Customer Reviews for
Advise and Consent
Worth Seeing More Than Once
This is politics as it used to be, when the Senate was composed mostly of people of good will, with differing ideas, and the meanspirited politics of destruction, so typical today, was unusual. Not that the story isn't controversial and interesting, but the backdrop is that of a Senate one could be proud of.
There is the justly infamous, stupidly stereotypical, "gay bar scene" which is hugely hard to take. But otherwise the acting is superb and the characters fascinating and very real. This is a DVD to own, not rent.Advise and Consent
Great political movie that hasn't dated one iota...spoilers...
This is one of Preminger's masterpieces, a film that, surprisingly, has dated very little. It takes place during the Cold War, and while that may have subsided (at least for now), the talk of "loyal to the country" and talk of Communism hasn't gone away from the American political vocabulary. The film is one of the most fascinating, meticulous political thrillers ever made, and it's also a great suspense movie as well. It's also refreshing to see (and hear) Senators be somewhat civil to each other and not talk in soundbites but complete sentences. The film depicts Washington as a land of deals, backroom jousting, pride, anger, ambition, and blackmail. It's not an idealised portrait, but a starkly realistic one that is still true today.
The film is brilliantly handled by Otto Preminger. Preminger has a unique visual style all his own. His use of widescreen and framing is, once again, perfect here, shooting in very long takes, allowing the actors to really breathe life into their characters. All of the performances here are exemplary, with Charles Laughton and Walter Pidgeon getting top honors. Many criticise Preminger for being a bad director (but a good producer). I think this is nonsense. He solicits great performances in every film he's made. Even though Henry Fonda receives top billing, he's hardly in the film at all, but his confirmation hearing for Secretary of State is the backbone of this film.
There is also a blackmail plot in this film where the Senator in charge of the subcommitte, Brig Anderson (played with great understatement by Don Murray), is being blackmailed by another Senator eager to get the nomination of Fonda through the Senate. It turns out that Anderson had a homosexual affair many years ago, and there's photos and letters. This was pretty shocking for 1962. Preminger films the events up to the revelation extremely well, creating brilliant tension. The scene in the gay bar (this was the first film ever to depict a gay bar in Hollywood history) is really powerful when you discover Anderson's secret. Now, some would argue that politicians wouldn't have to worry about being gay. Wrong. Even in the most liberal places, there are very few openly gay politicians. Despite the gay community making many strides towards acceptance and tolerance, it's not all there yet, and it would be disasterous for a politician to come out, even today. So this scene hasn't really dated. Some have criticised the depiction of gays in the film. I've seen far more offensive portrayals of homosexuals in modern comedies than this film does. Regardless, the scene here is startling effective, and due to this blackmail, Anderson kills himself. Preminger never shows the suicide (Anderson cuts his throat), but we learn of it when a Senate guard calls Peter Lawford during a card game. The president also dies during the film, but we never see that either.
The performances here are superb, with special mention going to Charles Laughton as a wily Southern Senator, Walter Pidgeon as the Majority Leader, Don Murray as the troubled Senator, Burgess Meredith as a man who is used by Laughton to get at Fonda (and is subsequently discredited by Fonda), and Lew Ayres as the underestimated vice president. Not much has changed in Washington since this film was made. While there are more ways for Senators to communicate, they still deal with things the same way. The human factor always figures into things, and Advise and Consent is one of the most complex, riveting political films ever made.Advise and Consent
OTTO PREMINGER, OPUS 28
***** 1962. Based on Allen Drury's Advise and Consent, ADVISE & CONSENT was produced and directed by Otto Preminger. Washington D.C. When the President decides to choose Robert A. Leffingwell as new Secretary of State, he knows very well that it won't be easy to get the votes of the senators of his own party. Furthermore, during the hearings, Leffingwell is accused to have patronized a communist cell when in Chicago. After The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, Saint Joan [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ] and Anatomy of a Murder, this is the fourth Preminger film dealing with themes related to Justice or rather with the way men are implementing the Law. How fascinating to observe the way Otto Preminger drains off the screen every scene that doesn't have directly anything to do with the power of words, hence just think of the death of the President handled literally offscreen. Charles Laughton is brilliant as usual. Masterpiece.Advise and Consent
A Preminger Classic
"Advice and Consent"
A Preminger Classic
Amos Lassen
It has been several years since I watched Otto Preminger's "Advice and Consent" and I had forgotten what a powerful movie it is--even now more than forty years after it was made. Based on Allen Drury's epic novel of wheeling and dealing in Washington D.C., it is a classic political thriller with an all-star cast and a very overt gay theme.
When John Kennedy was elected President in 1960, Hollywood began to take a new interest in politics. The main idea of the film deals with the nomination of a controversial man as Secretary of State and how the President and the Congress used their powers either to secure or hinder the nomination. The nominee is Robert Leffingwell (Henry Fonda), who must go through a Senate investigation to see if he is qualified for the position. The Senate committees is led by an idealistic Senator, Brig Anderson (Don Murray), who soon finds himself unprepared for the political dirt that is unearthed which include the candidate's past affiliations with a Communist organization. Leffingwell manages to prove his innocence but Anderson learns that he lied under oath and he asks the President to withdraw him from consideration. As the same time mysterious threats begin against the Senator because of certain sexual activities that he as been involve in.
