A Night at the Movies: Hollywood Goes to Washington

A Night at the Movies: Hollywood Goes to Washington (2012)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This episode in Turner Classic Movies on-going series of documentaries takes a look at political films that Hollywood has turned out over the years. A large number of people are interviewed including Oliver Stone, Rob Reiner, James Cromwell, James Carville, Bob Gale and Illeana Douglas among others. Like most films in this series, one really doesn't learn anything here as we basically have people telling us about various political films like FAIL SAFE, THE American PRESIDENT, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, JFK, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and others while the entire time ruining each of their endings. If you've never seen any of these political movies and they start discussing it then it would be smart for you to hit the fast forward button because the endings are usually either told or shown. For the most part this is a mildly entertaining documentary but if you're already familiar with the films in question then you're certainly not going to learn anything new. I mean, did we need another film to tell us that JFK was controversial? So, since the film really isn't for those who have seen the movies and since this film gives away the endings to so many classics, it's hard to really say who this was intended for.