Review of HBO’s Game Change…

Last night I had the day off, so I had the chance to watch a few movies and just chill for a day which was nice.

One of the movies I watched was the HBO Political film titled “Game Change” which is a film about the 2008 Presidential campaign … focusing on the GOP side and what happened when McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate on the Republican ticket. It’s based on a controversial novel of the same title, it’s been a film I have been looking forward to seeing just because of the great actors they had cast to play the popular names portrayed in it.

This is a picture of Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin and Ed Harris as John McCain. They both did an amazing job with their perspective roles making the larger than life politicians, but I thought Ed Harris did an amazing job as John McCain, stealing almost every scene he was in. I actually walked away from this movie liking John McCain more as they definitely showed the lifelong public servant in a different way that I think PR wise was very positive for the longtime Senator from Arizona.

I was also extremely impressed with Woody Harrelson’s performance (I’ve been saying that a lot lately) as McCain advisor Steve Schmidt. The film focuses a lot of its time on Palin and Schmidt and tosses in McCain every now and then. There are a lot of moments in the film that stick out for me that I have to mention.

– There is a scene where the idea of using Palin as the VP nominee is being argued by a few staffers and the exchange is quite intense. They argue both the pros and cons of the idea unaware of the really big cons that are present.

– There is a scene where Schmidt (Harrelson) meets with Palin before she meets with John McCain and he informs her in advance that running for VP will bring scrutiny like she has never seen before. He asked Sarah if she and her family are ready for it and she seems very confident, likely unaware of how bad the press could really be. During their entire exchange, neither Schmidt nor his colleague ever ask a single question about politics, foreign policy and just make sure she’s ready for the onslaught she would receive as a VP choice. They are under the impression someone else already took care of that, where the people who were vetting her assumed Schmidt and his colleague would. Major goof since they went on to nominate a person who thought Iraq was responsible for 9/11.

– There’s a short scene at the end of the movie, just as the election is winding down and it’s already clear that Obama had one. Schmidt is in the hallway and one of the staffers who almost quit over Palin came into the hallway and confessed to Steve that she didn’t vote. With tears in her eyes she admits that she couldn’t vote Palin into the second most powerful office in the world with a clear conscience. Steve hugs her as he understands… very powerful moment.

When this film is all said and done, you will not be angry at Sarah Palin but rather feel sorry for her and her family for the ordeal they had no idea they were getting themselves into. Everyone in politics dream of being the head of state, so when a call like that comes it would be hard for anyone to resist. I remember the hostility and anger there was prior to and after the 2008 election. I remember that many of Palin’s supporters believed that her disapproval was due to class warfare, snobbishness, coastal-supremacy, left-wing jabberwocky, or whatever.

It’s not.

The reason why many people had a disdain for Sarah Palin was because she had (has) no self-awareness of her limitations or abilities. No metacognition.

If someone offered me the chance to be the new quarterback for the Bills (or any other NFL team for that matter), or to be the new singer for Van Halen, chances are I would turn these offers down because I can’t throw and I’m not a very good singer. Rather than think about whether or not she was ready or capable of doing the job, Sarah Palin jumped all over the opportunity without asking the people around her or even herself whether she was qualified or not.

That’s why we disdain her… and a lot of that distain even from members of McCain’s own campaign staff was visible here in this movie. The movie was very entertaining, almost as good as Recount, which was another great film from HBO. I enjoyed watching this movie and I don’t think it demonized the people it portrays half as much as people claims it does. I think everyone involved walks away look better than before you would have thought of them walking into the film. That being said, I am sure the film isn’t wholly accurate, but I’ve been reading reports from various sources who used to work for the McCain campaign that it’s very close and very accurate so take that for what it’s worth.

If you want to watch an amusing film about the 2008 election, I would recommend it as it’s entertaining and very intriguing to watch.

Peter