Part of Weekend Classics: Robert Redford
In this timeless tale of contemporary politics, Robert Redford teams up again with director Michael Ritchie (see also DOWNHILL RACER (35mm)) to star as Bill McKay, an idealistic young activist who agrees to run for elected office, hoping to use the campaign to bring important issues into the public debate. But the truth gets buried as the political process transforms McKay into The Candidate. When McKay’s honesty and integrity captivate the electorate’s attention, his long-shot candidacy attracts the attention of the party machine, and McKay must decide whether he can effect a greater change as a part of the government — or retain his integrity and lose.
“Redford, who dominates the picture, has never been more assured or appealing…. He conveys all the doubts, all the self-deceptions and, ultimately, all the cynicism of a man who knows he has sold out for something he isn’t sure he really wants.” —Arthur Knight, Hollywood Reporter (Jun 20, 1972) “Redford’s superior acting talents, which not-often-enough are tapped by the scripts he decides to do, are nearly all on display herein in a virtuoso performance.” —Variety (Dec 31, 1972) “Screenwriter Jeremy Lardner earned an Oscar for THE CANDIDATE, a sharp, unsentimental, mordantly funny dissection of big-time politics. More surprising by far, though, was Robert Redford not receiving an Oscar nod after one of the strongest, most nuanced performances of his career…. What viewers will most clearly remember long after the screen goes dark is Redford’s sympathetic portrayal of a good man seduced by the mere prospect of power.” —Ben Cosgrove, TIME
