Do Political Films Matter?

Oliver Stone's W, which releases this week, is the latest of many movies about pols and politics, but whether they actually affect election outcomes is hard to say. by Brett McCracken | posted 10/14/08 Hollywood and Washington have never been the most comfortable of bedfellows. There is a mutual skepticism—sometimes disdain—between the two, and yet they are bound up together as closely as two American cultural institutions could possibly be. Politics and Hollywood go together like baseball and hot dogs, fireworks and the 4th of July. Movies are constantly being made about politics, and politicians—particularly Democrats—often use Hollywood for their own purposes. The relationship is typically amplified in election years, when partisans on both sides use any and all media to sway voters one way or another—and mud-slinging... [read full story]