By Anirban Lahiri
Featured in IMDb Critic Reviews
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| Our Brand Is Crisis (2015) - By David Gordon Green |
IMDb Ratings: 5.7
Genre: Comedy | Drama
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Billy Bob Thornton, Anthony Mackie
Language: English | Spanish
Runtime: 107 min
Color: Color
Our Brand Is Crisis (2015) Trailer
“A political strategist, according to the
US bureau of labor statistics, is a senior political consultant who designs and
directs election campaigns for politicians”, thus goes the Wikipedia entry. David
Gordon Greene’s new film throws ample light on the professional life, and
crafted reality, of top political strategists.
Jane Bodine
(played by Sandra Bullock), retired political strategist with a pinch of
personal revenge against her professional enemy Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton),
is hired by Ex-President and unpopular Presidential Candidate Pedro Castillo
(Joaquim de Almeida), to win the Bolivian election. Bodine carves out edgy
power-plans to topple Rivera, the primary opponent in the election.
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| Jane Bodine in a heated argument flanked by LeBlanc |
This
fictional piece of trilling campaign, and lies, is inspired by a non-fiction of
the same name by Rachel Boynton, made in 2003 immediately after the 2002
Presidential election in Bolivia. Boynton made the film on the celebrity
political election consultant James Carville. David Gordon chose the same event
as his point of arrival, with a fictional character, a frenzied, pushy Bodine,
who takes the Presidential contest as a personal bout of power.
The first
popular news about election strategy broke out when Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebecker
made The War Room (1993) on Clinton’s
win in the previous year’s US Presidential election. The background heros of
that important global event were Carville and George Stephanopoulos. While the
professional career of a high-value political strategist like Carville goes
around spectacularly high and more usual tropes, the current film tries to
sensationalize this so much that the events sometimes fall flat on their face.
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| Jane Bodine and Pedro Castillo |
Despite
going over the top at points, the film would be enjoyable to a big cross section of
Indian Hollywood watchers, especially in the aftermath of the Bihar election of
last year, and BJP’s come back with the most vivid flying colors in the
previous. Political strategy is a reality in the remote corners of urban India,
especially today, when people are turning aware in spite of aversion to
reading, thanks to facebook and TV.
This fictional piece of trilling campaign, and lies, is inspired by a non-fiction of the same name by Rachel Boynton, made in 2003 immediately after the 2002 Presidential election in Bolivia.
The
universality of the plot, the regularity of forgotten promises by the President
Elect, the consequent popular protests, and the finer machinations by the global
power-joint may ring some tune to the Indian audience who feel that governments
regardless of color, or faith, have kept on selling the country to foreign economies or corporates – UK, USSR or US, whoever could bid the best.
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| Jane Bodine and Pat Candy |
The added factor
is the humanization of the political strategist, Bodine, who marches along with
the protesters, in the end of the film. She, at the risk of becoming a cultural
stereotype – the empathetic core inside the iron armour – is projected as the
crazy, idiosyncratic, passionate artist of the election strategy, who is ready
for any expense to earn the trophy. The gritty, realistic photography by Tim
Orr, although a little blotchy in the studio portions, helps in getting into
that mood.
Culture
is a scripted tour. However, the script is written by invisible hands. Roland
Barthes compared baseball matches with cinema, with the only difference being
that script would be written simultaneously as the game is played on. These
days, with the knowledge of betting, nobody is sure if a match is unscripted.
 |
| Pedro Castillo - the Presidential candidate |
When it comes to a national election, millions’, sometimes billions’, future
depends on that. A representational democracy is a big gamble, scripted by a
few masterminds, touching upon the same areas of human psyche that are moved by
glamour, power and money – anything larger than life, is like a big broadway
musical, or the biggest Hollywood Epic. It calls for the lifelong suspension of
disbelief.
However,
unlike Hollywood, it is reality. Our Brand Is Crisis, despite its naivety,
attempts at showing us how the world is run.
Readers, please feel free to share your views/opinions in the comment box below. As always your insightful comments are highly appreciated!
Readers, please feel free to share your views/opinions in the comment box below. As always your insightful comments are highly appreciated!
References:
Our Brand Is Crisis (2015) Trailer
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