Florida, 2000, Hanging Chads: Deja Vu
If this year’s never-ending primary season has made you wonder about the virtues of the electoral process, just remember: It could always be worse. {And I would be willing to venture most of us remember exactly when it was — in the Fall of 2000} Fortunately, it’s been documented through HBO’s upcoming made-for-TV movie “Recount” (premiering 5/25), which revisits the chaos in Florida following the 2000 presidential election. It’s being called a “surprisingly suspenseful and darkly comic tale in an event whose outcome is never in doubt.”
Told primarily from the perspective of Al Gore’s chief of staff, Ron Klain (played by Kevin Spacey), Recount illustrates how both Democratic and Republican operatives tried to use tactics legal and otherwise to their advantage in the aftermath of the all-but-tied Florida vote. Brilliant performances abound, particularly Laura Dern’s devilish send-up of the memorably self-involved Katherine Harris, the Florida secretary of state, and Tom Wilkinson’s dead-on portrayal of James Baker, the Bush family’s relentless consigliere. But you don’t have to be a politics wonk to appreciate the excruciatingly accurate scenes that remind you, again and again, how history very nearly could have gone in a completely different direction. {After watching the trailer, I have one comment: “Wow”} [via VSL]
