Although the Rob Ford crack video is nowhere to be seen, the long-suffering mayor of Toronto could stand to take a course on scandal management. Unfortunately such a course is unavailable for the embattled mayor. Thus I have assembled a selection of five films, illustrating important techniques of scandal management: how to control the flow of information, how to eliminate witnesses, how to retire gracefully from the public eye, and how to throw a spectacular hissy fit.
J. Edgar (2011)
This film focus on John Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio), the first director of the FBI. By maintaining a rigid public image and slowly amassing a hoard of secrets concerning notorious figures including the Kennedy family, Martin Luther King, and a large smattering of political dissidents, he became untouchable. Presidents feared to impeach him.
Other than a typically skilled DiCaprio performance balancing the facets of Hoover’s personality, from the boisterous All-American hero of his public persona to his deeply set mommy issues, J. Edgar is a muddy film that goes nowhere. It wasn’t thrilling, it wasn’t emotionally moving, and it didn’t make me think deeply about the human condition. For as fascinating a public figure as Hoover, Eastwood chose to portray his many foibles as ultimately inconsequential, and the man as an enigma to both himself and the audience.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of killing his wife, and is sentenced to life in Shawshank prison. He maintains his innocence, just like most of the criminals in the prison, and tries to eke out a tolerable existence within its walls by performing accounting favours for Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton). Unfortunately the warden finds Andy so indispensable that he’ll go to any means to keep his favourite prisoner around. Morgan Freeman narrates.
The Shawshank Redemption actually manages to be inspiring without dipping into saccharine sentiment or the endless well of tears. This feat was accomplished through a bleak environment, a protagonist who is steadfast in his determination and principles, and by using Morgan Freeman to narrate.
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Sully (John Goodman) and Mike (Billy Crystal) are best friends. They work at an energy plant in Monstropolis, which runs on the screams of children. One day their workplace is torn apart by an industrial accident that releases a foreign biological organism into the facility. As they try to cover up their little accident, Mike and Sully stumble upon a darker secret lurking in the bowels of the plant.
Ahh, Pixar. Tackling corporate responsibility and ethical business practices one movie at a time. Monsters, Inc. is a solid entry in the Pixar canon, and isn’t the least bit heavy handed about the ills of forcibly reassigning troublesome employees, silencing witnesses, and lack of transparent and well-documented scientific research. In fact you might almost believe that the message of Monsters, Inc. is that friendship and honesty shall always prosper.
Citizen Kane (1941)
An investigative reporter (William Alland) struggles to understand the career of newspaper mogul Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles, also directing). As the reporter delves through Kane’s childhood in a boarding house, the icy relationship with his first wife (Ruth Warrick), and the operatic career of his second (Dorothy Comingore), he slowly uncovers what lay beneath the sparkling façade of the man who had it all.
The most noticeable thing about Citizen Kane is how well the characters enunciate, and how poorly this translates to transmitting emotion. Apart from the role of Welles as the enormously lonely multimillionaire, I found the acting style of the time too stage-like and thus artificial. However, it did lend to clear and snappy exposition, which wraps itself up when a reporter sadly declares to his audience – both onscreen and off it – that Charles Foster Kane died a very unhappy man. The second most noticeable thing is the awareness that Welles puts into framing and lighting his shots. It was amazing to see so many of the classic poses and angles within the two hours of this movie. Of note are the time-lapse sequences used to illustrate the breakdown of Kane’s first marriage and his second wife’s sanity.
The plot is the least interesting thing about this movie.
Notes on a Scandal (2006)
Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is a cynical British schoolteacher with an unhealthy fixation on the new art teacher, Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett). During a school talent show she spies on Sheba engaging in an affair with a 15 year old student (Andrew Simpson), and resolves to use this information so that Barbara and Sheba can be best friends forever. Together they descend into a chaotic spiral of codependence, with Barbara convinced she has the upper hand in orchestrating the exposé of the whole fiasco, and Sheba equally convinced that Barbara is her best and only friend in a crisis.
Notes on a Scandal is a wicked pleasure to watch, thanks to its leads. Dench sizzles with envy, resentment, and denial: a life as a lonely cat lady does not suit her well. Blanchett balances confusion, self-pity, and waifish grace as an art teacher who suspects she deserves more than her lot in life. Will you be rooting for Barbara to emotionally ensnare Sheba for good? Or will you be rooting for Sheba to do the right thing, end her affair, and expose Barbara as a conniving and bitter hag? It is with glee that I tell you that no happy ending awaits anyone at the end of this movie.
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