Barack Obama in a Movie

[AsherHeimermann]

In the latest political film, Senator Barack Obama is discussed in Swing Vote. The candidate says "We need more then good speeches."

That sounds like what Senator McCain said about Senator Obama. Do you think Senator Obama was refered to in this movie?


Asher Heimermann is a teenager from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. You can learn more information about Heimermann by visiting his official website at www.AsherHeimermann.com.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

1. I don't understand

First you say he was mentioned, and then you ask if that's who was referred to.

[Marrah_G]

2. A little more iformation please. What movie, first of all?

[caledesi]

3. Funny, I thought the same thing! Referring to Obama. NT

[LWolf]

4. I didn't see the movie.

I've been saying "We need more than good speeches" since Obama declared his candidacy when the primaries kicked off; long before McCain became the last republican standing.

I'm still saying it. He's an eloquent speaker, no doubt. Unfortunately, his speeches either lack substance, relying on appeals to emotion and inspiration rather than substantive policy, or, when they do include more of substance, the substance is disappointingly centrist-right.

That has nothing to do with the movie that I haven't seen, but I'm sure I'm not the only voter to have noticed this. I'm also sure that any movie about a presidential election that is released at this time will relate to the current election. I don't think it's about Obama, though.

I'd remember that a film released in '08 wasn't filmed, or written in '08. This one started filming in July of '07, and was written in '06. Before we knew who would run in the primaries, let alone who would win. I don't think the writers were that prescient. It doesn't take psychic ability to know that this election will follow the same patterns, with the same themes, as all the rest.

Here's a short interview with them; they say they wrote it with the '04 election in mind. Much of what they noticed then still applies now:

<snip>

We had no idea, two years ago when writing Swing Vote, how close this election would be, how unified the country would seem in their dissatisfaction with the way things were going, or how badly people would need a good laugh.

Here's what we did know; the presidential election coming down to one vote seemed like a fun idea for a movie. We all had it drummed into us in school, you know, "Every vote counts." It's an ideal we want to believe in, even as we're being lulled into the cynical feeling that no matter who you vote for, nothing will change.

That sense of disillusionment plays out through the main characters in our film. Kevin Costner's character, Bud Johnson, is a good natured but disenfranchised single father in conflict with Molly, his over-informed, idealistic 12 year old daughter. That relationship seemed to reflect our own frustration; one representing acceptance of the way things are, the other representing the way things should be. Apathy vs. hope.

We were writing with memories of the 2004 election. "Swift-Boating" and "Flip-flopping," that race seemed like white noise, where the same hot button issues were dusted off and rehashed. A candidate would make a blunder one day, and a commercial would appear the next day exploiting it. Many people weren't voting for a candidate, they were voting against one. Government, both left and right, was incomprehensibly dysfunctional and the problems seemed too immense to wrap our heads around.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-michael-stern/writing-emswing-voteem_b_113934.html