Did you folks see “Game Change” on HBO over the weekend? If you did, you were not alone: It was the highest-rated original movie on HBO in eight years. I caught it myself, and I thought it was a fair depiction of the 2008 campaign. In my review over on Pajiba, I even suggested that the two people that came off worse in the movie were Sarah Palin and, more subtly, Barack Obama, for the way the movie suggested that the 2008 campaign elevated celebrity above statesmanship (I do not disagree). John McCain and, in particular, his Chief Political Adviser, Steve Schmidt (Woody Harrelson), fared best of all the participants. McCain was depicted as an honest, above the board campaigner forced to compromise his own principles to have a shot against Obama’s celebrity, while Schmidt was depicted as an adviser who made a hasty, politically calculated decision that he immediately regretted. Moreover, the speech Harrelson gave to Julianne Moore’s Palin before McCain’s concession will probably win Harrelson an Emmy nomination, to boot.
Since the movie aired, both Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace (played by Sarah Paulson) have backed the veracity of the account, but Sarah Palin — who claims not to have seen the movie — has nevertheless called it “Hollywood lies.” While the issue of her erratic, unprofessional, and unstable behavior behind the scenes will remain a matter of “She Said / Everybody Else in the World Said,” it’s hard to argue with Moore’s impression of Palin. She nailed it, as this video — which compares actual footage of Palin with Julianne Moore’s recreation — surely attests.
Remarkable, isn’t it?
(Source: Slate)