'Boogie Man' director says McCain is using Atwater's playbook (HWT)

By Steve Mason

�I think until Democrats take Lee Atwater seriously and study his playbook, they�re going to have a hard time on the national level.� That�s what filmmaker Stefan Forbes told me in a telephone conversation Thursday as his new documentary "Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story" (Inter Positive Media) is set to open in Los Angeles and Columbia, South Carolina this weekend.

The movie chronicles the life of brilliant Republican political consultant Lee Atwater who rose to power in the 1970s and 1980s and reached his pinnacle by masterminding President Herbert Walker Bush�s defeat of Michael Dukakis in the 1988 Presidential election. Soon after the victory, he was named Chairman of the Republican National Committee, but he was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1990 and died in March of 1991.

Atwater was a win-at-all-costs genius, who said of Michael Dukakis, that he �would strip the bark off the little bastard� and that he would �make Willie Horton his running mate.� As a political junkie myself, I can honestly say that if you do not know the story of Lee Atwater, you cannot understand modern American politics. �Lee was America,� Forbes told me. �He embodied people�s fears and hope. America loves a gangster and America likes to get down on its knees and pray about it on Sunday morning.�

And as the story goes Atwater did pray about it. While dying, he went through what�s been called a �deathbed conversion,� apologizing to Dukakis for the �naked cruelty� of some of his remarks.

"Boogie Man features an appearance by the former Democratic Presidential candidate reading portions of the apology letter from Atwater. Forbes says, �It�s clear that Atwater was desperately searching for the truth and terrified of going to hell.� As for whether his near-death spiritual journey was genuine, he says that �Lee�s closest friends and other elite strategists disagree.�

Conservatives are divided over "Boogie Man." Renown Republican operatives Ed Rollins and Roger Stone have both been positive, former McCain adviser Mike Murphy has been less enthusiastic (he told Forbes after a recent appearance on MSNBC�s "Morning Joe" that �it was good until you put all of those liberals on in the second half�) and, so far at least, members of the Bush family and Atwater prot�g� Karl Rove have been mum.

"Boogie Man" opened last Friday at Cinema Village in New York City and E Street Cinema in Washington DC and managed a $5,500 Per Theater Average for the weekend despite losing a huge chunk of Friday business because of the first Presidential debate.

It is adding the biggest arthouse in Atwater�s home state of South Carolina, The Nickelodeon in Columbia, along with the Sunset 5 in Los Angeles this weekend. The release is being mounted by Forbes� production company Inter Positive Media because he wanted to get it into theaters during the current election season, but he says �with a limited ad budget, it�s a miracle that it is even on screen. We�re relying on word-of-mouth, viral marketing and free print coverage like last week�s New York Times editorial.�

The director believes that Senator John McCain�s campaign is borrowing from the Atwater playbook. �Most Democratic strategists have been blind to the way emotional appeal and culture war tactics seem to trump issues every time. Perhaps the desperate situation with the economy will change that, but I�m not holding my breath. They have successfully portrayed Obama as an elitist who doesn�t care about God or the country as much as McCain. It�s pretty hard to get elected President in America if they�ve taken patriotism, the flag and God away from you. They�ve done it to Obama this year the way that Atwater did it to Dukakis in 1988.�

Fort my money, this is the best �inside baseball� political documentary since 1993�s "The War Room," which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Academy Award buzz is ticking up for "Boogie Man," and there is a real chance that it will be one of the five Best Doc nominees.

Interestingly, there is a very strong field of biographical documentaries this year with remarkable subjects like Atwater, Roman Polanski ("Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired"), Hunter S. Thompson ("Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson") and high-wire walker Philippe Petit ("Man On Wire").