“A Face in the Crowd” is more relevant now than ever before.
The 1957 film’s portrait of a power-hungry media star influencing politics feels distressingly modern, especially in this election. This movie has a lot to say about the corrupting nature of television and power, and it does so while being pretty entertaining.
“A Face in the Crowd” tells the story of Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, who is discovered in a jail by radio producer Marcia Jeffries. Rhodes rises from radio star to television star, alienating those who care about him in the process. Soon he is giving advice to a conservative candidate for the presidency and losing what little soul he had in the first place.
Andy Griffith gives an exceptional performance as Rhodes. He dives right into the unsavory nature of his character and is both electrifying and horrifying to watch. It’s as fearless a performance as I’ve ever seen, and it brings to mind parallels with a certain presidential candidate.
There are several similarities between Rhodes and Donald Trump. Both are power-hungry men who are good at manipulating the media. At the end of the day, they seem to listen to their appetites, not their consciences.
But it is worth noting that there is one big difference between Rhodes and Trump.
Rhodes was born poor and never knew his father. Trump, on the other hand, had a wealthy father who arranged the loans for his son’s first building, the Grand Hyatt hotel, and agreed to complete it if he couldn’t finish that project.
There are a few sequences that feel dated. A very funny montage of ads for a fictional product called “Vitajex” feel particular to the 1950s. But it also demonstrates how advertising can make something useless popular, which in its own way is another parallel to the Republican presidential candidate.
This film predicts the intense attention fans would lavish on far-right media figures like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Some of the sequences, such as when Rhodes’s many fans pull pranks that he has ordered them to, feel like something that could happen today. The speeches Rhodes and his mentor, General Haynesworth, give about how candidates are products feels indicative of how television has helped shape politics.
This film can be pretty cynical, but the writing and the supporting performances prevent this film from being unnecessarily bleak. Patricia Neal is great as Jeffries, the woman who discovers Rhodes and has to come to terms with the monster she has created. Walter Matthau plays Mel, a writer who gets in some good speeches eviscerating Rhodes.
It’s Matthau who delivers one of the film’s most optimistic lines. As he comforts Marcia, he tells her, “We get wise to them, and that’s our strength.”
I hope that his words are as prophetic on Nov. 8 as the rest of this film was for this whole election.
