stereotypes.  The second debate is a town hall style debate and ends with the two candidates physically fighting.  The debates are often compared to boxing matches and I think it is funny that they have the debate end in a physical brawl in the movie.  Here is the hilarious clip from the movie of their trash talking before the debate.    

The movie is definitely a satire of American politics and campaigns.  It speaks very true to many political representatives in our nation and we have seen many candidates do the exact same thing that these two characters do in this movie.  I think that everyone who worked on this film, from the writers to the actors and make-up artists did a great job at mocking the way American political campaigns work in a funny, but accurate way.