Movie Suggestion: The Campaign

The Campaign is a classic Will Ferrell movie about a political campaign taking place in North Carolina. The powerful incumbent (played by Ferrell) finds himself in a race against a naïve opponent who could never stand a chance of winning under normal conditions. However, Will Ferrell’s character starts to crack under the pressure and not do as well as he normally would. This is a story of the underdog giving his competitor a run for his money.
 
Once again, I’m going refer to Frye’s quote “comedy is designed not to condemn evil, but to ridicule a lack of self-knowledge” to analyze this movie. The lack of self-knowledge addressed here is the fact that political races can be extremely corrupt. The whole reason there is suddenly someone else in the race is because a large company is trying to take over the district and needs a new pawn to do their bidding. While real life politics are not exactly like this, some truth can be drawn from it. Another aspect that is portrayed is how voters often respond to cheap tricks and sensationalism. During most of their campaigning, they rarely talk about the actual issues. Instead, they try to appeal to the religious views of the voters and try to outdo each other. Outrageous claims are also made about one of them being in cahoots with the Tailban. How many people remember when Obama was running for President the first time and there were concerns raised about his middle name being Hussein? It looks like the movie really isn’t too far-fetched sometimes.

Overall, this movie is hilarious but still teaches some important lessons about politics.