The Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story (2008)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story is a documentary film which premiered in 2008.

 

Lee Atwater (1951-1991) was an important and influential political consultant for the Republican Party in the 1970s and the 1980s. This film is about his life and his career and the role he played in American politics.

 

Here is some basic information about it:

 

** Writer and director: Stefan Forbes

** Producers: Stefan Forbes, Noland Walker and Tia Wou

** Run time: 86 minutes

 

Several persons are interviewed in the film. Here are the names (listed in alphabetical order):

 

** Eric Alterman - historian

** Lee Bandy – writer (The State)

** Jack Bass - writer

** Joe Conason - journalist 

 

** Tom DeLay – politician – Republican Party (Texas)

** Sam Donaldson – White House correspondent

** Kitty Dukakis – wife of Michael Dukakis

** Michael Dukakis – politician – former Governor of Massachusetts

 

** Henry Eichel – writer (Charlotte Observer)

** Tucker Eskew – Atwater aide

** Howard Fineman – senior editor (Newsweek)

** Chuck Jackson – Atwater friend and musician (R&B)

 

** Mary Matalin – Atwater aide 1988

** Jim McCabe – lifelong friend

** Terry McAuliffe – DNC chairman

** Robert D. Novak – television host

 

** Rich Peterson – Atwater friend

** Ishmael Reed – writer and media critic

** Ed Rollins – political consultant 

 

** Joe Sligh – friend and bandmate

** Roger Stone – Atwater friend and political consultant

** Tom Turnipseed – politician – former state Senator (South Carolina)

 

Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage allows us to meet the main character Lee Atwater who was no longer alive when the film was made.

 

Atwater was not a politician. But he knew something about American politics. He was the man behind the politician.

 

As a consultant, it was his task to help his candidate as much as possible. One way is to make your own candidate look good. Another way is to make the opponent look bad.

 

For Atwater, politics was a game; a game he had to win. He would use any trick in the book to promote his own candidate. He would even add some new tricks to the book. According to some observers, he wrote the book about dirty tricks in politics; how to run for public office and how to win.

 

In his short life, Atwater had two major hobbies or interests. The first was politics; the second was music. 

 

He liked the blues and he played in a blues band when he was a young man. As an adult, he would sometimes grab a guitar and jam with a band, but this did not happen so often.

 

In this film, the focus is on politics, but there are a few brief moments where we can see Atwater enjoy the music.

 

What do reviewers say about this film? Here are the results of three review aggregators:

 

66 percent = Meta

76 percent = IMDb

79 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)

93 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)

 

As you can see, the ratings are quite good. When you look at Rotten Tomatoes, you can see that there is a certain difference between the general audience and the professional critics. The critics like it more than the audience, but both groups are positive.

 

This is a common phenomenon, when we are talking about a documentary film. For the audience, a documentary film is often regarded as too slow to catch their full attention.

 

I like this film and I want to give it a good rating, but in this case, I have to side with the audience. I cannot follow the critics all the way to the top. Why not? Let me explain:

 

The film shows us how Atwater helped George Bush win the presidential election of 1988. He used a dirty trick. Maybe he could not make his own candidate look good, but he knew how to make his opponent look bad.

 

Atwater was the man behind the ad campaign which knocked the Democratic top candidate Michael Dukakis out of the race: the campaign about Willie Horton.

 

This was in 1988, shortly before the election took place. But what about the year before? In 1987, the Democratic front runner was Gary Hart. But in 1987 he suddenly dropped out of the race. How and why did this happen?

 

According to contemporary observers, Hart destroyed his own career when he met with Donna Rice.

 

All it took was one photo which showed Donna Rice and Gary Hart together.

 

This case is not mentioned in the film. But it should have been mentioned, because Atwater was the man who set the stage for Gary Hart’s political disaster.

 

Towards the end of his life, Atwater suffered from poor health. On his deathbed, he made several confessions and he apologized to some people whose career he had damaged or destroyed. One example was the story about how he had torpedoed the political career of Gary Hart. But this is not covered in the film.

 

I have to remove one star because of this flaw. Therefore, I think this film deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).

 

REFERENCES

 

Get Me Roger Stone

A documentary film which premiered in 2017.

 

For details about Gary Hart and Donna Rice and the role Lee Atwater played in this case, Google these names and several items will pop up, including this one:

 

James Fallows, “Was Gary Hart Set Up?”

The Atlantic, November 2018.

 

*****

 

 

Lee Atwater (1951-1991)

 

*****

 

 

Gary Hart and Donna Rice (1987)

The photo which destroyed his political career

Gary Hart is wearing a T-shirt with the words

Monkey Business - Crew

 

*****