Primary Colors - DTS

Starring:John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, Adrian Lester, Maura Tierney, Larry Hagman, Diane Ladd, Paul Guilfoyle (II), Rebecca Walker, Caroline Aaron, Tommy Hollis, Rob Reiner, Ben Jones, J.C. Quinn, Allison Janney, Robert Klein, Mykelti Williamson, James Denton, Leontine Guilliard
Director: Mike Nichols
Studio: Universal Studios
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

Based on the novel by Anonymous (a.k.a. political reporter Joe Klein) and released when the Monica Lewinsky scandal was in full swing, Primary Colors may have been a case of too much, too soon for many moviegoers, who preferred the real-life Clinton crisis over the movie's thinly disguised "Clintonesque" comedy. The general public felt that the film was exploiting the president's indiscretions, and as a result one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 1998 was a box-office disappointment. But when considered apart from the Clinton scandals and judged on its own considerable merits, this superb comedy-drama provides an illuminating, insightful, and frequently hilarious look at the harsh realities of presidential politics. John Travolta stars as Jack Stanton, a presidential hopeful whose campaign is challenged by dual dilemmas: how to squelch a scandal involving the candidate's alleged sex with an underage girl, and how to handle information that could potentially ruin Stanton's opponent (superbly played by Larry Hagman). Stanton's wife (Emma Thompson) stands by her man despite awareness of his infidelities, but his loyal campaign planners (played by Billy Bob Thornton, Maura Tierney, and promising newcomer Adrian Lester) experience a crisis of conscience. So does one of the Stantons' oldest friends (Kathy Bates, in an Oscar-nominated role), whose sense of betrayal and lost idealism proves too much to bear. Masterfully adapted by director Mike Nichols and his former-comedy-partner-turned-screenwriter, Elaine May, Primary Colors plays like a sophisticated comedy with loads of memorable scenes and dialogue, but it sneaks up on you with devastating dramatic impact. Anchored by Travolta's superb performance (which is reminiscent of Clinton without being a cheap impersonation), the movie presents a story of great moral complexity and leaves viewers to contemplate their own reactions to the volatile and ethically complicated game of modern politics. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

loved it.......2007-05-31

loved this movie when i watched it in theaters years ago and i wanted to watch it again. still love it

deja vu again?.......2007-04-08

It does seem like it is very often one political defamation
can indict two presidential campaigns, but this one does.
"Anonymous" is again right on. We had Bill ClintonMy Life
and his sexual escapades that almost got him impeached.
There is very little doubt he is the man portrayed in this movie.
Or that the current presidential candidate Hilary Clinton
is the wife we see who has a close friend who is a
lawyer. Sometimes you think that the sexes have been changed to protect the guilty,
but other than that the players are still as silly and still as deadly.
Today, Living History, Senator from New York, has a second chance to mess up history!

Bill and Hillary.......2006-07-10

Although the author denies any connection between this book and the Clintons, it is quite obvious after reading it that the book is based 100% on the Clintons. Right down to Bill's indescretions with the ladies and the way 'he' approaches everything. Of course, the characters are renamed and there are a few more colorful characters thrown in to spice their life up even more. I also watched the movie version of the book and that really screamed out 'Clintons'. I have no idea why the author couldn't write a book about their actual lives. Maybe he smelled 'lawsuit'. Either way, this book follows the characters throught an election bid and the trials and tribulations that occurs mainly due to the runners life upsets. A 'lady' steps forward with tapes of the 'president' talking dirty to her on the telephone (sound familiar)? He also sleeps with a young girl of a friend. Not an intern but on the same kind of line. I do fully recommend this book and the movie too. In the movie, a plumped up John Travolta plays 'Clinton' and what a wonderful job he does. See for yourselves.

John Travolta in one of his few good films.......2006-02-28

The movie Primary Colors isn't anything special if you know (or rather willing to admit) who and what Bill Clinton is. For most people who love Clinton they have a huge blindspot for any of his negatives, much like people do for Reagan and Bush. With that said though John Travolta plays a fantastic Bill Clinton. Watching this film may seem like a comedy but it's not: this is really how it happens. I was there right smack in the middle of the Clinton campaign in 1992 and suffice to say the movie embellishes a lot, what's important is the man himself. Travolta captures Candidate Clinton like no other, from the handshake at the beginning fo the film to ...well you'll just have to watch the movie. What you won't see if Hillary. Ironically she did not become her present day self until the middle of the first term so in some ways you get a skewed image of her.

Billy Bob Thornton as the non-public side of James Carville puts in an excellent performance as does Kathy Bates (as always). What this film lacks in a way is the brutal nature of the 92 campaign. It's a satire so take it with a grain of salt but there's no doubt you're looking at the real Bill Clinton. What makes this movie great is that you're looking at politics as it it, most of the time.

Deeply Flawed.......2005-11-12

This movie has some great moments that give one hope for what it could have been. Emma Thompson in particular shines in her role as the candidate's wife. However a terribly hokey script full of over-the-top metaphors about the moon and wild boars, characters who are too underwritten to win the empathy of the audience, a running time that's 45 minutes longer than it needs to be and a really, really, REALLY bad score (Seriously the worst I've heard in a major studio release film -- it sounds like a ten-year-old's piano recital or something.) sink this movie into the bottom of the commercial stratosphere.

Most disappointing of all are the two characters the audience is supposed to have the most empathy for. There's Libby, played by Kathy Bates, whose character trajectory is unbelievably manipulative. Sadly I can't be more specific about this without spoiling a major plot "twist" -- suffice it to say that filmmakers try to manipulate you into feeling something for both her and her cause -- not through good writing, but through an action that it made little sense for her to take. Then there's Henry Burton, the campaign manager through whose eyes we see all of this. His innocence and idealism are supposed to be challenged over and over again but the screenplay never presents him with any real moral delimmas. Instead he gets just a lot of sad music playing over soft-focus close-ups, a completely unresolved subplot with his girlfriend, a background involving him being the grandson of a civil rights leader that is never delved into and a character that is never fully developed. When the credits roll, we still have no idea who he is and what it is he stands for -- and the same can be said of this entire movie.

The DVD has no extras to speak of, just production notes and a trailer that make it hardly worth having a DVD instead of a video. Characters in this movie talk a lot about the importance of making history. The true events it's based on did, in fact, make history. (The fact that this film is actually a fictionalization of the Clintons is no secret.) But at this point, I think it's safe to say that this is one aspect of the Clinton administration even Democrats don't want to revist, so there's little hope of nostalgia ever saving this movie from the only spot in history it has managed to earn: the ash heaps.

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