College Republicans Script Review

Last week, record turnout for the midterm elections shifted the balance of political power in the United States, swinging the pendulum of public opinion back to the GOP.  Despite Jon Stewart’s rally to remind Americans where the common ground exists, the election was a particularly insane clash of sniping and finger-pointing.  Rarely does political discourse become a meaningful debate anymore, never more evident than the regularly scheduled shouting matches the television networks pass off as news to fill their 24-hour cycles.

Swirling a veritable maelstrom of spin cycles is Fox News, whose “fair and balanced” motto is more of a punchline than a promise and whose slanted punditry is typically more provocative than it is informative.  It’s also a fitting new home for Republican political analyst and now Fox News contributor Karl Rove, the “architect” who made mudslinging an art form and is widely credited for the successful presidential campaigns of George W. Bush.

But before he was on Fox’s payroll, prior to becoming the Deputy Chief of Staff, and before he even met Bush Jr., Karl Rove, who never actually received a college diploma, was the chairman of the College Republican National Committee (CRNC).  It was there that Rove rubbed sharp elbows with the (then) Republican National Committee Chairman, George H.W. Bush, and it was on the campaign trail that he learned and cultivated the tactics he would later utilize in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history.

Underhanded methods, if newcomer Wes Jones’ screenplay College Republicans is to be believed.  The script about Rove’s formative years has been picking up steam headed into the vote for the 2010 Black List, a prestigious compilation of the most liked, un-produced screenplays in Hollywood.  The story chronicles the five month period in 1973 when Rove crisscrossed campuses in the South to garner support for the CRNC election.  Alongside him in the Ford Pinto was his campaign manager and mentor, Lee Atwater, the cunning Republican operative who managed George H.W. Bush’s run to the White House.

Austin’s own Richard Linklater has expressed interest in directing and, despite rumors he may play Rove, Shia LaBeouf is reportedly researching the role of Atwater.  LaBeouf is actually quite perfect for the charming, fast-talking part and the young actor seems hungry to prove himself now that his Transformers money train is grinding to a stop.

Rove is portrayed as a socially awkward dweeb, even more out of his element in the South, obsessed with politics and the power that comes with mastering them.  In a telling talk with Atwater, Rove dreams aloud of becoming chief advisor to the President “where the real power is” and of “making” a candidate, thus controlling them.  Atwater, by comparison, is a ruthless renegade, flying by the seat of his slacks, exploiting every loophole, and schmoozing in well-crafted doublespeak.  (Further described in Stefan Forbes’ fantastic documentary Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story).

In fact, College Republicans‘ wholly unlikable lead and the dynamic between Rove and his wild, more experienced partner is reminiscent of David Fincher’s zeitgeist-capturing Facebook movie, The Social Network, which first landed on its own “Black List” as a crackling, 162-page character piece by Aaron Sorkin.  But while Jones is a capable new screenwriter, he’s no Sorkin, and the dialogue lacks the same snappy rhythm and thematic cohesion.  It’s also far less likely to have the same appeal as its Internet-based counterpart, considering 9% of the electorate came from youth voters (18 to 29) in the 2010 midterms.

But the tone is closer to that of Oliver Stone’s W., a politico-comedy that reenacted bits of Bush’s life in order to satirize the 43rd President and those around him (including Rove).

The script reads like a wacky road trip movie at times, only instead of drunken shenanigans at frat houses or pulling pranks on sorority girls the pair is quoting Machiavelli and Sun Tzu to each other and digging through the trash of their opponent, Terry Dolan.  Good times.  Set against the backdrop of Nixon’s Watergate scandal, their “anything goes” attitude stretches from a little garbage grab to backroom deals, character assassination, delegate tampering, to full on fraud.  After one such dirty trick, Atwater delivers his famous quote: “We don’t talk about how we make sausage.”

Like its characters, the story doesn’t shy away from scandalous accusations, like Karl Rove’s father being a homosexual (revealed in James Moore and Wayne Slater’s book “The Architect”) and implications of racism and homophobia among the real-life players.  In one scene, a racially-charged conversation is rife with coded phrases like “forced busing” and “state’s rights,” part of the party’s emerging “Southern strategy” that Atwater commented candidly (and, at first, anonymously) on in 1981.

The research is commendable, but Jones’ aforementioned dialogue often plunges into political namedropping and campaign jargon.  It’s authentic considering the duo’s single-minded pursuits, but is likely to lose a few who may not be brushed up on their Republican Party history circa ’73.  Though a pep talk from Bill Clinton (then a professor at Arkansas University) is hilariously influential on Rove, even if it’s pure fiction.

Rove and Atwater’s motivations are clear, but ultimately the otherwise well-written College Republicans doesn’t thoroughly set the stakes.  A contentious race that, in hindsight, profoundly affected the trajectory of its character’s lives isn’t established as the career-making election it became, but more of a collection of privileged college kids full of themselves and drunk on their own perceived power.  As a result, the climax — when a rival delegate shouts “I move this committee certify Karl Rove has an ass for a face!” — doesn’t carry the same weight or excitement as its historical importance or narrow margin suggest.

Standard disclaimer: This should go without saying, but scripts often go through revisions before and during shooting.  These are simply my impressions of one specific draft.