Is Barack Obama "A Face in the Crowd"?

Associated Content.com ^ | June 23, 2008 | Mark Stuart Ellison

[KeyLargo]

Is Barack Obama "A Face in the Crowd"? By Mark Stuart ELLISON

On Saturday, June 14, I watched the 1957 Elia Kazan film "A Face in the Crowd" on Turner Classic Movies. I had seen most of it before but was strangely drawn to it again. Instinct told me that the movie had special relevance to the 2008 presidential election, although I didn't know exactly how. After a second viewing, I understood. "A Face in the Crowd" is eerily similar to Barack Obama's candidacy. Although I came to this conclusion on my own, I am not the first person to voice this opinion. A video clip listed under "Barack Obama--A Face in the Crowd?" was posted on YouTube on May 3, 2008.

In "A Face in the Crowd," a young Andy Griffith gives a tour de force performance as Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a coarse but charming drifter with a gift for song and gab. Local radio reporter Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) discovers Rhodes while broadcasting from an Arkansas jail. Sensing his talent, Marcia gets Rhodes released early and convinces him to be a regular on her show. She unknowingly creates a monster. With his folksy, populist charm, Rhodes meteorically rises in the media, eventually starring in a wildly successful television show in New York City. He also becomes a key adviser to a presidential candidate. A shameless womanizer drunk on his own power, Rhodes has utter contempt for his adoring audience...

Takeaways

Both Barack Obama and the fictional Lonesome Rhodes are larger-than-life figures.

Like Rhodes, Obama possesses phenomenal oratorical skill and animal magnetism.

Cults of personality are largely uncontrollable and shape public opinion for good and ill.

[DemforBush]

Love that movie. The Vitajex sequence has one of my favorite quotes ever:

“You college geniuses want *dignity* on your program. Back where I come from, a fellah looks too dignified, we figure he’s tryin’ to steal your watch!”

BTW, I agree with the poster who mentioned Rhodes being Clinton-like. I see 0bama more in the vein of Sybok in Star Trek V - a self-anointed prophet whose utopian goals and willingness to do whatever it takes for the “greater good” might just lead everyone over a cliff...

[Malesherbes]

I still have trouble internalizing the fact that BO is President of the United States. Now I hear “the Age of Obama.” The reality, I believe, will be “the Episode of Obama.”

[randog]

Y’know, I’ll have to watch it again with an eye towards current events. You could be right.

[H.Akston]

If life imitates the movie, then president BO will be done in by an open mic. I saw it about 4 years ago and it will give you a different opinion of Andy Griffith. Although he and Ron Howard are koolaid drinkers.