The Best Man

Written by the virulent essayist Gore Vidal, this political morality lesson (with sarcastic dialogues to be savoured) in which two potential presidential candidates seek the support of the dying ex-president before their nomination. Henry Fonda is the pragmatic and righteous politician; Cliff Robertson is an untrustworthy and demagogic type, inspired by Senator Joe McCarthy, the man behind the witch-hunt against communists whose shadow hung over American politics in the early sixties. The poisonous political jousting takes place entirely during two decisive days of the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles, a media circus that D.O.P. Haskell Wexler films in semi-documentary style and in which he also inserts newsreel footage to add to the realism. The Best Man also shows the fast-growing impact of the television medium, with TV coverage filling screens everywhere from the Convention arena to the bedroom.