Gary Sinise delivers a superb performance in the biographical television film George Wallace. I well remember Wallace from back in the sixties and Sinise is so good in the part you think you're seeing home movies of Wallace, albeit a slightly skinnier version.No southern politician since Huey Long had the impact of Wallace on the national scene. He was a product of the white backlash to the Brown vs. Board of Education School integration decision of the Supreme Court. Wallace, previously a moderate who lost a gubernatorial primary in 1958, courted the die-hard segregationist vote in 1962 and won the first of several terms as Governor of Alabama. It was a platform that he used to rattle both the Democratic and Republican parties for several years.He unleashed a lot of dark and evil forces beyond even what he knew and maybe he never realized the full extent of them even after the attempted assassination of him at a presidential campaign rally in Laurel, Maryland in 1972. But he had to come to grips with pain and suffering as he never did before and maybe he caught a bit of empathy for those of the disenfranchised he'd demagogued against previously.It is a fact that the former poster boy for race segregation got a large amount of black support in his final race for Governor in 1986.Sinise is aided and abetted by good performances by Clarence Williams, III who serves as a kind of Greek Chorus, a fictional black servant at the Governor's mansion who is Wallace's sounding board as neither his two wives became. Mare Winningham who is the small town girl Lurleen who he married and who just wanted a normal home life. She became part of his ambitions when she was elected Governor herself in a ploy to get around Alabama's term limit law. Winningham is as I remember Lurleen Wallace and conceive of what she was like in her private life. Angelina Jolie in a break out role for her plays Wallace's second wife Cornelia who was the niece of former Governor Jim Folsom played her ably by Joe Don Baker. After Wallace was shot and paralyzed and lost the control of a number of lower body functions, she tries as best she can to adjust. A whole lot is against it though in both her's and his personalities.George Wallace is a much better than average made for TV product, it probably should have gotten a theatrical release. It's a portrait of some dark corners of America and shouldn't be missed.

George Wallace is a wonderful piece of cinema portraying the life of the politician who became Governor of the state of Alabama. The film starts with a campaign and ends with repentance, showing how suffering can change a man. Intertwined with news features from the time and capturing moments like the Selma march and Martin Luther King and his "dream" speech, the film portrays life in this turbulent period of American history to perfection. For lovers of political dramas this is an excellent film, starring the excellent Gary Sinise as Wallace for which he won an Emmy and directed by John Frankenheimer. The film also stars Angelina Jolie and Joe Don Baker.

I had to order this movie online to see it, as it has disappeared from local video stores up here in the "progressive" Northeast. Since it was made only in 1997 and much older films are still readily accessible one wonders if perhaps the reason for its scarcity up here is its presentation of Wallace as something other than the standard, portrait of an ignorant, cardboard cutout racist, a conception which make the liberal New England chest swell with self-satisfied, holier-than-thou virtue. I remember seeing, years ago, video coverage on the evening news of Wallace's farewell speech as governor to the Alabama state house employees. As the cameras panned over the crowd - vastly minority - tears were streaming down as many black faces as white. I knew then that there was an untold story here. This, one of the brilliant John Frankenheimer's last productions, tells that story. The acting, pacing, dramatic line and production values are all first rate.One would have wished for a bit more time given to the apoplexy which Wallace's presidential drives in the 60's gave to the powers-that-be in both parties. We forget that Wallace's successes in the northeast as a candidate who articulated the disenfranchisement felt by the middle class, was a huge factor in the movement of the country away from LBJ liberalism and towards conservatism, culminating in the elections of Richard Nixon (himself no conservative, though he ran as one) and ultimately Ronald Reagan. An iconoclastic film which deserves all the awards it received. Just don't try to find in the video stores north of the Mason/Dixon line.

She steals every scene she is in and oozes sensuality all over the screen. Mark my words - she will be a major star and actress of the next decade. He also gives a powerhouse performance of a controversial historical figure. John Frankenheimer directs the movie with a knowing and sure hand. Fascinating and informative movie of a pivotal moment in America's history and the relation of the races.