OT/MISC Has anyone seen the movie "A Face in the Crowd?" (Sounds like a must see)

I've heard it mentioned a couple times now in comparison to the rise of Obama.

Have Seen Maybe 20 Times Over 20 Years

For the life of me I can't think of the name of the main actor who starred in several successful tv series years later (Opies dad) darn I hate getting old. The movie is fascinating - watching how power corrupts and destroys so much - and how it's the people around someone who cause it to happen either by will or stupidity - or adoration, now THAT reminds me of Obama and the hero worship that surrounds him. By todays standards the movie may seem a little over the top - but when it's on the old movie channel I try and watch.

I voted for Obama in the primary but this inane acceptance of him as the second coming, and lately his pontificating as if he is the chosen one has really turned me off. His recent Iraq trip only made it worse.

knickgnat said:

For the life of me I can't think of the name of the main actor who starred in several successful tv series years later (Opies dad) darn I hate getting old. The movie is fascinating - watching how power corrupts and destroys so much - and how it's the people around someone who cause it to happen either by will or stupidity - or adoration, now THAT reminds me of Obama and the hero worship that surrounds him. By todays standards the movie may seem a little over the top - but when it's on the old movie channel I try and watch.

I voted for Obama in the primary but this inane acceptance of him as the second coming, and lately his pontificating as if he is the chosen one has really turned me off. His recent Iraq trip only made it worse.

Click to expand...

Thanks knickgnat,

I found it on Amazon and it sounds like a must see movie!

Here is a snipet of a review.

A Face in the Crowd, director Elia Kazan's criminally underrated 1956 political melodrama, tells the all-too plausible story of Lonsome Rhodes. Discovered by a local reporter (Patricia Neal) while spending time in a jail cell for vagrancy, Rhodes (Andy Griffith) is a drifter whose folsky charisma quickly makes him an instant celebrity. Soon, Rhodes has taken Neal as his lover and has his own television show where he gives out his home-spun opinions to a charmed nation. However, Rhodes is hardly the benevelolent country bumpkin that he presents himself to be. Instead, he is a power hungry meglomaniac who uses his fame to promote a fascist political organization. Much as he seduces a niave nation, he seduces a teenage cheerleader (Lee Remick) into being his bride. By the time that Neal and cynical television writer Walter Matthau come to realize the monster they've helped unleash on the world, it may indeed be too late.

http://www.amazon.com/Face-Crowd-An...ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1216933288&sr=1-1

At the end of the movie iirc, the microphone is left on and "Lonesome Rhodes" is left hanging with some utterances that he did not intend to go over the airwaves. Does that remind anyone of any politicians , past or present?