Robert Redford in The Candidate, 1972
A-list movie stars and Georgia peanut farmers are, apparently, unstoppable teams. To prepare for his debate against Gerald Ford in 1976, soon-to-be President Jimmy Carter screened the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy matchups with none other than Robert Redford, who had played an underdog Senate hopeful in The Candidate. Michael Ritchie’s 1972 campaign movie is all about the tendency of politicians to espouse inoffensive platitudes when they should be real. And the debate scene epitomizes this tension: Redford, as candidate Bill McKay, starts out sidestepping and reciting the canned stuff, but his conscience just can’t take it. Almost two decades after Carter’s debate with Ford, he gave the actor props for his sage advice back in ’76. “I was probably President,” Carter said, “because of Bob Redford.”
Fighting Words: “Until we talk about just what this society really is, then I don’t know how we’re going to change it.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkGhplApYt4]