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Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story
USA 1971
produced by Jack Kuney, Charles H. Joffe (executive) for PBS
directed by Woody Allen
starring Woody Allen, Reed Hadley (narrator), David Ackroyd, Wil Albert, Conrad Bain, Court Benson, Milo Boulton, Harold Chidhoff, Jean David, Jean De Baer, Richard M. Dixon, Abe Drazen, Dan Frazer, Graham Jarvis, Mitchell Jason, Diane Keaton, Tom Lacy, Louise Lasser, Tom Rosqui, Lee Wallace
written by Woody Allen
TV show
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Woody Allen is Harvey Wallinger, National Security advisor to President
Nixon (in newly shot scenes played by lookalike Richard M. Dixon) - a man
that caught Nixon's eye as a persecutor in the McCarthy witchhunts and who
helped Nixon to ultimately rise to presidency, despite a setback that
throws both him and Nixon out of politics temporarily - but they come
back, stronger than ever. Now Harvey Wallinger is of course a
thinly disguised parody of Henry Kissinger, and the whole TV special is a
biting parody of the Nixon presidency Woody Allen was apparently not at
all a fan of. In style, Allen repeats the mockumentary approach of his
directorial debut Take the Money and Run, but with added newsreel
footage that one might find reminiscent of his much later Zelig -
however, in Men of Crisis - The Harvey Wallinger Story, the
newsreel footage has much more of a satyrical funcion, basically depicting
some of the funniest blunders of Nixon and cronies, scenes that might have
won an extra dimension knowing what became of the whole club of
delinquents. That said, Men of Crisis - The Harvey Wallinger
Story is not a terribly good political satyre, it tries to hammer home
its point a bit too bluntly, and it lacks narrative build-up doing so
(something Mr Allen can't usually be blamed with), plus it often goes for
the cheap joke, even if it might be untopical at times. Still, apparently
Nixon and gang saw the film as threatening enough as it got pulled from
the TV schedule (it was supposed to air on PBS) a few days before
airdate. Probably a certain allusion to wire-tapping hit too close to home
...
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