RIP, Sean Connery. Plus: ‘Mank’ Oscars Preview and 20 Classic Election Movies.

RIP, Sean ConneryA tribute

The Hunt for Red October 1990

A Ringer-universe favorite. Sean says he never clocked that Connery wore a toupee in it until an obituary pointed it out.

The Rock 1996

The other late-career favorite. Michael Bay published a remembrance about how Connery threw his weight around on set, which Sean found kind of cool.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989

The one Sean thought of first when Connery died, by way of a Kevin Smith 'Chasing Amy' commentary track where Smith, Scott Mosier, Ben Affleck, and Jason Lee all do bits of Connery's performance.

The Man Who Would Be King 1975

John Huston's film with Michael Caine, cited by a lot of obituaries as maybe Connery's best performance. Hard to track down these days; Sean hopes for a revival.

The Untouchables 1987

Won Connery his Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Murder on the Orient Express 1974

One of five films Connery made with Sidney Lumet, spanning spy movies, war films, and comedies, and one of Amanda's favorites of the bunch.

The Hill 1965

Another of the five Connery-Lumet collaborations.

The Anderson Tapes 1971

Another of the five Connery-Lumet collaborations.

The Offence 1973

Another of the five Connery-Lumet collaborations.

Family Business 1989

The last of the five Connery-Lumet collaborations.

Mank Oscars PreviewNo spoilers

Mank 2020

David Fincher's film, hitting Netflix December 4. Sean and Amanda both loved it and won't say much beyond that. A portrait of Herman Mankiewicz, the co-screenwriter of 'Citizen Kane,' based partly on Pauline Kael's New Yorker essay about that film's true authorship. Sean sees it competing in something like a dozen-plus Oscar categories.

Citizen Kane 1941

Sean's advice before watching 'Mank': watch or rewatch this first, ideally recently, both for context on the real people involved and because Fincher's filmmaking choices reflect it.

The Not What They SeemersDouble feature

Meet John Doe 1941

Frank Capra. Amanda's first reaction on rewatch was just how much of a presence Gary Cooper is. A newspaper columnist invents a populist figurehead and casts Cooper's character to play him, opposite Barbara Stanwyck.

All the King's Men 1949

Loosely based on Huey Long via a Robert Penn Warren novel; Broderick Crawford plays the Long stand-in, Willie Stark, and won the Best Actor Oscar for it. A bitterer pill than 'Meet John Doe,' about what happens to a person once they're inside the political system. Sean dismisses the 2006 Sean Penn remake.

The Body PoliticDouble feature

Primary 1960

Robert Drew's documentary on the JFK-Humphrey Wisconsin primary, one of the earliest films D.A. Pennebaker worked on. Sean calls it a document of messaging and image-making in its infancy.

The Manchurian Candidate 1962

John Frankenheimer, starring Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, and Angela Lansbury. Sean pairs it with 'Primary' as the paranoid flip side: the machinery behind a candidate taken to a violent, absurd extreme. There's a 2004 remake too, which Sean says is better than the 'All the King's Men' remake but still not up to the original.

The Best Man and The CandidateDouble feature

The Best Man 1964

Franklin Schaffner, written by Gore Vidal. Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson play rival candidates for a party's presidential nomination; Sean calls it the best film he revisited for this list, with an ending he thinks has aged badly but remains remarkable for its time.

The Candidate 1972

Robert Redford as a U.S. Senate candidate in California who compromises his ideals inch by inch. Made between 'Jeremiah Johnson' and 'The Sting'/'The Way We Were,' at the height of Redford's stardom; both hosts call the ending one of the great endings of the decade.

Something's Happening, But You Don't Know What It IsDouble feature, both 1975

Shampoo 1975

Hal Ashby, written by Robert Towne. Warren Beatty as a Beverly Hills hairdresser juggling Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, and others against the backdrop of the 1968 Nixon election.

Nashville 1975

Robert Altman. A sprawling ensemble in personal and professional crisis, with a fringe presidential candidate's sound truck running through the background until the film's tragic climax.

Show Business for Ugly PeopleDouble feature, both 1992

Batman Returns 1992

Danny DeVito's Penguin runs for mayor of Gotham with backing from Christopher Walken's character, before Batman exposes him. Sean says it's surprisingly sharp about how change candidates get over.

Bob Roberts 1992

Tim Robbins as a folk-singing Republican candidate who commodifies hippie-generation sentimentality for the GOP. Considered incendiary at the time; now hard to find on any streaming service.

Clintonian OptimismDouble feature

The War Room 1993

The documentary on Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, centered on James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. Sean says it's the direct ancestor of the Aaron Sorkin school of turning political operatives into heroes.

The American President 1995

Aaron Sorkin's script, directed by Rob Reiner. One of Sean's favorite films, and covered this same week on The Rewatchables.

Election and Napoleon DynamiteDouble feature

Election 1999

Alexander Payne, with Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick, a character both hosts note got re-litigated a lot in 2016.

Napoleon Dynamite 2004

Sean pairs it here for the 'Vote for Pedro' campaign, which he thinks captures how most elections actually get decided: do you like this person or not.

Fake WarsDouble feature

Wag the Dog 1997

Dustin Hoffman as a Hollywood producer, modeled on Robert Evans, hired with Robert De Niro to fake a war with Albania to save an election. Script rewritten by David Mamet.

In the Loop 2009

Armando Iannucci. Sean's favorite film on the whole list; a British-government satire of the run-up to the Iraq War, with a character modeled on Tony Blair aide Alastair Campbell and a standout James Gandolfini performance.

VeepsDouble feature

The Contender 2000

Joan Allen as a vice-presidential nominee whose past becomes a scandal; Jeff Bridges plays the president, Gary Oldman and Christian Slater the opposition. A post-Lewinsky film about sexual-politics double standards that both hosts find dated in strange ways now.

Game Change 2012

Based on the nonfiction book about John McCain choosing Sarah Palin as his 2008 running mate. Julianne Moore won an Emmy for it; Amanda thinks it's a somewhat shallow take on Palin next to how the actual SNL parody landed.

Morons and DickheadsDouble feature

Idiocracy 2006

Mike Judge. Luke Wilson as the least-dumb person alive, thrust into the presidency of a future dumbed-down America. Made during Bush's second term.

Weiner 2016

The fly-on-the-wall documentary about Anthony Weiner's scandal-plagued NYC mayoral run, filmed with startling access. Released before the 2016 election laptop story that later tied Weiner to it.

Also mentioned raised along the way

In passing Chasing AmyJawsButch Cassidy and the Sundance KidThe StingThe Way We WereJeremiah JohnsonA Face in the CrowdThe Great McGintyState of the UnionGet OutKnock Down the HouseIrresistibleBedknobs and Broomsticks

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV The ReagansThe Comey RuleMurder, She WroteThe West WingThe NewsroomThe Circus

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