'Primary Colors' holds up well. It's a trip of 90's nostalgia and yet it's questions and themes are still very relevant in the Trump age. It takes us back to a simpler time when our gravest concern was Clinton's promiscuity. I like the dilemma of the film as to whether our lead character Henry Burton can look past the fact that the Clinton standee is a reprehensible scumbag to embrace his ability to win voters. I feel as if it's the crux of being a liberal in this country. The cast is what sells the film because there is so much danger of venturing off into caricature here. For the most part I think the film navigates that tight rope pretty well. The main stand out is Travolta in arguably his career best performance. His Jack Stanton challenges the audience as we can at both times appreciate and loath him. Travolta is particularly good at showing that so much of the character is a facade. The best scene is when he flips out in a restroom after getting some bad news. Emma Thompson is also excellent as Jack's long suffering wife Susan who while angry at her husband is willing to buckle down and withstand his many character faults if it means having her ambitions fulfilled.It's a very on the nose movie. I'll compare it to a later(but much worse) Nichol's film, Charlie Wilson's War. Both films are politically charged but there is a nuance to them that Nichols really doesn't seem to appreciate at times. He is fortunate in that Adrian Lester really is wonderful at relaying the conflict his character is going through. There's an ending to the film that I feel must have been added in post-production where the moral dilemma is for lack of a better word resolved. He should have left the audience hanging.

Bill Clinton was a mixed bag as a president, on one hand, he did sign into law, welfare reform, and the 1994 federal crime bill after the GOP took over both houses of congress in 1994.On the other hand, Bill Clinton became the second president in US history to be impeached by the US House of Representatives for lying under oath to a federal grand jury and for obstruction of justice. he also lost his Arkansas law license, and has to pay a large fine for sexually harassing Paula Jones.He is also accused of raping several women while governor of Arkansas.Primary Colors, which was released during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998, highlights and parodies Bill Clinton's 1992 run for the White House. Bill Clinton can connect with working people, who were suffering under the 1992 recession. but pulls a lot of unethical tricks and stabs people in the back to win the White House. He completely backstabs his opponents with no regard for their wellbeing whatsoeverPrimary Colors shows how curthroat the world of politics really is and it's definitely a highly recommended film and a piece of history as well.

Over 20 years before a film like Primary Colors could even be conceived, a young Italian heart-throb was breaking box office records with a film which defined the Disco era: the film was Saturday Night Fever, and the movie star was John Travolta. The year: 1977. Fast-forward 20 years. Disco was over, and the New York suburbanite whose career declined in the 1980's, often labeled a one-trick pony, had a resurgence in the 1990's. Travolta went from movie star to actor, and Primary Colors is no question Travolta's best effort.Rather than playing a New York street-smart and club hustler, Travolta dons the garb of a cheeky Midwestern politician, Jack Stanton, a Midwest governor who rings a helluva lot like Bill Clinton. His auspicious wife, Susan Stanton (played stride-for-stride by the incomparable Emma Thompson) has the intelligence and no nonsense drive which rings a lot like Hillary Clinton. Together, they are on the road to capture the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States. Adrian Lester in a superb and entirely convincing performance plays the straight man Henry Burton, a new-comer to the campaign. Throughout the entire film, we see the Stantons through Burton's eyes, which are at first enthralled, smitten, and eventually disillusioned with not only the shortcomings of Jack Stanton but the entire political process.Burton is pulled into the process even before he has committed himself. He accompanies Stanton on all the primary stops, staying in cheap hotels and constantly eating out. At one point he says he's never been involved in a political campaign, to which Susan Stanton replies "Neither have we." He sets up speech venues, and campaign headquarters. He also makes a few blunders along the way, neglecting to be informed about an appearance by one of their opponents. Stanton is so livid, he throws his cell phone out the window. Stanton seems to have all the qualities for making a good presidential candidate. He is highly intelligent yet personable at the one-on-one level. He is an effective debater and speaker. And he has a winning personality that the electorate can admire, even adore. But Stanton has a secret. When given the chance to engage in an extra-marital affair, he can't seem to stop himself. As the campaign progresses, Stanton's sexual history starts to come to the fore. Burton, Richard Lemmons the campaign manager (Billy Bob Thorton), and private investigator Libby Holden (Kathy Bates) must do their best to pick up the pieces and clean up for Stanton. Or at the least, they have to figure out what the press might find and beat them to it, like a wild boar stocking prey as they are characterized.All the leads and supports are par excellence. The unexpected stand-out of the cast is John Travolta who really captured the mannerisms, gestures, and speech of Bill Clinton, a.k.a. Jack Stanton. He really seems a Midwestern WASP rather than an NY Italian. Because the rest of the cast is so strong, the cast keeps up with Travolta line-for-line. High marks go to Adrian Lester as the campaign organizer Henry who loses first his girlfriend, then later his sense of morality when he signs onto the campaign. Emma Thompson can't be beat as Susan Stanton, a.k.a. Hillary Clinton. Billy Bob Thorton's character is essentially James Carvill, the southern democrat who was Clinton's campaign manager, the equivalent of Karl Rove.Unlike many other industrialized countries, the US electorate desires their politicians to have relatively clean records in areas which have nothing to do with politics. Extra-marital affairs are absolutely taboo for US Presidents yet very common among leaders in Europe. (I've heard having a mistress is a prerequisite for the Prime Minister of France.) Stanton is essentially Bill Clinton by another name. Clinton was and is a brilliant politician, but he couldn't keep his pants zipped while campaigning for and occupying national office. But somehow he made it work.

What on paper sounds like the ingredients of a smart, snappy political satire instead makes for an over-long and lifeless dud of a movie.Mike Nichols directs John Travolta and Emma Thompson as a political couple clearly modeled on Bill and Hillary Clinton as they make their bid for President and First Lady of the U.S. But the movie has no spark at all, and it drifts aimlessly and lethargically to its conclusion.The only person who is able to breathe some life into the proceedings is Kathy Bates as a firecracker of a political consultant. Once she departs the film, her presence is sorely missed.Grade: C-