Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Monday Movies Post

I've been negligent in doing these regularly, and I don't have a new one really ready to go, so I'm going to do a cheat...a list of ten of my favorite political characters.  Lots of new readers here (welcome!  thanks for stopping by -- stick around and enjoy the fun!), so I'll also, in the cases in which I've discussed the movie or show, include a link back to my old post...I'll also give each of them a quotation, because if you haven't said anything memorable, you're probably not really one of my favorite political characters.  In no particular order:

1. Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne -- I'm going to list the actors, because all of these are wonderful performances):
Suppression is the instrument of totalitarian dictatorship, we don't talk of that sort of thing in a free country. We simply take a democratic decision not to publish it.
2. Livia (Sian Phillips):
They won't allow me in [the Senate] because I am a woman, and they won't allow you in because you're a fool. That's strange, when you come to think of it, because it's filled with nothing but old women and fools. 
3. Skeeters (or: The Politician; William Demerest):

If it wasn't for graft, you'd get a very low type of people in politics.  Men without ambition.  Jellyfish!
4. C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney):

And don't be concerned with my exposure. I'm not your daughter. I'm the White House Press Secretary. 
(Yeah, it's not a great quote...really, this one is about 95% the actress, I think, but she's good enough to include).

5. King Henry V (pick one: Branagh? Sure):
We must bear all. O hard condition,
Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath
Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel
But his own wringing!


6. President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell):
Though in war, you only get killed once. In politics it can happen over and over. 
7. Boss James W. Gettys (Ray Collins):
I am not a gentleman. I don't even know what a gentleman is.  
8. Fred, The Mayor (Clarence Kolb):
The blasted nimrod... fishing, duck shooting! A guy who's done nothing for the last forty years but play pinochle gets elected governor and right away he thinks he's a Tarzan! 
9. Bill "The Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis):
That, my friends, is the minority vote. 
10. Senator Jay Billington Bulworth (Warren Beatty):
My guys are not stupid. They always put the big Jews on my schedule. You're mostly Jews, right? Three out of four of you?  [brandishes speech]
I bet Murphy put something bad about Farrakhan in here for you! 
And a bonus: The Intendant (Nana Visitor):
I could never make them understand, violence is a precision instrument. It's a scalpel, not a club.

1 comment:

  1. Kept forgetting to submit mine, in the ever-popular Musical Politician category:

    Charles Durning as the Governor in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
    The Buffalo Bills as the Town Council of River City, Iowa in The Music Man
    Howard Da Silva as Ben Marino in Fiorello! (OK, no movie for that one, but still worth mentioning)

    Hmm. I'm pretty sure there were more. What about Keenan Wynn as Senator Billboard Rawkins in Finian's Rainbow?

    Thanks,
    -V.

    ReplyDelete

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