Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33798 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-05
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back) and Chris Hegedus shot behind-the-scenes at command central for Bill Clinton's 1992 election campaign and came up with this film. You won't find the kind of daily damage-control and skirt-chasing indirectly alleged in Primary Colors, but the filmmakers do give us a strong sense of the uphill battle of a presidential campaign. The center of the film is really James Carville, who steered the machine for Clinton's '92 run and who comes across in this film as a deeply passionate, complex, and somehow timeless man who could have fit into any chapter of American history. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker
The somewhat deranged charm of James Carville, the chief strategist of Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign, dominates D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus's exhilarating documentary. Although the film may not supply many new insights into the process of choosing a President, it gives us plenty of fresh data about the nature of political commitment and it does justice, too, to the sheer reckless pleasure of electoral gamesmanship. And Carville is the largest, most resonant character in recent American movies, someone whose work is such a complete expression of his personality that you can't help laughing: the unity of this life and this art seems too good to be true. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Carville & Stephanopoulos run the Clinton War Room in '92
This celebrated documentary provides a bird's eye view into the inner sanctum of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus spent three weeks shot 33 hours of film, which was later combined with news footage to capture the cause-and-effect relationship between what happened inside "The War Room" and the election of the president. There is no voice over narration to this documentary, just clips spliced together. The dynamic behind it all is the Fire and Ice duo of chief Clinton strategist James Carville and director of communications George Stephanopoulos. Of course, both titles are gross simplifications of their roles in the campaign, and it is impossible not to see "The War Room" as being one of the inspirations for "The West Wing."

What stands out in watching this documentary is the complete sense that this is what it was really like, which, in the end, is more impressive than the fact that these guys won the election. Here you get to see the infamous Clinton "quick response" strategy at work, where every attack by the opponent is crushed in an immediate barrage of rhetoric. For me the most memorable sequences were when the Clinton brain trust discover the Bush-Quayle campaign is having its campaign signs printed in Brazil rather than in the U.S., Carville becomes emotional in the final staff meeting of the Clinton War Room, and when he and Stephanopoulos find themselves unsure as to how they are supposed to address the man who is now the president-elect.

From the perspective of today it is interesting to compare the Carville and Stephanopoulos we see behind closed doors with their more public personas as talking heads. The Jim and Mary (Matlin) traveling road show that keeps Carville in the political spotlight today might get more of the publicity, but the one who has impressed me the most is Stephanopoulos, whose work on the Sunday morning political roundtable "This Week" established his reputation as one of the most objective and restrained political analysts on the tube of either party affiliation. That assessment was codified this past year when Stephanopoulos replaced Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts as the hosts of the show. "The War Room" shows not only where he paid his dues, but gives him his bone fides as well.

The final irony is that the one clip showing Al Gore giving a campaign speech is more dynamic than anything we saw during the 2000 election.

Great Insight into a campaign
This movie is the current state of the art look into a political campaign on the run.

Carville and Stephanapoulos are really the central characters in this documentary, not Clinton. The action is very entertaining, even though we all know how the story will end.

Watching the movie now, it is a bit interesting to see if you can sense the impending fallout between Clinton and Stephanapoulos.

Watch this movie, and read either "What It Takes" or "The Boys on the Bus" as an essential primer on how political campaigns are waged in the television age.

My only complaint is that this is exactly the type of movie that can take advantage of the opportunities offered by DVD: Historical charts, timelines, bios, etc. These were opportunities that were missed in this version.

The real West Wing
Ok, so The War Room is really pre-West Wing. This is a great behind the scenes tale of how Clinton beat Bush. In fact, I would give it 5 stars if it was a bit longer.

The leadership and strategy of James Carville coupled with the style and substance of George Stephanopolous led the Clinton campaign to the ultimate prize.

The viewer sits in on many strategy sessions, hears a portion of phone calls with others in the Clinton camp and sees the behind the scenes maneuvering of other staff members in creating the atmosphere for Clinton's election. The other side is studied briefly, too.

George Bush's words and appearances serve as a counterpoint to illustrate the reasons for the tactics of the Clinton team.

A great study of a political campaign in action.