New York Times
By EDWARD WYATT
Published: May 14, 2008
Wounds from the Florida recount, still healing for many Democrats, are being ripped open again for some prominent former advisers to Al Gore. They say that a coming HBO film dramatizing the ballot battle after the 2000 election unfairly blames them for the Democrats’ failure to secure the White House.
The film, which has its premiere on May 25 on HBO, stars John Hurt as Mr. Christopher, Tom Wilkinson as Mr. Baker, Mitch Pileggi as Mr. Daley and Laura Dern as Katherine Harris, then the Florida secretary of state. Kevin Spacey plays Ron Klain, the Gore lawyer who led the on-the-ground recount effort and through whose eyes much of the action is seen.
Click post title to learn about "Recount"
1 comment:
The film is fabrication–malicious fabrication at that.
Danny Strong, known best for his stirring appearances in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was so anxious to have his first script picked up that he decided to make it up as he went along. He decided that the “facts” of the 2000 recount had to be made to look sexy to HBO. So he threw himself into cobbling together a storyline that had Bush winning the recount because the Dems–and, in particular, Warren Christopher –were wimps. In the NYT story published earlier this week, Strong admits to waiting to contact Christopher until the the day the scenes involving his character were shot. He also admits not giving Christopher a copy of the script, even though he did so for Jim Baker and Ron Klain,who were also allowed to give notes and to veto lines and scenes. Danny wants us to believe he had the time to find and commission Christopher’s tailor to make a suit for Christopher’s character, but was too busy to talk to the guy whose measurements he was using. So much for accuracy and/or plain fairness. Strong should write a docudrama about what “really” happened on the Buffy set and leave the documenting of history to people like Ken Burns, who care more about getting things right than marketable.
Post a Comment