In the slice of life category I’ll slide The Best Man (1964), a story about the nominating process of a fictional American political party for the 1964 election. This is a story which gets by with a minimum of information. We know that William Russell, the top candidate for the nomination, has money and a reputation for womanizing, while his most significant opponent is a hard driving young man by the name of Senator Joe Cantwell, who seems to be very serious.
We get further information through the instrumentality of former President Hockstader, whose endorsement would be invaluable to any of the candidates. Not only do we learn about the top two, such as Russell’s hesitancy, but we learn about the President himself: his own view of how to win the Presidency, what he considers to be important in a candidate. He fills in important blanks.
For all that it’s slice of life, though, we swiftly run up on the rocks of a moral dilemma: what are the limits, if any, that may not be transgressed by those who chase power? Russell has not quite got that straight in his head, while Cantwell has no hesitancy to use any means necessary to find dirt on Russell, beyond that of womanizing, and it’s Russell’s secret nervous breakdown.
But when there comes news of Cantwell’s display of homosexuality during a recent war, still considered ruinous deviancy at this juncture of American life, Russell is torn. He’s a believer in playing fair, but if he does so and loses, a man driven by a religious mania may win the Presidency. His meditations in this context are significant, if perhaps underplayed, but are fascinating as the background is the very end of the trail: the nominating convention, complete with party delegations from the States, the shouts of where this round of votes will go, all a bracing background of power, contempt, toadying, and other displays of what raw power brings out in people.
And so Russell is facing failure when Cantwell offers him the VP slot on the ticket. The thought of working with a man apparently without a true moral system leaves Russell with a hard, hard choice. And that’s what makes this a good movie: it practically forces the audience to consider how they would react in a similar situation – and what that would cost them.
I won’t quite recommend it, but it’s certainly worth a watch if you enjoy Henry Fonda mulling moral conundrums. Enjoy!
