Swing Vote - 1 Tub

I give this movie only one tub because people aren't coming to see it. It's a different kind of role for Kevin Costner, but he and every member of the cast did an outstanding job to get the message of the movie out there. So it's not only a mistake for people to not come see the movie, the lack of attention it is getting is a symptom of the very subject this movie addresses. First of all, this is a funny movie, but there is so much truth buried in Swing Vote that I was blown away on the drive home last night.

I was particularly impressed that someone in Hollywood actually had a clue as to what is going on in the world today - but obviously one or two do. Swing Vote is as accurate a depiction of the American political scene as has ever been done. It could have come at no better time.

Imagine if you will a nation so evenly divided against itself that there are no black and white issues any longer - everything is gray. Kelsey Grammer plays the incumband Republican President who is concerned with leaving a legacy he can be remembered by - as if being President isn't enough. Dennis Hopper is the Democratic nominee who is in a dead heat match up against his opponent. Both candidates are managed by handlers who are less concerned about what is best for the nation, but about winning the election and furthering their own political futures. Both are qualified, both got into politics because they thought they could make a difference, but find themselves in a system where you can't tell the difference between the two parties any longer. Sound like anything happening in the world today?

Throw in the average American - an apathetic unemployed drunk who thinks only of himself and his daughter. Kevin Costner, as Bud Johnson, represents the 50 percent of Americans who never show up at the polls. He doesn't have a clue what's going on outside his own little world. Then there's daughter Molly who represents the children who will inherit the world we give them. She cares, she's involved, but she has no voice - only the hope that her father will care enough to make her world better. She even has to vote for him because he's too drunk to show up at the polls. There's even one member of the media who has morals and character but is torn between doing what it takes to advance her career or hold on to her ethics.

When it turns out that the country is so divided that the decision is left to one vote in one insignificant town in an insignificant county in a state with only 5 electoral votes, both candidates descend on Texico, New Mexico to convince Bud to give them his vote. Whatever the media shows that Bud might care about, each candidate suddenly adopts that stance: the Republicans turn their back on corporate donors to protect a river and make the Sierra Club happy; Democrats suddenly take an anti-abortion stance. They send celebrities to campaign for them; they throw parties and offer gifts and make promises neither has the intention or ability to keep.

When the future of America rides on the vote of one person, suddenly people start getting involved. Bud is innundated by mail and gifts, asking him to speak for the common man. Unfortunately, he's too busy enjoying the handouts that he doesn't even realize that people are depending on him. Only Molly takes the time to read and to respond and to offer hope to people who've lost hope in our leadership.

At the last minute Bud listens to his daughter and takes his responsibilities seriously. He calls for a debate to allow each candidate, both of whom he's become fond of and who, by this time have come to realize that they've lost touch with their own values. The two candidates for the most powerful nation on earth are brought to an outdoor rodeo arena to tell why they are the best qualified to lead our nation. But first Bud has to come to grips with his own culpability. Bud apologizes to the country for not following his dreams, for not taking advantage of the many, many chances he had been afforded in life because he was born here. He apologizes for never serving, never giving back to the nation that had given him so much. And rather than ask his own questions about issues he really is not intelligent about, he asks questions from the people who've written him asking him to speak for them...the poor, those taken advantage of, those who've done the best that they can but still can't support their families even in the richest country on earth.

The following day as Bud and Molly walk into the voting center, Bud turns around and smiles at Molly before pulling the curtain and casting his vote. Apparently what he heard had given him peace about whom he should vote for. I wish it were that simple for us, that we were engaged and that we cared enough and were confident about the person we are going to elect this November.

It would behoove our two candidates running for office this year to watch Swing Vote and to take an honest look at themselves and determine whether they still have a grasp on what they stand for and whether they have the future of our nation as their number one priority. At some point I'm sure that both candidates were sure about their values and their vision and their ability to lead. They aren't evil men, just men overwhelmed by the complexity of the problems facing our nation; who don't really have the best advisors around them who share their vision for our nation. It would be nice for Senators McCain and Obama to walk into that office bound, not to party affiliation, but to the American ideal that is bigger than the Office of the President, bigger than the voters, bigger than free markets and social reforms. As Molly said in her social studies presentation, that if we don't do the right things now, we're doomed to go the way of all great cultures, doomed to bondage and insignificance.

Swing Vote doesn't pick sides, doesn't answer the most burning social issues; but what it does is to cause us to think about how we can "make a better country by being active changers and refusing to be passive observers... not just for ourselves, but for future generations" (Efrain Gomez - Hollywood Jesus).