The War Room (93)

3/21/97

I moved to Washington DC in early 1992 for a change of pace. It was an exciting place to be. I had never supported a winner in a presidential election. Until Bill Clinton. I live in Northern California now, and I've lived in Southern Cal as well. Everyone who's visited or lived in LA knows just how deeply show business permeates everyday life. Everyone has a celebrity sighting, or I know so and so who worked on the film whatchamacallit. Up here in No Cal, there's a bit of show business, but the celebrities are the young computer geeks. My buddy over at Netscape, or I saw Amelio at dinner, or Insignia just went public. What I found in Washington was that both of these areas paled in comparison to politics. It is so sexy. Powerful people, most of whom are relatively smart, trying, not to make millions with stock, or trying to be the biggest moviestar, but trying to run the fucking country. Imagine the power. The papers kept us informed on who was having what fund raiser at who's Georgetown home. Whenever Clinton came to town, we'd leave work to watch the motorcade go by. I remember when Clint Eastwood was in town filming IN THE LINE OF FIRE, there was some commotion, but nothing approaching the pandemonium of a Clinton sighting. I got to hear Hillary speak and my Clinton sightings number four. I voted absentee from California so that I could help send two women to the Senate. So my duty was finished by election day. I remember going to a Georgetown bar, it was a get together sponsored by some democratic support group. We drank and watched on several different big screens as the results came in. I cannot describe the overwhelming joy that we felt looking around the bar at other young people who were feeling something that had never happened to us before. Like we personally were responsible for the country going in a better direction.
Anyways, now to the movie. No narrator. No captions. Just behind the scenes as the campaign takes shape. As a political junkie, it was heaven to watch, especially knowing how it would end. Watching Carville and Stephanopoulos' minds work was something to behold. They could counterattack on a moment's notice. Very well done.
Ebert ***^ Maltin ***
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