It takes guts to make a documentary with no narration or commentary, but that's what Hegedus and Pennebaker do in "The War Room." They capture, with as much fly-on-the-wall credibility as they can, the life of two key figures in a presidential campaign, from the early days of the primaries through the November election.
Without trying to sound arrogant, I have to say that this movie isn't for lightweights. For political junkies like me, though, it's a great film.
It's amazing to see the strategic mind of James Carville (who has had a small role in several movies, including "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford") working in real-time, as he throws out comments and develops ideas to give his candidate (Clinton) the best shot at winning.
Meanwhile, the communications director George Stephanopoulos is doing his best to spin and re-spin everything that gets in the way of the campaign.
There's one scene in which they need to edit a second out of a television spot, and Carville and Stephanopoulos argue about how exactly to change the wording and imagery so that it fits in the alloted time. On the one hand, it's hard to imagine that minutia being important over the long run of a campaign. At the same time, it becomes evident that their attention to that type of minutia gave them the ultimate advantage in the election.
There are a lot of political and historical references thrown out with no context or explanation, but which are central to understanding what is going on. There are references to Clinton's marital indiscretions and the "Whitewater Scandal" which almost de-railed his campaign, but none of these matters are delved into or explained. Rather, they're just there. At one point near the end, Stephanopolous is reading states and numbers off of sheets that are being faxed in (no e-mail for the Clinton campaign?), and we are led to conclude that these are the real-time results of the presidential election.
This is a fascinating movie if you're interested in the modern American political machine. It requires some mental gymnastics to follow exactly what is going on and what people are talking about. If you want to see a more entertaining cover of basically the same events, you may wish to check out Mike Nichols's "Primary Colors." But if fast-paced hardcore documentaries are your thing, then "The War Room" is one of the best of the best.
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