When the FBI raided Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, they found a file titled ‘Info re: President of France’. Many have speculated (with no little encouragement from Trump himself) that it contains illicit details of Emmanuel Macron’s sex life.
Whatever the truth about this particular cache, political kompromat has long been a source of great drama – both on and off screen. Some bring it upon themselves – Gary Hart blew his chances of securing the US Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 by inviting reporters to dig up dirt on him (‘Follow me around, put a tail on me. You’d be very bored’). They promptly did – and the events surrounding the 51-year-old married senator’s alleged dalliance with 29-year-old Donna Rice are explored in 2018’s The Front Runner, with Hugh Jackman as Hart.
The early 1960s was a particularly fecund time for motion pictures about the blackmail of politicians over sexual indiscretions, likely due to the Profumo affair in the UK and gossip surrounding JFK’s shenanigans in the States. Here are ten of the best movies about gathering dirt on political opponents:
Kompromat (2022) – UK release TBC
Drawn from real life, this thriller from Jérôme Salle (Anthony Zimmer) stars Gilles Lellouche (Tell No One) as Mathieu, a French diplomat posted to Siberia whose support of artistic expression in the region irks the authorities enough for Russia’s security service to concoct a false story of sexual abuse to frame him. Imprisoned pre-trial, the attaché decides to escape with his wife and daughter – a tough decision considering his location in the frozen Irkutsk Oblast of Eastern Siberia. Lellouche will next star as Obelix in next year’s fifth instalment (Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom) in the live action movie Asterix franchise. Guillaume Canet (The Siege of Jadotville) will direct and star as Asterix, with Vincent Cassel as Caesar and Marion Cotillard playing Cleopatra.
Advise and Consent (1962)
Homosexual kompromat features as a prominent sub-plot in Otto Preminger’s (Laura) labyrinthine political drama centred on the nomination of egghead Robert A. Leffingwell (Henry Fonda) as Secretary of State. There’s far too much plot to recount here but Advise and Consent is well worth your time. In addition to Fonda, the cast includes Charles Laughton in a magnificent final screen performance, Walter Pidgeon, Gene Tierney, Franchot Tones (as the ailing POTUS), Don Murray (as the blackmailed senator), Betty White and George Grizzard (Wonder Boys) as repellent careerist Senator Fred Van Ackerman of Wyoming.
The Best Man (1964) – Amazon Buy
Gore Vidal’s evergreen stage play was memorably brought to the screen by Franklin J. Schaffner (Patton) in a piece that follows the convolutions of the 1960s US political scene. The Best Man is unique in having both candidates liable to shakedowns: Henry Fonda (again) as womanising former secretary of state William Russell and Cliff Robertson as Joe Cantwell, a Joe McCarthy-like right winger who may have a few gay skeletons in his wartime closet.
Seven Days in May (1964)
Kompromat features as a last resort in John Frankenheimer’s (Ronin) prescient thriller. Discovering that populist Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General James Mattoon Scott (Burt Lancaster) is planning a coup, President Jordan Lyman (Fredric March) must decide whether to use the married general’s letters to former mistress Eleanor Holbrook (Ava Gardner) against him. Pretty thin gruel, but the principled President fortunately has other options. An excellent picture, well worth checking out.
The Contender (2000) – Amazon Prime, Rent/Buy
A personal favourite, Rod Lurie’s (The Last Castle) The Contender is very much in the tradition of the three 1960s movies I’ve mentioned. Prospective VP Senator Laine Billings Hanson (Joan Allen) faces scandal when sordid images of her apparent college participation in an initiation ritual are released. Billings refuses to confirm whether she was the woman in the photographs, arguing that a male nominee would not be treated the same way. Gary Oldman plays slimy Republican inquisitor Sheldon Runyon, who comes a cropper himself at the end. Jeff Bridges is excellent as Democratic President Jackson Evans, as are Christian Slater as an ambitious but principled House Judiciary member and William Petersen (CSI) as the deeply flawed Governor of Virginia, who foolishly attempts a shortcut to nationwide popularity.
Defence of the Realm (1986) – Amazon Buy
The late David Drury’s (Hostile Waters) underrated thriller boasts a magnificent cast and very plausible storyline for its time. Later doubts surrounding the Profumo-esque resignation of respected MP Dennis Markham (Ian Bannen) prompt Nick Mullen (Gabriel Byrne), the reporter who broke the story, to investigate further. Mullen discovers a conspiracy surrounding the US bases here and the ultimate control of nuclear weapons in the UK. The cast also includes Greta Scacchi, the always superb Denholm Elliott, and Robbie Coltrane in a supporting role.
Absolute Power (1997) – Amazon Rent/Buy
Clint Eastwood’s pulpy adaptation of David Baldacci’s novel wasn’t ever going to win any Oscars but is an enjoyably daft watch. While lurking in a walk-in closet, ageing master-thief Luther Whitney (Eastwood) witnesses US President Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) engage in increasingly violent sex with his best friend’s wife (Melora Hardin), which is brought to an abrupt conclusion when the Secret Service shoot her. Whitney must decide whether to flee the country before his identity is discovered – or make the President and his enablers face justice (of a kind). The picture boasts an unintentionally comic scene where Whitney disguises himself on a sweltering summer day himself to meet his daughter – wearing an oversized trench coat (buttoned all the way up), homburg hat and shades. I guess his stripey shirt and bag marked ‘Swag’ was in the wash that day.
The Bank Job (2008) – STARZPLAY, Amazon Rent/Buy
Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Porridge, Auf Wiedersehen Pet etc.) scripted this atypical Jason Statham thriller, which takes a highly fictionalised serio-comic approach to the notorious unsolved 1971 Baker Street bank robbery. Kompromat features heavily, with the robbers’ haul including naughty pictures of a senior royal at play and the secretly filmed frolics of high-level government officials in an upscale bawdy house.
State of Play (2009) – Netflix, Amazon Rent/Buy
This condensed movie version of Paul Abbott’s 2003 BBC1 mini-series is far too plotty to go into but suffice to say that married Congressman Stephen Collins’s (Ben Affleck) varied sub rosa sex life and the murder of his mistress leads reporter pal Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) to dig deeper. As with Syriana (2005), the Manchurian Candidate remake (2004) and other movies of the time, the military industrial complex and private security firms loom large in Cal’s reportage. Abbott famously wrote State of Play without knowing how it would end, which becomes obvious on the second viewing of the original much-praised series. Last year the writer confirmed that he was working on a sequel to the show.
The Gentlemen (2019) – Netflix, Amazon Rent/Buy
If you recall ‘The National Anthem’, the debut episode of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen will bring back some not-so-fond memories. Not the antics of Hugh Grant’s creepy private investigator Fletcher, but the blackmail plot hatched to compromise politically influential newspaper editor Big Dave (Eddie Marsan). I’ll leave it there, as Big Dave’s porcine encounter is best left unrevealed, certainly for those lacking a strong stomach. Suffice it to say that (most) viewers won’t be hankering for a bacon sarnie after watching the movie.
If you still have the appetite for more kompromat-themed films, you may want to take a look at The Ides of March (2011), The Lives of Others (2006), The Ambassador (1984) and The Affair of the Necklace (2001).
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