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When right-wing icon Oliver North tried his hand at electoral politics in 1994, running for a U.S. Senate seat in Virginia, documentary filmmakers R.J. Cutler and David Van Taylor came along to record all the action. The access given to the filmmakers by North's election staff is startling, especially as it reveals the cynical realities at the heart of his campaign. Scenes of North professing his born-again faith are juxtaposed with footage of his foul-mouthed campaign managers plotting to use sexual rumors against his opponent, Senator Chuck Robb. Indeed, even North's own fabled mendacity is put before the camera: North is shown, in his 1987 immunized Congressional testimony, admitting that he lied to Congress, and then years later he's seen telling credulous high school students at a campaign stop that he never lied to Congress, but the press lied to the American people. Watching this revealing film, one wonders why North's campaign managers welcomed the camera crews into their profanity-filled staff meetings, but perhaps their egos demanded that people would someday get to see how cocky and mean-spirited they truly were. North lost the election, and went on to riches as a radio talk-show host, but this documentary about his campaign scores a win by exposing the dark heart of American politics in the 1990s. --Robert J. McNamara
REALLY PULLS BACK THE CURTAIN ON AMERICAN POLITICS! - Reviewed on 2008-08-05
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This fascinating fly-on-the-wall look at Oliver North's failed bid for Congress begins as Senator John Kerry reads the long list of accusations against North during the Iran-Contra scandal: "illegal U.S. assistance to the contras, gun running, narcotics smuggling, bombing plots, shredding relevant documents, obstruction of congress, misuse of government funds..." While Kerry reads the charges, the movie cuts to then Veep George H. W. Bush, who says of North and his conspirators, "Those who serve the President haven't served the President well." We are also shown snippets of prominent Republicans, such as Bob Dole, John McCain, and John Warner, disparaging and distancing themselves from North. (The only high profile Republican who comes out for North in the movie is Dick Cheney.) Finally, we get footage of North testifying before Congress, admitting under oath that he lied: "I misled the Congress at that meeting, face to face. I made false statements about my activities." During his testimony, North boasts about how proud he is of having taken money from the Ayatollah Khomeini. Yes, this is the same Oliver North that portrays himself as an honest American patriot on Fox News.
Cut to seven years later as North runs for a seat in Congress. The Iran-Contra scandal dogs him every step of the way, although it's also what makes him popular with hard-core Virginia Republicans. Having already seen actual documentary footage where he admits lying to Congress, we immediately know North is being dishonest when, responding to a question posed by a high school student, he categorically denies ever having misled Congress. We're not surprised by the feeding frenzy his denial provokes among journalists outside the school, who pounce on him as soon as he steps out of the building. One reporter asks, "Mr. North, if you were not convicted for lying to Congress, what was your conviction for?" Poor North, literally at a loss for words, gropes for an answer, but comes up with nothing.
Iran-Contra also comes back to haunt North during the debates. Witness the following exchange between North and one of his opponents, Doug Wilder:
WILDER [to North]: "How could you ride on a plane with drugs being in the plane? You've been in the company of people who have been convicted and sent away!"
NORTH: "It was fully investigated . . . I'm the most investigated man on this planet."
WILDER: "And I will say, Colonel, there is a very good reason for that to be the case."
The crowd goes nuts with cheers as we watch the stunned, dumbstruck North reel.
The documentary also explores the somewhat radical nature of the North supporters in Virginia. We visit one rally where a woman gives her son a rifle and asks him, "What do we shoot?" The tot responds, "Pigeons and Democrats." North himself spends time shooting/killing rabbits before a cheering crowd. At another event, an old Confederate matron--who describes herself as "a DAR and a UDC and Dames of the Court of Honor"--rattles off exactly what she thinks about "the minority race." It's no wonder when North's enemies start tagging him with the name David Duke. To counter this, North tries to turn the race issue around on Democrat Chuck Robb, his chief rival for the Senate seat. At a press conference, North denies promoting the Confederate flag, then mysteriously accuses Robb of "wearing a Confederate tie on the day he criticized me for it." The movie instantly cuts to a behind-the-scenes shot of North's own Communications Director, Mark Merritt, bewildered and nervously saying, "That sounds a little suspect to me." Indeed, North had just given journalists--and the documentarians--another field day.
The movie shows North's campaign team planning a negative political add against Robb, who had been in a scandal involving Tai Collins, a Playboy model. (By the way, Robb's father-in-law is none other than LBJ.) Instead of the sober, puritanical meeting from the born-again Christians that the North team claims to be, we get a vulgar display as North's people bite into the scandalous material with drooling relish. While North's Senior Strategist, Mark Goodin, cracks off-color jokes, the documentary suddenly breaks to give us Goodin's background. In the late 80s, as Communications Director for the Republican National Committee, Goodin had released what was taken in Washington to be an underhanded memo accusing House Speaker Tom Foley of homosexuality and calling on him to "come out of the liberal closet." George H. W. Bush had called the memo, which also tainted Lee Atwater, "disgusting." Goodin was fired. Since his job as North's Strategist is supposed to be his big comeback after the Foley debacle, Goodin's story is one of the most compelling in the documentary. Goodin takes the whole campaign personally, getting more emotional about it even than North. Goodin is also the movie's most candid character. Not only does he have a potty mouth, he says such honest things as: "North is the triumph of anger in politics." Indeed, we watch how North, portraying himself as the victim of a vast left wing conspiracy, tries to harness the widespread bitterness to his advantage. In one touching scene, Goodin laments the ultimate irony about American politics, perhaps about politics everywhere: campaigns are about dividing, while governing is about bringing people together. This is the dilemma politicians face.
As bad as North comes off, the movie savages his Democratic opponent Chuck Robb. In one devastating scene, Robb searches for voters in a supermarket. Attracting absolutely no attention, he begins, quite intrusively and awkwardly, to approach customers in a desperate attempt to make contact. Despite Robb's total lack of charisma, however, North loses the campaign because of his constant lying about Iran-Contra, and also because of the racism of his supporters.
I highly recommend this first-rate political film, particularly for the astonishing degree of access achieved by the filmmakers. I was shocked at what the North team allowed to be filmed. For instance, there's a hilarious scene on the rolling campaign bus where North is speaking seriously and soberly about governing while Goodin, who is sitting right behind him, swills a beer and gorges on a hamburger.
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