Word: rightness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Nobel-prize winning author Edwin O'Connor's 1956 novel, The Last Hurrah, into a theatrical event. Speckled with scheming politicos, snooty aristocrats and down-to-earth Irish-American folk, O'Connor's novel, a sweeping panorama of '50s Boston political scene, seemed a perfect recipe for dramatic success, right? Wrong...
...three-hour world of the theatre. There's Amos Force (Keith Perry), the conservative Yankee who will do whatever it takes to see the Irish mayor lose; Francis Jr. (John P. Arnold), the mayor's playboy, finger-snapping son; obsequious, bumbling Ditto (Paul Kerry), the mayor's would-be right-hand man, and so on, and so on. Though there is some fine acting in the mix, none of these characters is on stage long enough to provide more than a suggestion of local color. Indeed, since these minor players never develop beyond mere "snapshots," one wonders if The Last...
...center of the show, of course, is the mayoral candidate himself, Frank Skeffington, impressively brought to life by theatrical veteran Michael Ball. In his dignified portrayal of the aging political lion, Ball combines a shrewd mind with a tender heart to gain the audience's sympathy, achieving just the right balance of bravado and fragility. Alienated from his son and his own inner-life, Skeffington's whole identity lies within his political campaign--"the greatest show on Earth!"--so when he loses the election (trust me, I'm not giving anything away), he becomes physically and emotionally crippled. Certainly...
...anchor Mike Wallace, who expressed concern about Mann's streamlining of actual events. Upset about being portrayed as floundering morally next to Bergman's shining knight, Wallace fumed, "oh, how fortunate I am to have Lowell Bergman's moral tutelage to point me down the shining path." Mann turned right around, and had Wallace's fictional counterpart spout the same line in his film...
...Mann has certain responsibilities as a filmmaker, but he also has the right to tell a story; it is his decision on how to balance the obligations of fact and fiction, and hopefully he will respect the powers of each. "Wallace and Hewitt have criticized the film because it's Michael Mann's view of my perspective, or Wigand's perspective," Bergman says. Luckily, Mann, even with the dramatic license he takes, is still committed to telling the true story; but what if the next filmmaker who comes along decides to sacrifice fact for fiction's sake...