Good satire has to strike the difficult balance of being obviously satirical, and yet, at the same time, surprisingly (and perhaps frighteningly) realistic. Good satire is reality magnified to ridiculous extremes. For the most part, I have to say that "The Campaign" manages to rise to the status of good satire. While it's clearly a comedy - and not to be taken seriously at all - it does a magnificent job of lampooning all the troublesome aspects of American politics, and it makes you laugh at the absurdity of it all, while at the same time you shake your head because you know that behind the absurdity the movie is actually raising some very valid issues.
Will Ferrell plays Congressman Camden Brady. Brady is a four term Congressman, who expects to win a fifth term unopposed. He's grown complacent in Washington. As he himself eventually says, he doesn't really want to do anything or achieve anything, and he hardly ever votes and he never reads bills. He just likes being a Congressman. But he gets caught in a scandal a few weeks before election and his approval ratings drop. In response his big money corporate backers (John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd) drop him and turn to mild-mannered Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis) - a low key tourism booster for his local town, who they figure will be putty in their hands. Once Brady discovers that he's being opposed, the gloves come off, and Huggins gets a crash course in dirty politics, and turns out to be pretty good at it himself as Huggins and Brady go toe to toe all the way to election day, with no holds barred.
Pretty much everything gets skewered in this movie. Big money's dominance of the system, the problem of professional politicians, the lack of focus on issues as candidates decide to tear each other down personally, the makeover of candidates to make them seem as if they're someone they're really not, negative attack ads. You know it isn't real, but you see nevertheless see reality being reflected.
The two leads are both pretty good. I thought Galifianakis carried the movie, mind you. Ferrell was fine, but the character of Huggins was a more interesting character to watch as the movie went on, as he struggled with the good he wanted to do as a congressman, even while he was being turned into just another candidate by those pulling the strings.
This weakened a bit at the end by becoming (predictably, I suppose) too noble - and by doing that, it lost its satirical bite. Still, for most of the way through it's a pretty good job of skewering the system, and pointing out some of the deep flaws in American democracy. (7/10)
Will Ferrell plays Congressman Camden Brady. Brady is a four term Congressman, who expects to win a fifth term unopposed. He's grown complacent in Washington. As he himself eventually says, he doesn't really want to do anything or achieve anything, and he hardly ever votes and he never reads bills. He just likes being a Congressman. But he gets caught in a scandal a few weeks before election and his approval ratings drop. In response his big money corporate backers (John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd) drop him and turn to mild-mannered Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis) - a low key tourism booster for his local town, who they figure will be putty in their hands. Once Brady discovers that he's being opposed, the gloves come off, and Huggins gets a crash course in dirty politics, and turns out to be pretty good at it himself as Huggins and Brady go toe to toe all the way to election day, with no holds barred.
Pretty much everything gets skewered in this movie. Big money's dominance of the system, the problem of professional politicians, the lack of focus on issues as candidates decide to tear each other down personally, the makeover of candidates to make them seem as if they're someone they're really not, negative attack ads. You know it isn't real, but you see nevertheless see reality being reflected.
The two leads are both pretty good. I thought Galifianakis carried the movie, mind you. Ferrell was fine, but the character of Huggins was a more interesting character to watch as the movie went on, as he struggled with the good he wanted to do as a congressman, even while he was being turned into just another candidate by those pulling the strings.
This weakened a bit at the end by becoming (predictably, I suppose) too noble - and by doing that, it lost its satirical bite. Still, for most of the way through it's a pretty good job of skewering the system, and pointing out some of the deep flaws in American democracy. (7/10)