The Candidate

The unsung Michael Ritchie, responsible for some of the most trenchant satires of the 1970s (including the beauty-pageant send-up Smile), helms this on-point study of Nixon-era political machinations. Redford is Bill McKay, an idealistic lawyer persuaded to run for Senate on his principles, convinced he has no chance of defeating the incumbent. As his campaign gains traction, he’s forced to rethink his platform. Redford commissioned the project and served as uncredited producer, hiring Ritchie (a former technical advisor on various political campaigns) and screenwriter Jeremy Lartner, who wrote speeches for presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy in 1968. Lartner’s script, capped by a closing line that perfectly echoed the national mood, earned an Academy Award. Contemporaneous to the film’s release, the fictional McKay received write-in votes in the California Presidential primary!