Teach Game Change, for Example, I Would Ask the Students to Compare

1008 The Journal of American History December 2012 teach Game Change, for example, I would ask the film’s opening and closing scenes, that 41 the students to compare scenes from the film might be mistaken for a video promoting the to archived news footage of the same events beauty of Maine’scoast. on YouTube. Kennebunkport is also a summer home for The ultimate lesson to teach our students the Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub about a docudrama such as Game Change is (perhaps best known for producing The Karate that journalists covering the 2008 election Kid series [1984–1989] and Ocean’s Eleven used preexisting narratives—of the “new star,” [2001], Ocean’s Twelve [2004], and Ocean’s the “boxing match,” and the “fallen star”—to Thirteen [2007]). The Bush family has owned tell the candidates’ stories. Game Change also property in Kennebunkport since 1902—far shows how the news cycle became a narrative longer than the Weintraub family—but as the — in and of itself one that did make for a cap- story goes, the Bushes welcomed the Weintraubs tivating drama when re-created by Harrelson, when they first arrived in Kennebunkport nearly Moore, and Harris. fifty years ago; George and Jerry have been close In the end I would urge the use of well- friends ever since. Weintraub served as the exec- made docudramas in the classroom. We are utive producer for 41, which was first televised not (nor should we be) at the crossroads that ’ fi on June 14, 2012, two days after Bush seighty- Grif th imagined, where everything in our eighth birthday. classrooms is a moving picture. But teaching Anicerbirthdaygiftwouldbehardtofind. our students how to analyze the moving pic- Bush himself is frequently photographed from a tures that saturate our environment, how to flattering low angle as he either pilots his speed- understand how narratives such as Game boat or drives his golf cart, which is clearly Change reconstruct what happened, and how labeled—presumably in jest, but we do not news is often shaped according to predeter- know for sure—“Property of #41. Hands off!” mined narratives will make our students better More importantly, Bush does all of the talking historians and better citizens. in the film, based on exclusive access and a fi Kathy M. Newman series of interviews he granted the lmmakers. Carnegie Mellon University As a result, there are no other talking heads Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (not even his wife or his equally famous son) to comment on the successes or failures of his life doi: 10.1093/jahist/jas428 in public service—as a two-term congressman – 41. Dir. and prod. by Jeffrey Roth. Docu- from Texas (1967 1971), envoy to the United mentary Films, 2012. 100 mins. (http://www Nations (1971–1973), the chair of the Republi- .hbo.com/documentaries/41) can National Committee (1973–1974), U.S. ambassador to China (1974–1975), the director Any film that calls itself 41 will probably excite of the Central Intelligence Agency (1976– the arithmomania in even the most casual of 1977)—before becoming vice president under viewers who may suddenly find themselves Ronald Reagan and, finally, president. To be counting many items in this documentary sure, it is a distinguished résumé—but also one about George H. W. Bush, the forty-first presi- that deserves tougher scrutiny than this film dent of the United States. Shots of cute dogs: cares to offer. For instance, one of the soft ques- twenty-seven. Shots of the American flag in the tions we hear from off-camera is “why did you film’s first ten minutes: nine. References to leave your extremely successful business to run Michael Dukakis or Dan Quayle: zero (though for public office?” In response, Bush declares sharp-eyed viewers will spot Dukakis on an that he wanted “a challenge. Life is full of election-night television screen, and Quayle— challenges.” albeit unidentified—in a still with President Unfortunately, this film offers very few Bush). Shots of the surf off of Kennebunkport, challenges—letting Bush have his say even Maine: do not even try to count. There are so when his recollections cry out for follow-up many scenic views of the water, including in questions. When asked “What consequences Movie Reviews 1009 did Watergate have for our country?” Bush campaign’s use of advertisements featuring replies, Willie Horton. Those same viewers might also wish that he would reflect on the two-term Not particularly profound, when you look presidency of his son, George W. Bush (the at it in terms of the history. Other coun- forty-third president), especially his waging tries have had big problems, ethical prob- of war in Afghanistan and Iraq (following lems. But Watergate, itself, none that I up on his father’s campaign against Iraq in think of. And I think most people would 1991). Perhaps could create a new docu- agree with that assessment. Because life mentary and call it 43. Numerologists will goes on. You can’t stay mired in the past. point out that Kennebunkport lies on the Whether the filmmakers responded by pointing 43rd parallel north, so if this new documen- out the ways the Watergate scandal fundamen- tary were to be produced, there might be tally altered the bonds of trust between politi- some justification for so many scenic shots of cal leaders and the American electorate is the Maine seacoast. fi unrecorded. Instead, the lm immediately cuts James I. Deutsch to the more soothing image of a seagull resting Smithsonian Institution on a buoy in the waters off Kennebunkport. Washington, D.C. As a result, there is relatively little in this film that will be of much interest to historians. doi: 10.1093/jahist/jas505 Much of what Bush has to say for the camera is boring and predictable: he loves his family Paul Goodman Changed My Life.Dir.by and his dogs—but not his cats; and he loves Jonathan Lee. Prod. by Jonathan Lee, Kimberly Kennebunkport, where (cue the footage) “the Reed, Robert Hawk, and Israel Ehrisman. Zeit- ” geist Films, 2011. 89 mins. (http://www.paul sea is enchanting. Only occasionally does fi Bush reveal something about his personality, goodman lm.com) especially from the years before he entered “The most influential man you’ve never heard politics. As a teenager, for instance, he had ” admired a young woman who “wore a rubber of is the tagline promoting this documentary. ” Its invitation to identify a presumably impor- bathing suit to die for. As an undergraduate fi at Yale University, he would sneak up to the tant yet forgotten gure such as the social roof of his apartment building to peep at his critic, poet, and philosopher Paul Goodman – seventy-five-year-old landlady when she was (1911 1972) is also bound to tease intellec- standing naked in the shower. And, in a par- tual historians, who often face the problem of ticularly poignant sequence, he admits that he determining which circumstances account for profoundly mourned the loss of his daughter the impact of ideas and why some authors Robin, who died of leukemia shortly before sink from prominence into obscurity. Good- fi her fourth birthday in 1953. man indeed exempli es the caprices of fame. However, when it comes to his career in Even so, not one frame of this rather exas- politics, only a few sparks emerge. For perating film attempts to specify Goodman’s instance, Bush recalls how his job as the chair political and moral influence, how it was of the Republican National Committee was achieved, against what odds, and with the likened by Robert Strauss, his Democratic benefit of which predecessors or allies; nor counterpart, to “screwing a gorilla. You can’t does Paul Goodman Changed My Life expend stop till the gorilla wants to.” Viewers get a much effort to account for his posthumous rare glimpse of Bush’s frostiness when he oblivion. Eight years after his death, a surpris- coldly answers a question about Ross Perot ingly hostile monograph by Kingsley Widmer and the 1992 election: “Can’t talk about him. (Paul Goodman, 1980) appeared; no revision- Cost me the election, and I don’t like him. ist scholarship resulted. Even three decades Other than that, I have nothing to say.” afterward, no full-scale scholarly biography has Viewers with an interest in history might appeared, and so for the moment the resurrec- wish that Bush did have something more to tion of Goodman’s reputation must depend— say about the 1992 election, or even his 1988 rather shakily—on Jonathan Lee’s film. 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