Since the teabaggers oozed to prominence last year, lots of people have brought up Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg’s brilliant 1957 filmA Face In The Crowd. It features Andy Griffith as a folksy right wing con man and proto-Beckian broadcaster, Lonesome Rhodes. It’s an analogy so perfect that Keith Olbermann pinned that moniker on Glenn Beck and left it there.
This morning I read a post by regular First Draft commenterSouthern Beale that I wish that I’d written. It’s about Tim Robbins’ 1992 film, Bob Roberts, which eerily foreshadowed the Tea Party movement down to the Revolutionary War gear and use of 1960’s New Left techniques in service of wingnuttery. Anyway, it’s a must-read post so follow this link.
Aww thanks for the link!!
Great post, dawlin’
devolution.
So true, SoBe… so true. I remember vaguely seeing the movie and what it was about way back when, but it is the little details that are bringing the scary comparison to life.
I just saw “Bob Roberts” for the first time a couple of months ago, and recommended it to a few people as rather prescient satire. I thought the co-opting of the `60s was remarkably clever (all of Roberts’ album titles are rip-offs of Bob Dylan’s early work).
I need to see it again. I saw at on the semi-big screen when it came out. Gore Vidal is wonderful as the Senator.