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Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story

An excellent and frightening documentary
By GERALD PEARY  |  October 25, 2008
3.0 3.0 Stars
boogiemanINSIDE.jpg

Barack Obama is darn lucky that Lee Atwater, who died in 1991, isn’t around to lead the Republican dirty-tricks department. As seen in Stefan Forbes’s excellent and frightening documentary, Atwater would have figured how to play the race card in such a devastating way that Sarah Palin would have sailed into the vice-presidency. It was Atwater, a scrappy and insecure cracker from nowhere South Carolina, who as campaign manager for George W. Bush turned the patrician Yale man into a Texas good old boy and convinced America that Mike Dukakis, son of Greek immigrants, was an Eastern elitist who let African-American rapists out on furlough. Karl Rove learned everything from this take-no-prisoners Republican operative, and George W. palled around with him, two frats on the loose. Dying of cancer, Atwater penned apologies to everyone he hurt along the way. There’s been no apology from George Bush Sr., who is the ultimate villain of this effective muckraking piece. 86 minutes | Coolidge Corner 
Related: What democracy wrought, Where has all the Gonzo gone?, Party like it's 1999, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Michael Dukakis, Barack Obama, Elections and Voting,  More more >
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ARTICLES BY GERALD PEARY
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  •   REVIEW: I WISH  |  May 22, 2012
    Two elementary school brothers living in southern Japan are forced to live in different cities due to the estrangement of their parents.
  •   REVIEW: SURVIVING PROGRESS  |  May 15, 2012
    Despite prestigious talking heads like Margaret Atwood, Jane Goodall, and Stephen Hawking, there is nothing new here beyond what every conscientious liberal already knows is wrong with the world.
  •   REVIEW: HEADHUNTERS  |  May 08, 2012
    Roger (Aksel Hennie) is an Oslo yuppie with a gorgeous, blonde wife, a top-drawer job as a corporate headhunter, and a lucrative side employment stealing fancy paintings.
  •   REVIEW: ELLES  |  May 08, 2012
    How did the Polish filmmaker Malgoska Szumowska dupe the classy Juliette Binoche to participate in such a dubious, exploitative film?
  •   REVIEW: THIS IS NOT A FILM  |  May 01, 2012
    It can't be a film, because the acclaimed director Jafar Panahi ( The Circle , etc.) has been ordered not to make any by the Iranian theocrats who have also sentenced the dissident filmmaker to an upcoming jail sentence.

 See all articles by: GERALD PEARY



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