01
Medium Cool
Why this pick
Like The Candidate, it fuses political disillusionment with an unusually immediate, semi-documentary view of American public life and media spectacle.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1972 1h 50m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
The Candidate
ComedyDrama
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved The Candidate, try these.
01
02
Primary Colors
Why this pick
Its campaign trail is equally alive to charisma, compromise, and the corrosive gap between an idealistic political message and the machinery required to sell it.
03
Bob Roberts
Why this pick
This mock-documentary political satire shares The Candidate’s interest in image-making, televised persuasion, and the uneasy overlap between authenticity and performance.
04
The Ides of March
Why this pick
A sleek, character-driven campaign drama about idealism meeting tactical ambition, with the same increasingly uncomfortable sense that politics rewards compromise.
05
Wag the Dog
Why this pick
For the darker comic edge of The Candidate: a brisk satire of consultants and media operators who treat public reality as something that can be manufactured.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle), a political election specialist, must find a Democratic Party (United States) candidate to oppose California United States Senate Crocker Jarmon (Don Porter), a popular Republican Party (United States). With no big-name Democrat eager to enter the unwinnable race, Lucas seeks out Bill McKay (Robert Redford), the idealistic, handsome, and charismatic son of former California Governor (U.S.) John J. McKay (Melvyn Douglas).
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Robert Redford
Bill McKay
Melvyn Douglas
John J. McKay
Don Porter
Senator Crocker Jarmon
Karen Carlson
Nancy McKay
Morgan Upton
Wally Henderson
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Fred R. Harris
Sen. Fred Harris
Peter Boyle
Marvin Lucas