- The Contender (2000) review: An outstanding central performance – Joan Allen as the title character – and a script filled with about as many intrigues as JFK and All the President’s Men put together make Rod Lurie’s populist political soap opera well worth one’s time despite its much too tidy conclusion.
- The Contender synopsis: After being tapped as the first woman to become vice president of the United States, a liberal-minded senator (Joan Allen) is hounded by a right-wing congressman (Gary Oldman) bent on destroying her chances by making use of a long-buried “secret” from her past.
The Contender (2000) review: Exceptional Joan Allen in Rod Lurie’s engrossing yet shamelessly populist and utterly absurd political drama
“Principles only mean anything when we stick by them when they’re inconvenient,” says U.S. Senator Laine Hanson, the titular character played by Joan Allen in screenwriter-director Rod Lurie’s compellingly watchable, proudly populist, and patently absurd political drama The Contender.
Sen. Hanson should know.
Throughout the movie, the Democratic nominee is grilled by Congressman Sheldon (a.k.a. Shelly) Runyon (Gary Oldman), a Republican inquisitor who will do whatever it takes to derail her confirmation as the next vice president of the United States. Even if that means destroying Hanson’s political career by divulging the senator’s alleged participation in an orgy during her college days.[1]
Now, why such hatred?
The Contender plot: Principled recovering Republican stands her ground
Well, Runyon is certain that U.S. President Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges) has chosen Sen. Hanson to replace his recently deceased VP because of her gender – as opposed to her qualifications for the job.
Adding insult to what he sees as an injurious affirmative action appointment, Hanson used to be a Republican who switched affiliations after her party veered too far to the Christian Right.
True, Runyon isn’t the only politician who thinks Hanson is a less-than-ideal pick. Some Democrats would rather have Virginia governor Jack Hathaway (William Petersen), who has enjoyed a surge in popularity after his (failed) attempt to rescue a woman whose car had plunged into a lake.
Sen. Hanson, for her part, remains mum about her personal past, asserting, as a matter of principle, that her private life and her public life are two different spheres that should be kept apart.[2]
Washington political circus
The fight for/against Hanson’s nomination for the U.S. vice presidency forms the basis for the drama that ensues. And The Contender provides a whole lot of drama, involving – in addition to the orgy bit – sexism, betrayal, adultery, manslaughter, and the at times shaky availability of shark sandwiches.
This political circus is tremendously enjoyable because of its melodramatic excesses. In fact, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, or Katharine Hepburn could easily have played Sen. Hanson (minus the Production Code-unfriendly orgy) back in the 1940s, with Kirk Douglas or Victor Jory chewing the scenery as the Inquisitor Runyon.
Admittedly, there’s one important shortcoming to Rod Lurie’s approach: Not once does the former film critic turned filmmaker make a convincing case that his tale bears much resemblance to reality.
Joan Allen makes boundlessly virtuous politician palatable
First and foremost, Sen. Hanson is everything her foes say she isn’t – i.e., she’s an experienced politician and an intelligent individual of rock-solid principles. Thus, the rationale that propels the naysayers to look for dirt on her is preposterous. And so is most everything that follows.
Indeed, Hanson is such an eloquent and damn perfect paragon of steely virtue that her political views become almost irrelevant. You may not agree with her religious beliefs (as an atheist, she has none) or with her decision not to camouflage her cleavage (seen in one The Contender outtake), but orgy or no orgy, Hanson is depicted as someone much too gifted for such a lowly position as U.S. VP.
The reason this overabundance of Honor and Fortitude doesn’t get nauseating is a simple one: Joan Allen’s masterfully restrained performance, which, had there been any awards season justice, would have earned her that year’s Best Actress Academy Award (which went instead to Julia Roberts for the crowd-pleasing Erin Brockovich).
In a role (literally) tailor-made for her, Allen comes across as strong and determined but never self-righteously so. Better yet, she doesn’t display an iota of self-pity during the grueling proceedings.
Her stoic presence alone should prevent viewers from either cringing or laughing at the myriad outlandish and/or contradictory situations Lurie concocted for his movie – not the least of which has an atheist in the running for vice president of the obsessively religious United States.
Weak-kneed politics but sturdy drama
The Contender’s other key performers are less effective, with Gary Oldman coming up with a venom-spitting Saturday matinée villain – bad hairdo and all – while Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Jeff Bridges (in place of original choice Paul Newman) hams it up as the shark-sandwich-gobbling White House resident.
