“You wet fart of a human turd.”
With the presidential primary election well at hand I thought it was time to revisit Mike Nichols’ Primary Colors (1998). The political landscape may have changed drastically, but the methods, good and bad, that candidates employ to win favor haven’t changed all that much. It’s the idealism that is still present in Primary Colors that we, as a country, seem to have lost and that’s the real tragedy.
Not that Primary Colors was never as idealistic or sentimental as Aaron Sorkin would have us believe. But at the time of Primary Colors conditions were such that one, even if very naively, could indulge in “true believer-ism”. The fantasy of the American dream that the candidates of Primary Colors indulge in and peddle doesn’t exist in a post-Obama America.
Based on the novel by Joe Klein (who remained anonymous at the time), Primary Colors follows a young campaign manager (Adrian Lester) on the trail with a Clinton-esque presidential candidate (John Travolta. The film pits idealism against pragmatism and ethics against power. The script, by Elaine May, is as funny as it is scathingly critical of the American political apparatus.
Primary Colors deals with the disillusionment with an archetypal masculine construct; that of a “good ole boy” governor. The belief in that construct comes from a “privileged fucking life” that prizes clean campaigning and the American dream. Nichols and May systematically deconstruct these naive notions and in doing so reveal the moral bankruptcy of American politics. It’s “true believer-ism” versus reality.
The film suggests that it is possible to compromise and compromise and still “be part of something that’s history”. The Clinton-like governor is a collection of paradoxes that challenge any steadfast belief in the system. What May has done in her writing that Sorkin has always struggled with is that she’s allowed archetypal characters to be wholly human; messy amalgamations of well honed stereotypes.
For May Primary Colors is a continuation of the study of social power dynamics between men. The relationship between John Travolta and Adrian Lester is not dissimilar to the self-destructive Mikey & Nicky (1976). These are men thrust together professionally and in friendship who have to survive one another’s often emotionally deadly machinations. Disillusionment, the loss of self, and the inevitable surrender to fate mark these relationships.
For all of its humor Primary Colors is a dark portrait of the American politician as a cult of personality. One either surrenders to that dominant personality or self-destructs. May pulls no punches in indicting a patriarchal system disguised as democracy. Nichols’ direction only adds more bite by somehow making even the most despicable character likable.
