COMMENTARY | The trailer for the upcoming HBO drama "Game Change," starring Julianne Moore as Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is out. The film is based on a book by the same name by Mark Halperin on the 2008 presidential campaign.
The film, written and directed by the same people who did "Recount," another HBO film that purported to tell the story of the recount fiasco in the wake of the 2000 election, seems to focus on the Palin story as opposed to-say-the Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton brawl. This was a wise decision, though it was possibly informed by the idea that Palin would be a presidential candidate by the time the film is released this spring.
Ed Harris appears at John McCain, the republican presidential candidate, and Woody Harrelson is Steven Schmidt, his campaign manager. But it is Moore who steals the show in the brief moment that she walks on stage as Palin. She seems to have the physicality and mannerism of Palin spot on. This is no Tina Fey parody, though it may be some other kind of parody.
Nevertheless, it is an article of faith in righty circles that "Game Change" will be a hatchet job on Palin. The source material, Palin's own testimony, was a smear from one end to the other, according to Politico. The account was thinly sourced, according to Big Hollywood, and seemed designed to cast Palin as the cause of the defeat of the Republican ticket.
If "Game Change" takes this route, it will be part of a pattern. "Recount" depicted Katherine Harris, the then Florida Secretary of State, as a dingbat and religious fruitcake. That seems to be the default depiction for conservative women in Hollywood.
This is not to say that the baptism by fire of Palin in national politics does not make for a worthy drama. From the electrifying convention speech to the disastrous Katie Couric interview to the thumping she gave Joe Biden in the Vice Presidential debate, the story has equal parts triumph and tragedy.
The end of the 2008 campaign, though, is just one episode in Palin's story and is certainly not the end. Maybe someday someone will do a film of "Going Rogue," Palin's memoir. But knowing Hollywood, maybe pigs will also fly.
Sources: Game Change Trailer, YouTube
Game Change, IMDB
Recount, IMDB
Palin attacks book; Reid regrets, Mike Allen, Politico, Jan 9, 2010
Trailer Talk: HBO's 'Game Change' Is All About Sarah Palin, John Nolte, Big Hollywood, Dec 21, 2011
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