I had seen the 'War Room' referred to in at least two articles I've read in past months dealing with the Clinton/Trump presidential race. Now, having seen it I wonder why it was mentioned at all. An incredibly superficial ninety-six minutes of film clips strung together with no commentary or on-screen captions to reveal dates, locations or personalities. Plenty of shots of Carville on the phone but as the person he's speaking to isn't heard it's a bit like reading only the left-hand pages of a novel because all the right-hand pages are blank. Lots of clips of people talking to each other but mostly breezy chit-chat and laughter with no real substance to help the viewer understand what was going on.No doubt this visual stream of consciousness style of documentary can deliver a coherent movie on any subject but it would take a director's skill and planning to make it work, if the 'War Room' is the best of the hours and hours of shot material I reckon it's a dismal failure and I doubt many of the folk who sat through it all will see it twice.

Although Bill Clinton became president of the United States, it was James Carville and George Stephanopolous won the elections in 1992. That seems to be what Hegedus and Pennebaker are telling us in their documentary The War Room, and for what it looks like, it must have been true. The democrats hadn't won an election in a long time. They, as people in charge of the Bill Vlinton electoral campaign changed the way campaigns would be run and seen. Or did they? History tells us that presidents have aways liked being presidents! They always tried to reach the audiences, always tried to use all the media at their disposals in the best of ways, and there always were people that managed their image and wrote their scripts. The premise seems to be pretentious and wrong. It is true, however, that this is possibly the one and only documentary that gives us such an insight of the organizing committee of a presidential campaign, and it is very interesting to see how things are run, and how people think. They are the underrated heroes. Before Clinton does anything, they think of it. In fact, we hardly ever see Clinton ourselves, which further strengthens the fact that it was them who won the elections, not him.Pennebakes does what he does best: direct cinema. But in comparison to other direct cinema legendary films, this one is hard to get fully into. In fact, the scenes that we are allowed to get into through good editing and cinematography are great, but the rest is just annoying and confusing. Also, it's hard to keep track of all that goes on in the war room, and although that was never going to be easy to do, it should have been done better. Still, a lot of it is very good, and worth a look, because the concept, the most important thing in a direct cinema film, is very interesting, and now that we know how things ended, pleasant to watch (unless you're a republican...) WATCH FOR THE MOMENT - When Carville is asked by the media if Clinton went to Moscow. "Yes" answers Carville. He knows exactly what is doing.

I first saw this at Doc Films at the University of Chicago. I was expecting it to be interesting, but dry. Wow, was I wrong. The entire audience was enthralled and frequently laughing their heads off. You couldn't make up comedic characters like these if you tried. James and George are just amazing. (Of course, there would be times where HALF the audience was laughing, split along party lines. :-) )The filmmakers also liven up the proceedings with good choices of music and little bits of Americana tossed in here and there. Invite over all your political junkie friends, get a few beers, rent this movie, and enjoy.

This movie / documentary gives you an impression about what has been cooked before it's served. It's the kitchen and you see the master boiling more than eggs alone. The intriguing part of it all is the simplicity in thinking mostly; it's a complex world, but it comes down to some simple things; polls, how to go about competition and for sure ... what's credible and what's not? The reality of politics ... for real!