Kevin Billington's "The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer" is a reasonable enough satire, with many observations on polling, politics and Britain relevant not just then but now.
There are hints of Muriel Spark's "The Ballad of Peckham Rye" (1960); Cook's Rimmer comes from nowhere, like Dougal Douglas in the aforementioned novel. He does not merely analyse, satirise and disrupt like DD, but rather gradually assumes greater power - Rimmer is a Machiavel in the guise of a Time and Motion Man. A polling calculus where his heart should be.
The style also has hints of Reginald Perrin and Monty Python - fittingly enough given the involvement of Cleese and Chapman. It is scatter-shot in its comic approach - direct jibes at the likes of Enoch Powell and Harolds Macmillan and Wilson. George A. Cooper figures as a pipe-pondering Wilsonian PM (though he looks rather more like the self-styled 'Quiet Man' of the current-day Conservatives, Iain Duncan Smith!), deciding to run a presidential style election campaign much as Wilson actually did in the 1970 General Election.
The section where the Tories - including Rimmer as Chancellor - get in is remarkably accurate in anticipating the situation today: 'Blame it on the last lot', as the new government faces up to a difficult economic situation inherited from a defeated Labour government. There are also lines about creating an impression of being tough on immigration for the media which resonate with the recent election campaign.
Rimmer is a precursor of David Cameron, of course; a particularly marked resemblance: both are public-relations men, endlessly adaptable and without a clearly defined set of principles. All political moves calculated in terms of how things will play out in the "news cycle". A general public which proves gullible enough to buy into the image of these leaders foisted on them by the press.
So much is spot on and relevant, so why didn't I this more than I did? I think it has something to do with the nature of the script and characterisation; the characters are broad caricatures and the progression of the script entirely predictable, perhaps proving a victim of its own prescience. So many politicians now follow the Rimmer rulebook that there is absolutely no shock generated by watching this now. "Nothing But the Best" (dir. Clive Donner, 1964) has a rather more interesting trajectory, with Alan Bates and Denholm Elliott and incisive exploration of social class and the media.
The whole would be a greater film if there was a greater sense of conflict, uncertainty or urgency generated; it is instead an obvious, if admirable, closed-book of a film. It is especially watchable in terms of spotting the esteemed British thespian; this film has more renowned names drawn from several acting generations (those born 1910-40) than most films. Denholm Elliott, Julian Glover (amusing clipped caricature of the military mindset), Graham Crowden (sublime actor in a lovely cameo as the archetypal new Christian of the 1960s), John Cleese, Harold Pinter, Ronald Culver, James Cossins (pre-"Death Line"), Dennis Price (post-"Kind Hearts and Coronets"), Graham Chapman, Valerie Leon (though used as omnipotent 'eye candy' as always), the magnificent Arthur Lowe, Norman Bird, Frank Thornton, Dudley Foster, Ronald Fraser, Ronnie Corbett, Diana Coupland and Norman Rossington. Such a litany in itself justifies a viewing of this reasonable film.
There are hints of Muriel Spark's "The Ballad of Peckham Rye" (1960); Cook's Rimmer comes from nowhere, like Dougal Douglas in the aforementioned novel. He does not merely analyse, satirise and disrupt like DD, but rather gradually assumes greater power - Rimmer is a Machiavel in the guise of a Time and Motion Man. A polling calculus where his heart should be.
The style also has hints of Reginald Perrin and Monty Python - fittingly enough given the involvement of Cleese and Chapman. It is scatter-shot in its comic approach - direct jibes at the likes of Enoch Powell and Harolds Macmillan and Wilson. George A. Cooper figures as a pipe-pondering Wilsonian PM (though he looks rather more like the self-styled 'Quiet Man' of the current-day Conservatives, Iain Duncan Smith!), deciding to run a presidential style election campaign much as Wilson actually did in the 1970 General Election.
The section where the Tories - including Rimmer as Chancellor - get in is remarkably accurate in anticipating the situation today: 'Blame it on the last lot', as the new government faces up to a difficult economic situation inherited from a defeated Labour government. There are also lines about creating an impression of being tough on immigration for the media which resonate with the recent election campaign.
Rimmer is a precursor of David Cameron, of course; a particularly marked resemblance: both are public-relations men, endlessly adaptable and without a clearly defined set of principles. All political moves calculated in terms of how things will play out in the "news cycle". A general public which proves gullible enough to buy into the image of these leaders foisted on them by the press.
So much is spot on and relevant, so why didn't I this more than I did? I think it has something to do with the nature of the script and characterisation; the characters are broad caricatures and the progression of the script entirely predictable, perhaps proving a victim of its own prescience. So many politicians now follow the Rimmer rulebook that there is absolutely no shock generated by watching this now. "Nothing But the Best" (dir. Clive Donner, 1964) has a rather more interesting trajectory, with Alan Bates and Denholm Elliott and incisive exploration of social class and the media.
The whole would be a greater film if there was a greater sense of conflict, uncertainty or urgency generated; it is instead an obvious, if admirable, closed-book of a film. It is especially watchable in terms of spotting the esteemed British thespian; this film has more renowned names drawn from several acting generations (those born 1910-40) than most films. Denholm Elliott, Julian Glover (amusing clipped caricature of the military mindset), Graham Crowden (sublime actor in a lovely cameo as the archetypal new Christian of the 1960s), John Cleese, Harold Pinter, Ronald Culver, James Cossins (pre-"Death Line"), Dennis Price (post-"Kind Hearts and Coronets"), Graham Chapman, Valerie Leon (though used as omnipotent 'eye candy' as always), the magnificent Arthur Lowe, Norman Bird, Frank Thornton, Dudley Foster, Ronald Fraser, Ronnie Corbett, Diana Coupland and Norman Rossington. Such a litany in itself justifies a viewing of this reasonable film.