In all, as a political drama-cum-thriller, The Contender is simplistic, silly, and, unlike its resolute heroine, weak-kneed. Really, did we need to learn the truth about young Laine Hanson’s alleged orgy? (No points for those who guess whether or not she actually took part in the fun.)
On the other hand, as a star vehicle grounded on a fantastic lead performance and on a screenplay that boasts more twists and turns than all daytime soaps put together, you’ll have a tough time finding more diverting entertainment.[3]
The Contender (2000) cast & crew
Direction & Screenplay: Rod Lurie.
Cast:
Joan Allen … Laine Hanson
Jeff Bridges … President Jackson Evans
Gary Oldman … Shelly Runyon
Christian Slater … Reginald Webster
Sam Elliott … Kermit Newman
William Petersen … Jack Hathaway
Saul Rubinek … Jerry Tolliver
Philip Baker Hall … Oscar Billings
Mike Binder … Lewis Hollis
Robin Thomas … William Hanson
Mariel Hemingway … Cynthia Charlton Lee
Kathryn Morris … Paige Willomina
Kristen Shaw … Fiona Hathaway
Douglas Urbanski … MakerowitzCinematography: Denis Maloney.
Film Editing: Michael Jablow.
Music: Larry Groupé.
Producers: Marc Frydman, Douglas Urbanski, Willi Baer, and James Spies.
Production Design: Alexander Hammond.
Costume Design: Matthew Jacobsen.
Production Companies: Battleground | SE8 Group | Cinecontender.
Distributor: DreamWorks Pictures.
Running Time: 126 min.
Countries: United States | Germany | United Kingdom.
“The Contender (2000): Exceptional Joan Allen” notes
[1] Otto Preminger’s Advise & Consent (1962) and Franklin J. Schaffner’s The Best Man (1964) are two Hollywood political dramas in which evildoers use U.S. politicians’ past sexual activities – in both instances, gay sex/relationships – as a blackmailing tool.
Adapted by Wendell Mayes from Allen Drury’s novel, the former features Utah Senator Don Murray as the victim. Adapted by Gore Vidal from his own play, the latter features senator and presidential contender Cliff Robertson as the victim.
Mike Nichols’ Primary Colors (1998) is another American political drama revolving around a potential sex-related scandal as a means to destroy a politician’s career. At its center is Democratic presidential contender John Travolta and an alleged “black baby.”
Written by Elaine May, Primary Colors is based on Joe Klein’s novel (initially published anonymously) inspired by then-president Bill Clinton’s campaign six years earlier.
It should be noted that a sex act directly brings down at least one big-screen U.S. president: Polly Bergen in Curtis Bernhardt’s Kisses for My President (1964). The issue here isn’t a scandal; the president becomes pregnant and resigns before the final fade-out.
Inspirational Bill Clinton
[2] The Contender was at least partly inspired by the sex scandal involving Democratic U.S. President Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
That particular to-do led to a multipronged, seemingly endless investigation that resulted in charges of perjury against Clinton (he had initially denied having sex with Lewinsky) and in his 1998 impeachment in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives. (He was acquitted in the Senate.)
The Contender’s behind-the-scenes controversy
[3] When mentioning the myriad twists and turns found in Rod Lurie’s The Contender, one must not ignore the thorny behind-the-scenes controversy about the final edit of the film.
According to Premiere magazine, The Contender costar and executive producer Gary Oldman and co-producer Douglas Urbanski – who also happened to be Oldman’s manager and a bit player in the movie – were unhappy with distributor DreamWorks’ final edit.
“Rod Lurie has transformed from being an ultra-right-wing conservative in one year to saying that he has always been a liberal Democrat,” the Republican Urbanski (more at Media Matters for America) was quoted as saying, “because his benefactors are [DreamWorks founders Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg, and David Geffen].”
‘Goebbels-like piece of propaganda’
Urbanski also affirmed that the release cut of The Contender, which came out shortly before the 2000 U.S. presidential election, was “almost a Goebbels-like piece of propaganda.”
Later on, the producer claimed that the Goebbels quote was printed out of context and denied that The Contender had been cut against his or Gary Oldman’s will.
More “clarifications” ensued, as found in film critic Roger Ebert’s article “Making of a Myth.” As per Urbanski:
- Gary Oldman is “the least political person I know.”
- He and Oldman had not made the statements attributed to them in media reports.
- “We produced … every last cut and frame” of The Contender.
