The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Features  |  Reviews
Enjoy the best summer ever in Boston

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 >
| More
Add Comment
HTML Prohibited

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 06/09 ]   Against Me! + Screaming Females + Lemuria  @ Paradise Rock Club
[ 06/09 ]   Hedwig and the Angry Inch  @ Church of Boston
[ 06/09 ]   Keren Ann  @ Institute of Contemporary Art
ARTICLES BY GERALD PEARY
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: THE FIRST BEAUTIFUL THING  |  June 09, 2011
    As a child in the Tuscany port town of Livorno, Bruno was understandably anxious and unsettled as he and his sister scooted after their hot mamma (Micaela Ramazzotti) because all three had been bounced from their home by a jealous father.
  •   REVIEW: LOUDER THAN A BOMB  |  June 02, 2011
    The kids whom Jacobs and Siskel have chosen for us to watch are so enthralling, with such remarkable life stories, that their autobiographical poems have actual power.
  •   REVIEW: SONS OF PERDITION  |  May 26, 2011
    If Jonestown's Jimmy Jones ran North Korea, it would be like the cultist, fascist, ignorant, sexually craven society that exists in Columbia City, Colorado, under the thumb of self-proclaimed prophet Warren Jeffs.
  •   REVIEW: BLANK CITY  |  May 26, 2011
    When you romanticize, everything awful is awesome and inspiring. And so it is with the nostalgic, now-middle-aged, indie filmmakers interviewed in Céline Danhier's Blank City, reflecting on the late '70s and early '80s on New York's Lower East Side.
  •   REVIEW: INCENDIES  |  May 12, 2011
    Of the five pictures nominated by the Academy for Best Foreign Language Film this year, Denis Villeneuve's Incendies is the one that should have taken the Oscar.

 See all articles by: GERALD PEARY

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2011 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group