Posted on 05/18/2008 12:53:56 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
An early review is in for HBO's upcoming movie, Recount, about the Bush-Gore battle in Florida after 2000 election. Gillian Flynn in Entertainment Weekly, which like HBO is part of the Time-Warner family, has described the film, to premiere next Sunday night, as tilted against the Republican characters.
In her review in the May 23 edition of the magazine, Flynn asserted: “Recount may not be downright blue, but it's not as purply as it wants to appear.” Saying “Recount is an underdog story, and thus a Democrat story,” Flynn reported that the “Republican players here are coolly calculating -- Tom Wilkinson's James Baker III, the Bush team quarterback -- or they teeter on the edge of madness, like Laura Dern's Katherine Harris.” In fact, in an interview elsewhere, the writer of the movie slammed Harris as “a fraud.” [Screen shot is of Dern as Harris]
Flynn awarded the film an A-, but concluded with caution about its imbalance:
Recount may not be downright blue, but it's not as purply as it wants to appear. Despite its ''equal time'' approach, Recount is an underdog story, and thus a Democrat story. While George W. Bush, like Gore, is only vaguely glimpsed, the remaining Republican players here are coolly calculating -- Tom Wilkinson's James Baker III, the Bush team quarterback -- or they teeter on the edge of madness, like Laura Dern's Katherine Harris. With flaming lipstick and helmet hair, Dern nails the Florida secretary of state's looks, cadence, and carriage to a disturbing degree, and she runs with Harris' Cruella De Vil vibe: At one point, before a press conference, Dern morphs her face from that of a human being into Harris' crazy-cuckoo public mask, and the moment is absolutely chilling. Fair? Debatable, but like Recount, it's a gorgeous bit of political theater.
That portrayal is not so surprising if you read an interview with the writer of the movie, Danny Strong, posted by HBO. Strong declared he “didn't understand why there wasn't a state-wide hand recount of the ballots in an election this close, in which there were uncounted ballots,” called the U.S. Supreme Court's eventual decision a “shame” because it was 5-4 and insisted that “like a lot of people, I felt that Katherine Harris appeared to be somewhat of a fraud at the time.”
Excerpts from Strong's comments:
....I was really frustrated and disgusted with the whole thing because I didn't understand why there wasn't a state-wide hand recount of the ballots in an election this close, in which there were uncounted ballots. It still makes no sense to me, and I know as much about the recount as a person can know. It's very obvious what needs to happen if it's down to 327 votes and there are 175,000 ballots that the machines have registered as non-votes. The laws of Florida say that you do a hand recount. In most states in the union, that's the law. That was the law in Texas; George Bush himself signed that into law. I didn't understand why Al Gore had only requested recounts in four counties. And I didn't understand the Republicans trying to do everything they could to block the recounts....
I had heard that the Florida Supreme Court was going to count the whole state and I thought, "Well finally!" And then I heard that the U.S. Supreme Court had shut it down! And I thought, "Well, maybe there's a reason, and I really hope it's a unanimous decision." And then when the decision was five-four, I remember thinking, "God, what a shame this is." I wasn't particularly suspicious of anyone. Like a lot of people, I felt that Katherine Harris appeared to be somewhat of a fraud at the time. But then I moved on with my life, like the rest of the country....
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
what's the world coming to.
I am so sick of media propaganda.
The liberals and Dems. will never get over that election will they?
Why does nobody ever talk about how the Dems. sought to disqualify military absentee ballots in the Florida recount? If you want to do a tit for tat, there’s lots of ammunition to use against the Dems. They aren’t pure as the driven snow when it comes to election mischief. And what can you say about the “butterly ballot” where some people voted for the wrong candidate, and may have cost Al Gore votes? The Florida Democratic party approved that ballot before the election.
No surprise here whatsoever. The shocking thing would have been if the film were balanced. But that probably would not have been allowed. The thing that enrages me most is that they will portray this as some kind of balanced look at what happened when in reality the producers know full well this is anti Republican left wing propaganda. But then, to their small, closed minds, anything that is biased and unfair to the right IS perfectly proper.
Had the supreme court not stopped the re re re re re re recount, Bush still would have won according to the Washington Post, NY Times, LA Times, and AP.
Sad thing is that most lefties get their world view from movies such as this, the msm and the moonbat blogs.
Oh absolutely! Laura Dern's portrayal
is just like the real thing:
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Sore/Loserman... “Get Out of Cheney’s House!” hanging chads... pregnant chads... those 5-6 weeks were wild... i don’t think i slept a wink... i was continually connected to FR during that time...
Then to top it off, they pushed for and got the electronic voting machines. Saying we should vault
into the 2000's with new technology, and then in 2006 they scream that the electronic machines are rigged.
The party of denial, victimology and an assortment of other not so complimentary maladies.
Well Brent you moron, Gore wanted to selectively count votes in counties that were overwhelmingly in his favor to get more votes. He wasn’t interested in recounting votes in counties that leaned the other way. In addition he wanted different rules used for the “under vote” in those same counties that leaned towards him and to continue to use the original rules in the counties that were the other way. In other words, he wanted to cheat. The supreme court put and end to it because it is unconstitutional to purposely count some of the state’s votes differently (apply the law differently) than other parts of the same state - all to slant the outcome.
My first reaction was that this was a BHO movie, not an HBO movie. HBO=Hussein Barack Obama
Shocked! Shocked I tells ya'!!!!!!
They did a recount after everything (courtesy of the press)
Bush won
Gee! I am astonished too.
You should read the Laura Dern statements in TV Guide. This woman is not only waaaaay too homely to play Katherine Harris, she is also a complete idiot. I was disappointed in TV Guide for their obvious lean to the left in many of their reviews. I guess anyone with ANY kind of journalism degree lacks the ability to be unbiased. Too bad brains aren’t necessary to be successful in Hollywood or journalism - we might actually see some balance.
HBO is rewriting history to suit their political views.
Ten years from now, you won’t recognize these years in the way they are portrayed.
Yours truly,
The Woim
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