Preminger shows that in politics as in life it is not easy to be all black or all white. Several of the characters are recognizable historic figures with the most obvious being Lafe Smith, a very thinly disguised Kennedy (who is ironically played by JFK's own brother-in-law, Peter Lawford), who had quite a social life before he married. Gene Tierney who plays a Washington social maven is one of his early conquests. Another character that is easily recognized is Charles Laughton's brilliant portrayal of South Carolina's Seabright Cooley which is, as I understand it, based on Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen but also parallels the real South Carolina Senator, Strom Thurmond. Other fascinating characters include Walter Pidgeon as the Senate Majority leader, Robert Munson, Paul Ford as Senate Majority Whip. Will Geer as the head of the Minority Opposition and Betty White in a small part.\
It is, however, the main characters that are the keys to the drama" Franchot Tone as the President, Lew Ayres as the Vice President and George Grizzard as a villainous Senator Fred Van Ackerman.
Preminger did not hold back when he introduced the homosexual sub-plot. Keeping in mind that the film was made in 1962, this was quite a bold move. When we consider when the film was produced and remember that there was censorship on film, we should be proud to owe a debt to Otto Preminger. Granted today it seems quite tame but in 1962, he presented some very bold statements. The film has been criticized for the way it depicted homosexuals but it is one of the few films of that period when a gay character is presented in a sympathetic light and Preminger made quite a statement with the casting of Don Murray as the gay man as he was a Mormon and extremely wholesome and clean-cut.
The cast is so outstanding that the characters seem to be constantly stealing scenes from each other but in my opinion that is one reason that "Advice and Consent" is so fascinating. The film has aged well and withstood the test of time and seems as relevant today as it was in 1962.
To those who have criticized the gay scenes as clichéd, they are wonderful representations of the ambiance of gay life in the 60's. This is how it was. We did not have super-bars nor the freedom to be who we were and everything (especially in the Nation's capital) was quite clandestine. This is a great film that rises above some of the mediocrity that we sometimes get from Hollywood.
Advise and Consent
"What I Did Was For The Good Of The Country:" The Political Shocker Of 1962
As a Congressional correspondent for the New York Times during the 1950s, author Allen Drury had ample opportunity to witness Washington politicians in their natural habit---and drew upon numerous factual sources, including the controversial Alger Hiss case and the scandalous suicide of Senator Lester Hunt, to create the story of a controversial nominee for Secretary of State. The novel was not only a best seller, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
It was also a book that Hollywood could not film under the film industry's notorious Production Code. As it happened, the book fell into the hands of director Otto Preminger, long-time foe of Hollywood's rules for self-censorship. He not only made the film, he flagrantly broke the code; as such, ADVISE AND CONSENT presents our nation's leaders embroiled in a blackmail plot, finds actress Gene Tierney using the word `bitch,' and became the first Hollywood film to show a gay bar. It was shocking stuff for 1962.
The story is extremely convoluted. An aging and extremely ill President makes a highly controversial nomination for Secretary of State---which is opposed by a member of his own party, who bears the nominee a personal grudge and who attempts to derail the nomination by accusing the nominee of former membership in the Communist Party. This in turn touches off a vicious battle between those in the party who support the nominee and those who don't, a battle that will ultimately result in the suicide of the only character who has the integrity we would like to see in our political leaders.
The cast is indeed remarkable and, from Lew Ayres to Betty White, plays with considerable conviction and tremendous restraint. Henry Fonda is often cited as the star of the film, but in truth he appears in the small but pivotal role of Robert Leffingwell, nominee for Secretary of State. Screen time is divided between Walter Pigeon as the Majority Leader, Charles Laughton as the senator who opposes the nomination, and Don Murray, an idealist who finds himself chairing the nomination committee. All three play extremely well, but it is really Laughton---in his final screen role---who walks off with the film as the devious and openly vicious Senator from South Carolina. The trio is ably supported by a dream cast that includes Franchot Tone as the President, Lew Ayres as the Vice President, George Grizzard as a growling ideologue, Gene Tierney as a society hostess---and yes, Betty White, who offers a brief turn as the Senator from Kansas.
It has become fashionable to dismiss Otto Preminger films of the 1950s and 1960s as ponderous, all-star, and pseudo-intellectual trash, and indeed it is difficult to find much positive to say about films like EXODUS and HURRY SUNDOWN these days. But Preminger is in many ways under-rated; his films have not always dated well in terms of subject, but they hold up extremely well in the way in which they are put together, with ADVISE AND CONSENT a case in point---and it is worth pointing out that accusations of leftism, adultery, and homosexuality are still enough to prompt everything from impeachment to congressional hearings to resignations. Nor has the process of the political dance itself changed greatly between then and now.
The great flaw of the film is its conclusion, which seems facile to the point of being hokey---but this is also the great flaw of the novel, which ends in much the same way--and at times ADVISE AND CONSENT seems more than a little dry. All the same, it remains a movie worth watching, particularly notable for its performances, fluid camera work, and meticulous recreation of party politics. The DVD offers a near-pristine widescreen transfer with good sound quality and an interesting, if occasionally too academic, commentary by film historian Drew Casper. Recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Advise and Consent
|
