Gamechange (HBO Original movie)

[Mr Bean]

HBO

Just got done watching Gamechange an HBO produced movie about the 2008 American election. Specifically it's about the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. First off the movie is not for everyone. If you need explosions in your movie I'm sorry but Gamechange lacks any kind of kaboom, no nudity or violence either. But if you like gripping personal drama's based off the inside story of what went down in the McCain campaign in 2008 after Palin was selected this is the two hour movie of choice. The casting was awesome, to the point if Julianne More had walked around in her Palin makeup I would have sworn it was the half term Governor. Second, this movie makes certain people look good and certain people look great and others look like shit.

To be exact
Looks good: John McCain, Mark Salter, Mark Wallace
McCain comes across as a nice guy who's happens to be a Republican running for President, Mark Salter is his voice of reason, hope and being a nice guy and Wallace comes across as a guy with a job to do doing his best to get it done.

Looks great: Steve Schmidt, Nicolle Wallace and the rest of the Palin family Todd and the kids
Schmidt comes across as a pro and smart guy who understands midway through what a fool he's been to suggest Palin, the Palin family comes off well and you really feel for them and the shit they went through even if Todd Palin who's character re-do is bizarre to say the least. At the end of the movie the person who comes off best is Nicolle Wallace who I wanted to hug her and tell her everything is going to be all right because of the mountains of shit Sarah Palin puts her through.

Looks like shit: Fred Davis and Sarah Palin
Fred Davis is portrayed as Karl Rove Jr aka a standard win at all costs lets run a southern strategy against the black guy, but it's nothing compared to Sarah Palin who is masterful, she's Disney levels of petty evil. And you feel so good when she finally gets smacked down when the election ends when she tries to give the first ever VP concession speech and tries to go over and around Steve Schmidt and he smacks her down.

So again I recommend this movie. It's a great watch if only because the entire movie provides a (dramatized) look into the private stuff of the 2008 campaign and the story of that election is fascinating. Gamechange the book covered a lot more but the section of the book that got the movie treatment is well placed and let me add hilarious both from Steve Schmidt's reactions and crosstalk. Including the minute Schmidt, Davis and Wallace are all in a bar after the election is over cracking Dick Cheney jokes to each other. If you have HBO DVR a repeat and watch it. If not then try breaking into someone's house that does have HBO and watch it there.

[Thanas]

How does it compare to that other great HBO movie about US elections, Recount?

(Yes, I know they were done by the same person)

[White Haven]

'How does he eat with the Darth Vader mask on?'

I caught the last third or so of it in the hotel room, and what I saw was actually really good. I was a bit dubious at the whitewashing McCain got, but Palin v. Schmidt...god, some beautiful moments. Especially, as you said, the bit at the end where Schmidt, now free from needing Palin just absolutely lets her have it over the veep concession speech thing.

[Mr Bean]

Having not seen Recount I can't compare the two but let me tell you it was excellent.

Not to mention some of the lines
Schimdt: I have to tell you Governor your really staying calm through all of this, your very collected
Palin:Of course, how could I not be? We are in God's hands
Schmidt "Facial expression conveying the fact oh she she really believes that"

[Flagg]

Too much McCain dicksucking for my tastes but it confirmed everything I thought about Palin, which is gratifying if frightening.

[CaptJodan]

I enjoyed it. Assuming the research for the movie and book were accurate enough, it sheds a lot of light on why things seemed to shift and move so quickly between disastrous interviews and the just competent VP debate. (When watching the VP debate, I never got the impression that Palin won anything, even at the time. Her words always felt like empty rhetoric to me and I couldn't understand why much of the media was declaring that Palin won or matched Biden. There was never any substance to what she said.)

I can see why so much hype has been developed on the right about this movie, though. It probably was a fairly fair portrayal of events (with an increase in the "drama" factor), but it still doesn't make Palin look good. At times, when she's with her family, she almost seems normal. I also think they did a good job of conveying why some people love her. I better understood the connection between her and those who love her. Even so, she came out looking like the villain from the moment Schmidt paused during the 60 minutes interview right at the beginning to the question whether he'd do it again.

[SAMAS]

Too much McCain dicksucking for my tastes but it confirmed everything I thought about Palin, which is gratifying if frightening.

Remember, it's a dramatization.

[Flagg]

Too much McCain dicksucking for my tastes but it confirmed everything I thought about Palin, which is gratifying if frightening.

Remember, it's a dramatization.

Written by the staffers of the campaign who clearly had it out for Palin and wanted to show McCain in the best possible light.

[Dalton]

Since when are John Heilemann and Mark Halperin staffers for McCain?

[Flagg]

Since when are John Heilemann and Mark Halperin staffers for McCain?

Huh, I was under the impression that Schmitty had written it as well. So my bad.

[Skgoa]

I can't tell if it's all real or not but it feels realistic to me. In the sense that my AW GAWD TEH STUPID sense is making it impossible to watch the scenes that have Palin in them longer than for a couple of minutes before I have to take a break. Since that is the exact same reaction I had to The Downfall, it is hereby conclussively proven that Sarah Palin is either Hitler or at least as bad as Hitler.

[Dalton]

I can't tell if it's all real or not but it feels realistic to me. In the sense that my AW GAWD TEH STUPID sense is making it impossible to watch the scenes that have Palin in them longer than for a couple of minutes before I have to take a break. Since that is the exact same reaction I had to The Downfall, it is hereby conclussively proven that Sarah Palin is either Hitler or at least as bad as Hitler.

First, Game Change was based on the book, which was extensively researched and vetted. Naturally the movie will take some dramatic license, but I have been seeing many scenes, especially the one where Palin doesn't have a fucking clue who the head of the government was in the UK, described as factually accurate.

Also, I'm calling Godwin's Law on the Hitler comparison. Really, that's just fucking stupid.

