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Movies / Upcoming / Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story

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Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story (2008)

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Reviews Counted:27

Fresh:25

Rotten:2

Average Rating:7.5/10

Consensus: Boogie Man is a complex, absorbing study of the contradictory life and times of architect of modern smear politics.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 86 mins

Genre: Education/General Interest

Theatrical Release:Sep 26, 2008 Limited

Synopsis: Boogie Man is a comprehensive look at Lee Atwater, the blues-playing rogue whose rambunctious rise from the South to Chairman of the GOP made him a household name. He mentored Karl Rove and George... Boogie Man is a comprehensive look at Lee Atwater, the blues-playing rogue whose rambunctious rise from the South to Chairman of the GOP made him a household name. He mentored Karl Rove and George W. Bush and played a key role in the elections of Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He wrote the Republican Party’s winning playbook which the McCain campaign is currently using.

In eye-opening interviews with Atwater's closest friends and enemies, Boogie Man re-examines Atwater’s crucial role in the remaking of the Republican Party. To Democrats offended by his cutthroat style (to say nothing of the 1988 Willie Horton controversy), Atwater was a political assassin dubbed by one Congresswoman "the most evil man in America." But to most Republicans he remains a hero for his deep understanding of the American heartland, his expert manipulation of the media, and his unapologetic vision of politics as war. Director Stefan Forbes offers a timely documentary for this election year as he examines the charming yet Machiavellian godfather of the modern negative political campaign. --© Official Site [More]

Starring: Tom DeLay, Michael Dukakis, Sam Donaldson, Ishmael Reed

Starring: Tom DeLay, Michael Dukakis, Sam Donaldson, Ishmael Reed

Director: Stefan Forbes

Director: Stefan Forbes
Producer: Noland Walker, Stefan Forbes
Studio: Interpositive Media

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Reviews for Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story

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Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Gerald Peary
Gerald Peary
Boston Phoenix

Fascinating to a political junkie like me who wasn't aware of the game back then.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
12/30/08
Luke Y. Thompson
Luke Y. Thompson
L.A. Weekly

A morality tale about the sewer politics of the Republican Party since Reagan and very relevant to the 2008 elections.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
11/12/08
Louis Proyect
Louis Proyect
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Director Stefan Forbes has assembled a brilliantly complex portrait that shines an unnerving light on the man who painted the landscape of contemporary American politics.

Full Review Source: Film.com | comment Comment
11/10/08
Jonathan F. Richards
Jonathan F. Richards
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

By the end of Forbes' brisk, economical portrait, Atwater has been revealed as a repugnant and pathetic soul--and a political visionary, among the first to fully understand and harness the raw power of voters' fears.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
10/31/08
Jessica Reaves
Jessica Reaves
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A cinematic smear job against Atwater would be the easiest thing in the world, but Forbes is more interested in presenting a complex character study than a piece of liberal agitprop.

Full Review Source: Capital Times (Madison, WI) | comment Comment
10/31/08
Rob Thomas
Rob Thomas
Capital Times (Madison, WI)

Conventional but absorbing.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
10/30/08
Nathan Rabin
Nathan Rabin
AV Club

Stricken with brain cancer in 1990, Atwater renounced his Machiavellian ways, but as Forbes points out, his legacy lives on in his eager proteges Karl Rove and George W. Bush.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
10/30/08
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Boogie Man is a fascinating portrait of an almost likable rogue.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
10/30/08
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Both fascinating and upsetting, and makes you wish politics weren't so, well, political.

Full Review Source: Metromix.com | comment Comment
10/30/08
Matt Pais
Matt Pais
Metromix.com

Positively brims over with sour-grapes hearsay and character assassination. But you just know he deserved it, right?

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
10/30/08
Jonathan Kiefer
Jonathan Kiefer
Sacramento News & Review

Lee Atwater is remembered as brilliant or shameful, effective or destructive, his life part American Dream, part horror movie.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
10/27/08
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters

Boogie Man does not inspire pity for Atwater but sadness that a man of such talent wasted his life and learned his lesson too late.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
10/24/08
Loey Lockerby
Loey Lockerby
Kansas City Star

Instead of attempting a character study, Boogie Man returns an indictment.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
10/24/08
Mark Feeney
Mark Feeney
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Atwater's career is viewed here with fascination and some sympathy, and the pic is sure to win votes in election season with specialty distribs and public tube mavens.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
10/18/08
Robert Koehler
Robert Koehler
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Boogie Man has an awful lot to say about where America finds itself at the 2008 moment of decision.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
10/17/08
Steven Winn
Steven Winn
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

electrifying

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
10/16/08
Eric Meyerson
Eric Meyerson
Filmcritic.com

It's refreshing to see a political documentary that's not just boosterism or political propaganda. If anything, this is an argument for 'cleaner' campaigning.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
10/09/08
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

It's good the film exposes his methods, especially with the final stretch of our current election cycle upon us.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
10/03/08
Bob Strauss
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

Forbes adroitly fills out his picture of this “marsupial” little man with “the eyes of a killer” through the testimony of those who admired and/or loathed Atwater.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
10/03/08
Ella Taylor
Ella Taylor
L.A. Weekly
 
 
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