The Best Man (1964)

“Y’know, it’s not that I object to your being a bastard, don’t get me wrong there. It’s your being such a stupid bastard that I object to.”  – President Art Hockstader

Number of Times Seen – 2 ( 5 Nov 1999 and 30 Oct 2013)

Brief Synopsis – Two ambitious men vie for their party’s Presidential nomination during the convention.

My Take on it – Gore Vidal’s script for this movie (based on his own play) is something that Aaron Sorkin possibly used as a basis for his show “The West Wing”.

The story takes place over the period of one day at a Political convention where a party must vote for it’s next candidate for President.  The two frontrunners are a McCarty-like Senator and the former Secretary of State.  Each have their own qualities and faults and throughout the movie each must decide how to make the other fall so they can clinch the nomination.

Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson both play their parts excellently, but the actor who steals the show is Lee Tracy who plays a former President who must decide which candidate to give his support to.  He talks very fast and is very witty and just makes you wish he spends more scenes on-screen.

If you are a fan of how historically Presidential nominees were chosen (not the way they do it today), go see this.

It’s quite cool how the opening credits show all 36 US Presidents form Washington to LBJ in order.

Bottom Line – Great political movie. Excellent script. Shows the ins and outs of how politics worked back in the 60’s.  Recommended

Rating – Globe Worthy