From the New York Times: Warren Christopher, the former secretary of state who served as the public face of the Gore team in the early days of the recount effort, said this week that he believed the film, “Recount,” was “pure fiction” in its portrayal of him as a weak strategist unprepared to stand up to the aggressive tactics of James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state who was the chief Republican adviser.
William M. Daley, Mr. Gore’s campaign chairman, who helped to lead the Democratic recount team in Florida, said the film created misperceptions about the Gore team’s decision-making process. Mr. Gore, who oversaw the team from Washington, is largely absent from the film.
Even Mr. Baker questioned the portrayal of Mr. Christopher. The film, which has its premiere on May 25 on HBO, stars John Hurt as Mr. Christopher, Tom Wilkinson as Mr. Baker, Mitch Pileggi as Mr. Daley and Laura Dern as Katherine Harris, then the Florida secretary of state. As many dramatizations do, “Recount” includes invented scenes and dialogue. Neither Mr. Christopher nor Mr. Daley has seen the completed film, which has been sent to television reporters and critics for review. Mr. Baker, who has seen the film, said he reviewed a draft of the script before production began and requested changes that were incorporated into the film.
Mr. Christopher said he learned of the film from his tailor, who was asked by the filmmakers to reproduce one of Mr. Christopher’s suits. It contained events that never occurred, words I never spoke and decisions attributed to me that I never made.”
The film portrays Mr. Christopher as blocking attempts by other Gore advisers to rally protesters and to take the fight over disputed ballots to court. That characterization of Mr. Christopher has some support. Accounts published in The New York Times in 2000 characterized Mr. Christopher as urging caution and a disciplined approach to the recount.
Early reviews of “Recount” have been positive. Mr. Strong disputes that characterization. The film is Mr. Strong’s first produced screenplay. Mr. Strong gave several people depicted in the film the opportunity to review the script before filming began. Mr. Klain said the film “gets the big things right,” but faults its portrait of Mr. Christopher. Mr. Christopher and Mr. Daley were interviewed by the film’s creators only after filming began. Mr. Christopher said he was told that scenes involving his character had already been filmed; Mr. Strong denied that, saying the scenes were to be filmed that day.
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One Comment
Anonymous said…
The film is fantasy wrapped in documentary SaranWrap. Truthiness ambodied.
The script is the first effort of one Danny Strong, heretofore best known for appearances in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Gilmore Girls. Needless to say, Danny was looking to carve a new career path. He obviously decided that sexing up the facts of the 2000 recount was the way to draw some attention. And HBO bit. The result? A melange of fact and fiction that does injustice to both. His storyline has Bush winning the recount because a bunch of Dems on the ground in Tallahassee (save and except for one brave warrior) wimped out. Never mind that all of the key decisions were made by one guy and one guy only–Al Gore. Never mind that every Democratic operative in Florida worked his or her heart out to keep the GOP from stealing the election. No. For Mr. Strong needed wimps–and he selected Warren Christopher and Bill Daley for the roles.
It took some genuine chutzpah to bring it off.In the NYT story published yesterday, Strong admits to waiting to contact Christopher until the the day the scenes involving his character were shot. He also admits not giving Christopher a copy of the script, even though he did so for Jim Baker and Ron Klain,who were also allowed to give notes and to veto lines and scenes. Danny wants us to believe he had the time to find and commission Christopher’s tailor to make a suit for Christopher’s character, but was too busy to talk to the guy whose measurements he was using. Strong would have been better advised to make his first screenwriting foray a docudrama about what “really” happened on the Buffy set. Even better, the guy should be banned for ten years from coming within five hundred yards of a film project involving real people and real events.
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