"Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story" is about to open in theaters around the country. It is still playing at the Nickelodeon through October 14. For those of you who have not heard about the movie, it chronicles the rise and fall of S.C. native Lee Atwater. Atwater made his name as a win-at-all-costs campaign manager for George H.W. Bush and later as the chairman of the RNC.
The film follows Atwater from his early days in South Carolina through his death in 1991. Throughout the film, Atwater comes across as a lovable, yet sinister figure. Atwater was eulogized by James Baker as Machiavellian "in the best sense of the word." The film portrays Atwater as someone who was fiendishly adept at manipulating others, including the press, and who would stop at nothing to gain victory for his candidate.
For anyone who plans to vote on November 4, this movie is a must see. The ugly underbelly of election politics is juxtaposed with the dying plea of one of its most successful and ruthless purveyors that the slimy tactics must stop. It really makes you think, as a voter and a human being, about the process that elections have become. It makes you wonder how we allow our politicians to get away with being liars and thieves, with shirking any moral or ethical responsibility or dodging accountability through scapegoating others.
Atwater was a villain- there is no doubt about that. However the film has a way of humanizing the villain so that we can see ourselves in him. We can see our potential for evil, we can see our glaring imperfections, we can see how pathetic a life lived like Atwater's looks in the end.
