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The
War Room
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The documentary style known as cinéma vérité took off in a big way in early '60s America. Influenced by examples as diverse as the French Nouvelle Vague films and the photojournalism of Life magazine, documentary filmmakers such as Richard Leacock threw away voice-over narration and spurious ideals of objectivity and balance. Their preferred subjects became immediate, riotous events: election campaigns, executions, rock star tours. Once cinéma vérité became the dominant mode of documentary, a different sort of reaction occurred. Today, more intellectual forms such as the essay film pioneered by Chris Marker reject the freeform realism that was so powerful in the '60s. But The War Room, directed by documentary veteran D. A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back, 1967) and Chris Hegedus, is a welcome blast from the past. The film records, with no pretence of impartiality, the tireless efforts of Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign team in 1992. Two stars emerge in the planning centre dubbed the war room, campaign manager James Carville and communications director George Stephanopoulos. Carville's intense, no-nonsense manner is particularly captivating, and his fierce commitment to Clinton is finally rather moving. As in many cinéma vérité films, political issues and contexts matter far less than the noisy, comic ephemera of the moment. Endless phone conversations, sudden encounters with strangers at a rally, odd billboards glimpsed from a moving vehicle, people yelling at the television news – it is this sort of detail which makes The War Room such an entertaining piece of reportage. © Adrian Martin December 1994 |