[Thanas]

I have recently watched this movie and wanted to bring this topic back to the front page. This was, together with recount, the best movie I have seen about the recent US political landscape. It was great.

If you have not seen it yet, go watch it.

[xerex]

I just want to make a comment on Palin's character. I dont think they made her "evil" but rather 'petty'. She struck me as a person who maxed out her abilities at the Mayor level and who was now way over her head. -and couldnt understand why she was beyond her abilities.

I really like her frustration that she couldnt memorize all the new global info that everyone else seemed to take for granted and it resulted in her being alternately catatonic , paranoid or vindictive.

she really just reminded me of a student who was at number one in high School and was now deluged in university and just couldnt understand why all her usual mechanisms didnt work

[Scrib]

I liked it, but I have to echo what the person above said about Palin being incredibly awkward in all her scenes. It was just terrible to watch.

I just want to make a comment on Palin's character. I dont think they made her "evil" but rather 'petty'. She struck me as a person who maxed out her abilities at the Mayor level and who was now way over her head. -and couldnt understand why she was beyond her abilities.

I really like her frustration that she couldnt memorize all the new global info that everyone else seemed to take for granted and it resulted in her being alternately catatonic , paranoid or vindictive.

Honestly, this movie made me dislike John McCain's staff more, Palin actually came off as sympathetic. She's out of her depth and she shouldn't have been there in the first place.

[Dalton]

I think it was designed to make you uncomfortable. I think they wanted to scare the shit out of you that this person would have been a heartbeat away from the presidency. But hey, she landed on her Gucci heels and is making bank now shilling for Fox News.

[Thanas]

I don't think the movie shows her as that sympathetic. As soon as she notices her success she becomes a mega-queen bee and orders everyone around (see the concession speech) without realizing she is out of her depth.

[Crown]

I don't think the movie shows her as that sympathetic. As soon as she notices her success she becomes a mega-queen bee and orders everyone around (see the concession speech) without realizing she is out of her depth.

It humanised her a great deal in my mind.

I enjoyed it. Assuming the research for the movie and book were accurate enough, it sheds a lot of light on why things seemed to shift and move so quickly between disastrous interviews and the just competent VP debate. (When watching the VP debate, I never got the impression that Palin won anything, even at the time. Her words always felt like empty rhetoric to me and I couldn't understand why much of the media was declaring that Palin won or matched Biden. There was never any substance to what she said.)

SNL nailed it at the time;

We would like to remind our audience that; due to the historically low expectations for Governor Palin. Were she simply to do an adequate job tonight and at no point cry, faint, run out of the building or vomit; you should consider the debate a tie.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

I think I might see it, but I think I have an idea of it. Is this some kind of Greek tragedy where you feel good by watching a dick get destroyed by his own hubris, and at the same time you feel bad because his situation is now pitiful?

[Mr Bean]

I think I might see it, but I think I have an idea of it. Is this some kind of Greek tragedy where you feel good by watching a dick get destroyed by his own hubris, and at the same time you feel bad because his situation is now pitiful?

No the movie makes McCain highly sympathetic, a good man with four devils on his shoulder and no angles to balance it out struggling in a losing battle. His aids are always in on him to go full Rove but he resists time and time again. When Palin starts in on it he tries to stop her as well.

McCain has no reason to hate this movie. Gore WISHED he had a movie this nice to him. Bush would cries tears of joy if someone made a Bush movie anywhere near as kind to him as Gamechange is to John McCain

*Edit
Hey it's on HBO Go? Nice got to watch it again tonight.

[Crown]

I think I might see it, but I think I have an idea of it. Is this some kind of Greek tragedy where you feel good by watching a dick get destroyed by his own hubris, and at the same time you feel bad because his situation is now pitiful?

Actually it's very Greek in the sense the moment is just far too big for her and the inevitability of the train wreck is something that you just can't take your eyes off. And Julian Moore just makes it garn-darn easy to empathise with her on so many levels.

[Thanas]

You emphasize with her, but that one went right out the window when she treated the campaign people like dung.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

McCain

I made too abstract an analogy and used male pronouns instead of female. I'm talking about Palin.

[Scrib]

I don't think the movie shows her as that sympathetic. As soon as she notices her success she becomes a mega-queen bee and orders everyone around (see the concession speech) without realizing she is out of her depth.

Yes, but not gonna lie, I kinda saw her as a child that couldn't be controlled. Horrible but it stopped me from really putting everything on her shoulders and not just seeing it as what was. When she asks to give the concession speech I wasn't even that offended given that Woody Harrelson was blaring hate through the screen. I saw it as the tactless act of someone who does not know better. There's no excuse, even as a minor politician, even as a person in general, one should see how that was a shitty thing to even bring up but I didn't really have high expectations. I didn't think she could help herself.

On the staff though: some of her bitchiness was sympathetic, if only because it was the result of her walking into the race unprepared and getting utterly destroyed and laughed at. Still not nice,but anger is to be expected in that situation.

[CaptHawkeye]

You emphasize with her, but that one went right out the window when she treated the campaign people like dung.

The most striking scene in the movie was the one where Palin randomly flipped out over the phone at her advisors after the Katie Couric interview. The idea that her first reaction to her own failures was to find every possible way to blame someone else was astounding. It seems rather clear why the only place in the world she could win a legitimate political office was a backwater land like Alaska.

I distinctly remember hearing about that interview though, and what pissed me off the most about it was how much of a foregone conclusion it was. Palin had already revealed herself to be an incompetent dolt long before Katie Couric. It shouldn't have taken one poor interview to sink the Republican chance at the 44th Presidency and it really didn't. McCain lost the election because he failed to distance himself from the Bush Administration and its apologists. Palin was part of the problem, not THE problem.