A Perfect Candidate (Documentary)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C Documentary: B+
Oliver
North, victim of scapegoating by the Reagan/Bush Administration or some hero
who thought trading armaments for hostages was his answer to do the right thing,
then lying about it? If you still think
hero and victim, wake up and watch A
Perfect Candidate (1996), how the quasi-Fascist phony nearly won a U.S.
Senate seat running against Democrat Charles Robb in Virginia.
The former
Marine becomes a follower-of-God-by-convenience as he comes up with some of the
worst revisionist history since Nazi Skinheads denied The Holocaust as he fakes
emotions and crying, especially when he discusses “the people” and how he
intends to stick by Jesus to play true believes in the state like Satan playing
a flute. As you can see, I have no
respect for North, cannot disrespect him enough, and have a whole new call to
do it after seeing him in action in such detail in the R.J. Cutler/David Van Taylor co-directed piece of key political
exposé.
The
videotaped image has been letterboxed at 1.85 X 1 as it was presented
theatrically. This is a soft
presentation, which would look worse on VHS and not very pretty in 35mm. That includes the many pieces of broadcast
video from the news media as they report the rise and fall of North and how he
nearly annexed Virginia.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo was mixed for a now-rare Dolby A-type
analog stereo release, but the soundtrack here offers no Pro Logic-type
surrounds. The extras include a solid
commentary by the directors that is informative enough to hear the whole way
through, four filmographies of those behind the scenes, five trailers for other
First run Features DVDs, four stills related to the documentary, and negative
reactions from both candidates to this work with a Robb Easter Egg gag. Just highlight his picture.
I love
how North’s arrogant team routed for themselves with pompous confidence,
including all the lies about himself, then how that sinks them and ruins
them. It is a great remedy to North
playing himself on the TV series JAG,
a show that lived briefly on NBC before becoming a forced hit on CBS. That he would be shown as a good (and God)
guy on a pro-military TV show is one of the greatest examples of why the “liberal
media” is a myth. Could you imagine a
Hitler adviser showing up as a good guy on a post-WWII German TV show? You may accuse this critic of abusing the
Nazi Analog, but A Perfect Candidate
never comes near it. It does not have
to, because the camera revealed all!
- Nicholas Sheffo