- DreamWorks “did not influence the final cut or have anything to do with it.”
Urbanski added that the Premiere article, which featured several “mildly out of context” paragraphs, was “summarized on the Mr. ShowBiz website, where it was summarized to be wildly out of context.”
That particular article was then linked to by the right-wing tabloid/news aggregator Drudge Report – which, ironically, plays a key role (with a different name) in setting in motion the plot of The Contender.
“Neither Mr. Showbiz nor Drudge ever called to check a thing,” Urbanski told Ebert.
Trimming the fat
On The Contender DVD, Rod Lurie dismisses the issue as overblown gossip. In an October 2000 letter to the Los Angeles Times, he wrote:
“Neither DreamWorks nor anybody at DreamWorks ever instructed or even suggested to me that I recut the film to give it a liberal bent. …
“After the deal was made with the studio, I had a long conversation with Steven Spielberg, one of the owners of the studio. I told him that I thought the movie was still a little fat and that I wanted to edit out about five to 10 minutes. He told me he thought the film played very well as it was but that, if I wanted to recut the film, I would have the full support of DreamWorks.”
“… Absolutely every decision we made had to do with pace, story and emotional verve. Simply put, I wanted to make The Contender a better and more efficient thriller.”
Academy Awards
The Contender received two Academy Award nominations: Best Actress (Joan Allen) and Best Supporting Actor (Jeff Bridges).
Rod Lurie discusses All the President’s Men in a Rotten Tomatoes interview.
The Contender movie credits via the American Film Institute (AFI) Catalog website.
Douglas Urbanski Premiere quote via Damien Bona’s Inside Oscar 2.
Jeff Bridges and Joan Allen The Contender movie images: DreamWorks.
“The Contender (2000): Exceptional Joan Allen” last updated in November 2023.
3 comments
I think the point you make about Hanson’s qualifications is PRECISELY what the film is trying to convey. The thing to remember is how overtly partisan the movie is. It’s about a Republican Senator trying to derail a Democrat. That’s the basis of the film. If her qualifications seem intrinsic to you, then that’s precisely what Lurie is saying: despite her obvious qualifications, she’s still getting viciously attacked by a partisan Republican. That’s not the only point that Lurie is making in the movie, but I think it’s one of the major ones. He obviously has a bone to pick with the Republicans, and the portrayal of Gary Oldman’s Senator is such that after production wrapped, Oldman tried to sue the movie for his character’s portrayal. It was a complicated mess.
I personally really enjoyed The Contender. It doesn’t have to strike a complete tone of realism (as most thrillers, political or otherwise, rarely do). But it is very well acted, nicely scripted, and it has the balls to actually label its characters by their political party. That’s one thing that frustrates me to no end about most movies in which politics enters the equation: we NEVER know what party the politicians or President are from. And I feel as if it’s mainly to not piss people off. Lurie doesn’t care, because he’s making a point about partisan politics. I give him props for that.
@Nathan
My problem with ‘The Contender’ is that Joan Allen’s character is just TOO perfect. Couldn’t she have had perhaps one, however minor, flaw…? Say, she didn’t like chocolate, or was a slob at home, or didn’t know how to make enchiladas — or perhaps was a poor backgammon player?
As for most filmmakers being squeamish about letting us know who is a Republican, who is a Democrat in their movies, I’m sure you’re right.
I remember one such instance: Jonathan Demme’s ‘The Manchurian Candidate.’ Strangely, Meryl Streep’s Evil Mom turns out to be a veiled Democrat. You can see on a map the colors of her party winning in Democratic states.
I totally understand what you’re getting at. She does seem to be flawless from a human perspective. Everyone has flaws… Especially politicians. It does make the attacks on her from Gary Oldman’s character seem all the more awful, and I suppose that’s what Lurie was getting at. But your point is well-taken. As much as it may work to help the audience side with Allen’s character, it comes off more contrived than true.
I had forgotten about that. Really interesting of Demme to make that point (and interesting of him to do so with such subtlety). All in all, I have a really hard time thinking of movies with fictional politicians (and especially Presidents) who have clear political leanings. Even that show Commander in Chief with Geena Davis, which DID spell out their party affiliations, got around making a message by having the President be a Republican and the VP (Davis) be a Democrat who felt the need to nonetheless follow her President’s will after inheriting the office. Ugh. I just wish that touching partisan politics in movies (and TV, since I mentioned a TV show right there) didn’t always have to be so closeted.