"The Candidate" was released in the appropriate year of 1972, when Richard Nixon was reelected, using the media to present himself as a solid, trusted leader who was being challenged by liberal elitists operating in concert with the Eastern media establishment. When the full force of Watergate buried Nixon in scandal shortly thereafter, resulting in his resignation in 1974, the messages presented in "The Candidate" became all the clearer as Nixon's hollow facade lay fully exposed.
Jeremy Larner, a former speechwriter for presidential candidate Senator Eugene McCarthy in 1968, used his political savvy to craft a script based on the realism of campaigning in the television age, in which, to use Marshall McLuhan's apt phrase, "the medium is the message." Larner copped a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his effort. Robert Redford plays Bill McKay, who runs a poverty law center and has no ambitions to seek political office. He is urged to do so as the Democrats in California seek an opponent for a solidly entrenched incumbent U.S. Senator played by Don Porter. Redford, whose father, played by Melvyn Douglas, is a former California governor, agrees to run after being told that he can address topics on his own terms. The idea is that he is expected to make a decent run but is not expected to win. Redford articulates ideas near and dear to him that are not embraced by the broad spectrum of California voters. When he runs poorly in the primary, however, he is informed that he needs to make changes or risk being humiliated in the general election by Porter, a prospect he does not relish.
Redford's ensuing frequent turnabouts on major issues make him anything but the refreshingly candid candidate he sought to become. As the polls close and there is possible light at the end of the long campaign tunnel, Redford becomes more of a blurry media creation and loses the old image of refreshingly solid commitment he had previously displayed.
Eventually Redford upsets Porter. By the time the long race ends he is immersed in a total blur. The film's closing line is a gem. After winning the race Redford, seated in his hotel room with his campaign staff, asks, "What do we do now?"
"The Candidate" was one of director Michael Ritchie's finest efforts. The pacing becomes gradually stepped up as the campaign moves into its important stretch run. By the end the viewer is immersed in the same kind of non-stop, frenzied blur as are the candidates and their staffs, providing a graphic display of political realism via the camera's all-seeing eye.
