The Last Campaign Review
Very Good
Not many documentarians aside from Michael Apted get an opportunity like this. In 1972, Wayne Ewing made a documentary (If Elected...) about an upstart state senator from West Virginia named Warren McGraw, who was running for the first time for elected office. The southern firecracker never missed an opportunity to spew vitriol, and McGraw dutifully captured his angst and emotion as he scraped out a victory.
In 2004, Ewing caught up with McGraw again. Now a justice in the state Supreme Court, McGraw found himself besieged by Republican attack ads, funded by big money to the tune of several million dollars. McGraw could barely keep up, kept his campaign as positive as possible, but ultimately didn't pull through. Ewing captures the same set of events -- the primary (which he wins) and the election (which he loses), and shows us exactly how modern politics has changed over the last 30 years, entirely for the worse.
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