For this writer, revisiting the epic fall from grace of Senator Gary Hart in his 1988 presidential campaign is still painfully raw. There was something about the unbridled optimism that Hart projected in his primary run for the Democratic Party nomination that was electric. Fresh off a surprising 1984 effort that almost saw him best Vice President Walter Mondale, Hart captivated a nation and especially young people in a manner that should have catapulted him firmly into the White House.
Instead, three weeks into his 1988 campaign, all hope was disgustingly derailed. I volunteered for Hart in 1984 and in 1988 and when news arrived that he had an affair with Donna Rice aboard a south Florida yacht called “Monkey Business,” I was destroyed. Turns out decades is still not enough to soften the blow of witnessing The Front Runner and how it meticulously chronicles a politician’s implosion of the most epic of proportions.
Hugh Jackman stuns as Hart and does an impeccable job of capturing the essence of this public figure who firmly believed that his private life was private. See, the reveal of his affair came off of a double-barreled movement of the needle in the news world that had no problem plastering the love affairs of our leaders (and pulpit leaders, such as Jim Baker) on the front pages and leading the national television news with a quote Hart gave the Washington Post as he challenged them to “follow him” and discover that his life was deathly boring. Turns out, it was the exact opposite. The Miami Herald took him up on his offer and literally caught the aspiring presidential candidate spending the weekend in his Georgetown townhouse with a young woman instead of his wife, Lee (a stunning Vera Farmiga).
Jason Reitman directs a electric ensemble (led by J.K. Simmons as Hart’s senior campaign advisor, Bill Dixon) in a story so extraordinary that if it wasn’t a true tale, one would scoff at a screenplay containing such a puzzling recipe of sex, lies, presidential politics and a toxic combination of blind ignorance coupled with arrogance on the part of one of the more intelligent souls to run for president in the last fifty years.
Why The Front Runner is so powerful is that it serves as a history lesson for when tabloid journalism bled into the mainstream media. Reitman brilliantly shows a bit on the television where Jim and Tammy Faye Baker are apologizing for their mess and begging forgiveness from their flock. When Jim got caught having an affair, it seemed like a normal progression for the Washington Posts of the world to cover the story. After all, he was a national religious figure who had made a name for himself as a man of God and as such, committing sins as he did with Jessica Hahn were simultaneously nationally newsworthy and salacious. Where Hart was grossly misguided was thinking that his affair with Rice would not land in the same front-page space as Baker’s affair.
He was not crazy for believing that. Journalism had a long history of ignoring the personal foibles of our leaders—from Franklin Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy and even Lyndon Johnson. The Miami Herald felt it was justified to literally stake out at Hart’s Georgetown townhouse and document the comings and goings of the presidential candidate and his Miami-based lover. Hart, angered by questions from The Washington Post about his separation from his wife years earlier, legendarily dared the press to follow him and they would see, his life is quite boring. They did, and it turns out his life was not all that boring. It is these moments, as a fan of Hart’s, but also as a student of politics and history, that makes me cringe when witnessing Reitman’s film. We know all too well how this was going to play out. Hart would go from front runner to presidential quitter in a span of 21 days. It is a political meltdown of the most astounding expediency.
Jackman shows again why he is one of our greatest all-around entertainers. Only the Australian actor can go from the song and dance success of The Greatest Showman to the complicated emotional and moral web that is Hart’s fall in The Front Runner. The manner in which Hart was baffled by how this scandal not only showed no signs of slowing, but in fact gained momentum, is masterfully captured by Jackman. He just didn’t get it. The age of journalistic looking the other way when it came to the bedroom lives of the powerful was over and Hart was the first to be burned at the stake for something legions of leaders had done previously. Jackman is commanding in that aspect of the performance as Hart, but also captures the candidate’s charisma, expansive political ideas and revolutionary way he ran his campaign. It all adds up to one of the more insightful indictments of the modern media that we’ve seen in some time.
Reitman has also had himself quite a 12-month span. His filmmaking year began in February with the stunning (and hopefully Oscar nominated) Tully. Here at the end of 2018, he has produced a political firebrand that spotlights an important moment in American history. It also makes a stellar point when all is said and done about how the Hart story and how it was covered by the press will cost the American people. Folks might think twice about getting into public life due to the prying nature of the press that is like pandora’s box. Once it was opened, there is no going back. In fact, we are still firmly in that arena and one could argue that it has only gotten more intense—save for the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He has acknowledged having an affair (with a porn star even) and there are no calls for him to resign like there were for Hart to exit the race.
But, I digress…
The disillusionment of the youth vote is also a casualty of the Hart affair. Jackman culls major emotive power when he is giving his exit speech where he calls on the youth of the day to not lose their passion for the political process. As Hart said at the beginning of The Front Runner, when the youth of America is engaged, they change the world. That too was a victim of the Hart fallout. Folks like myself, who volunteered to work for Hart, felt so burned by what had happened to our political hero, that engaging in politics was not something that described this guy for decades.
Simmons is his usual awesome self. Only the Oscar winner for Whiplash could illicit such laughs for his matter-of-fact lines that are in and of itself, downright tragic. His character serves as the eyes and ears for the audience into how this wormhole was traversed. We go from the highest of hopes to the lowest of lows as our dream candidate self-implodes on the front page of every major newspaper in the free world.
Other ensemble stand-outs include Alfred Molina as Post editor-in-chief Ben Bradlee. Even in a smaller role, Molina manages to command in a part that others may have gotten lost tackling. Farmiga embodies the emotional cost of the Hart affair in a way that has our heartstrings majorly pulled. This is a woman who has asked very little of her husband in their public life. There was just one request, “don’t embarrass me.” Then, he goes and does exactly that. Only Farmiga could capture the cost of such indiscretion in a manner that is sensationally sublime.
Reitman further illustrates why he is one of the more intriguing filmmakers of his generation. The Front Runner is clearly a passion project for the helmer and his passion for the subject matter and its expansive historical scope is all over every frame. His brilliant co-writing work on the screenplay (with Matt Bai and Jay Carson, from a book by Bai) packs so much history, emotion, intrigue and social commentary in under two hours it is truly astounding.
The Front Runner could have been a bit more powerful in terms of how it punches us in the gut with the “what could have been” possibilities of Hart. There is a lesson here, though, and it is subtle. The youth still hold all the cards when it comes to politics. When they are engaged and vote in droves, progressive candidates win election. When they are turned off by the process, conservatives carry the day.
What is my hope from the reflection that is The Front Runner’s look at a man who would have made an incredible president, is that the youth of America will look at how their lack of engagement in 1988 gave us George Bush and then in large amounts, his son and the costly war in Iraq. Regardless of what happens to the personal political attacks of any given election, the issues of the day remain. And as such, we must always vote as if our lives depend on it.
It is because it does.
Grade: B+