The War Room (1993)

A documentary of the Bill Clinton 1992 presidential campaign and the organization who ran it.

Directors:

Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker

Stars:

James Carville, George Stephanopoulos, Heather Beckel

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 4 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
James Carville	...	Himself
George Stephanopoulos	...	Himself
Heather Beckel	...	Herself
Paul Begala	...	Himself
Bob Boorstin	...	Himself
Michael Donnilon	...	Himself
Jeff Eller	...	Himself
Stanley Greenberg	...	Himself
Mandy Grunwald	...	Herself
Harold Ickes	...	Himself
Mickey Kantor	...	Himself
Mary Matalin	...	Herself
Mitchell Schwartz	...	Himself
Dave Anderson	...	Himself
Collier Andress	...	Himself

Storyline

A behind-the-scenes documentary about the Clinton for President campaign, focusing on the adventures of spin doctors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. Bill Clinton himself is almost never seen.

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Plot Keywords:

campaign | president | behind the scenes | office | reference to gennifer flowers | 

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Taglines:

They Changed The Way Campaigns Are Won.

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Genres:

Documentary | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

January 1994 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die Kommandozentrale

Box Office

Gross:

$901,668 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cyclone Films, McEttinger Films, Pennebaker Associates

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

James Carville: It's the economy, stupid!

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Connections

Featured in The Hour: Episode #7.160 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Vote Baby Vote"
Written by Deee-Lite
Performed by Deee-Lite
Published by EMI/Virgin Music

User Reviews

Revealing, but Skewed

The War Room does a good job of extolling the skills of James Carville and George Stephanopolous. Clearly, their work had much to do with Clinton's victory. A little known fact about the film is that the actual campaign manager, David Wilhelm, refused to participate in it. He didn't like the idea of a camera crew roaming the headquarters and recording conversations that he felt should have been private. Clinton overruled him, of course. As a result, the documentary skews history a bit. The nuts and bolts of running a campaign are ignored while the craft of spin doctoring is glorified. In a visual medium, that's not altogether surprising, and it may even have been unavoidable. But the misrepresentation -- or rather, the selective representation -- has had the unintended consequence of contributing to public cynicism about political campaigns, which now appear to be all about the spin, the framing -- the very things that make voters feel like they're being manipulated. Perhaps a stronger emphasis on the heavy lifting of door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, meetings with interest groups, outreach to local officials, event set-up, and the like, would have given a more complete picture. Then again, those aren't exactly telegenic activities, and documentary filmmakers may have been hard-pressed to incorporate them even if Wilhelm had cooperated. But the troublesome implications remain, and are worth considering.