Primary Colors 1998
I think I was expecting too much from this movie. I figured with the cast this movie has (John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton) and Mike Nichols directing and with the reviews I’ve seen that it would be a great film. But at best this is just a good film with some parts that really aren’t that good. I think John Travolta tries too hard to be Bill Clinton, right down to the hoarse southern accent. The character of the presidential candidate is a pretty good one, a lot like Bill Clinton. He is a man who deeply cares about people, works very hard, is idealistic, but with some serious flaws, notably a weakness for women and a lack of any kind of moral compass. But the movie isn’t really about the presidential candidate. It’s about the grandson of some great civil rights leader who is drawn to Travolta and winds up helping him win the nomination. I have read that this character represents George Stephanopolus, but the character presented to us never seems to really offer anything to the campaign, even though Travolta tells him he can’t win without him. We never see anything this guy contributes to the campaign other than a single phone call to Jesse Jackson.
I think in a lot of ways this movie is trying to be fictionalized version of The War Room, an actual documentary about James Carville and Stephanopolus. The War Room had real drama, strategy, and intrigue. Primary Colors is lacking all of this. I think what made The War Room so good was that they left Clinton out of the movie for the most part. You can’t have a movie about the candidate and the campaign because the two things are completely separate.
There are some great scenes in this movie and a few really good story lines, but the story doesn’t really pull you in. I think the people who made this movie had no idea why they were making it and it shows. It watches like a movie that had too many rewrites and a lot of film on the editing floor. But there are long boring stretches that they could have left out entirely so it’s not like they cut too much.
Watch this if you want for a few laughs and a few neat ideas, but if you want a really good story, watch The War Room.
Written: 17 Apr 1998