Filmed over the last six months of the 2000 Presidential election, Phillip Seymour Hoffman starts documenting the campaign at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, but spends more time outside, in the street protests and police actions than in the orchestrated conventions. Hoffman shows an obvious distaste for money politics and the conservative right. He looks seedier and more disillusioned the campaign progresses. Eventually Hoffman seems most energized by the Ralph Nader campaign as an alternative to the nearly indistinguishable major parties. The high point of the film are the comments by Barney Frank who says that marches and demonstrations are largely a waste of time, and that the really effective political players such as the NRA and the AARP never bother with walk ins, sit-ins, shoot-ins or shuffles. In the interview with Jesse Jackson, Hoffman is too flustered to ask all of his questions.
Length 137 minutes
Philip Seymour Hoffman | Tim Robbins | Susan Sarandon | Michael Moore | Rosie O'Donnell | Jesse Jackson | Courtney Love | Ralph Nader | Ben Harper | Noam Chomsky | Harold Ford, Jr. | John Sellers | Christopher Shays | Bill Maher | Melissa Etheridge | Antonia Novello | Rudolph Giuliani | Ralph E. Reed, Jr. | Cheri Honkala | Pat Robertson | Patricia Ireland | Newt Gingrich | Jim Reese | Barney Frank | Tim Hutchinson | Jeff Johnston | Ed Robertson | Willie Nelson | Arlo Guthrie | Julia Butterfly Hill | Bonnie Raitt | Floyd Red Crow Westerman | Ben Cohen | Gary Johnson | Scott Weiland | Adora Obi Nweze | Robert Muhammad | Steve Earle | Greg Gladden | Bianca Jagger | John Kerry | Campbell Brown | Eddie Vedder | Mark Fritz | Rabbi Goldstein | Rosalyn Brodsky | Reed Anthony | William Baldwin | Robert Downey Jr. | Al Gore | Charlton Heston | Jesse Jackson Jr.