Faces in Crowds

I watched the 1957 movie classic “A Face in the Crowd” last night, and was reminded how excellent a filmic social commentator Budd Schulberg was. Today, the acting seems overheated and exaggerated; but the message resounds regarding modern media and politics and megalomaniacs.

That story was about a simplistic but charismatic rural rube who connected with the masses, was manipulated by media managers and eventually went haywire when his personal reach exceeded his political grasp. Substitute Lonesome Rhodes (played by Andy Griffith) with (roads to nowhere) Sarah Palin, cracker-barrel radio with Joe Six-pack television, and the comparisons are eerie. As Pam Platt noted in the Louisville, Ky., Courier-Journal, both characters — Lonesome and Sarah — were “little-known and little-vetted”; both resorted to empty slogans and the mess in Washington; both manipulated the common folks, whose ignorance they exploited; and both were “plucked from obscurity” and elevated to positions they were unqualified for. One hopes the modern character has the same fall from power that befell Lonesome.

Another perceptive critic, Thomas Belzer, also noted the relevance of “Face in the Crowd” to today’s politics. Lonesome railed about the elites while being managed by them — handlers, managers, corporate and political sponsors. One villain in “A Face in the Crowd” advised that “the masses had to be guided with a strong hand by a responsible elite.” Think Bush (W), McCain and Palin. Bush and Palin drop their G’s, play the country role, but aspire to be the elite they deplore to the masses. McCain and Palin also play the anti-intellectual card, taking in the masses, lying, demagoguing.

Nowadays, one can’t go to an old movie for escape, nor find it watching the daily news. No wonder late-night comics are the best relief.

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