
The Murrow, Polk, and IDA Award-winning documentary Boogie Man is about Lee Atwater, a blues-playing rogue whose rise from the South to Chairman of the GOP made him a political rock star. He mentored George W. Bush and Karl Rove while leading the Republican party to historic victories, helping make liberal a dirty word, and transforming the way America elects our Presidents. In interviews with Republicans and friends of Atwater, Boogie Man examines his role in America's shift... (Full plot summary below)
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The Murrow, Polk, and IDA Award-winning documentary Boogie Man is about Lee Atwater, a blues-playing rogue whose rise from the South to Chairman of the GOP made him a political rock star. He mentored George W. Bush and Karl Rove while leading the Republican party to historic victories, helping make liberal a dirty word, and transforming the way America elects our Presidents. In interviews with Republicans and friends of Atwater, Boogie Man examines his role in America's shift to the right. To Democrats offended by the 1988 Willie Horton controversy, Atwater was a remorseless political assassin dubbed by one Congresswoman "the most evil man in America." The film examines his irreverent sense of humor, his understanding of the American heartland, and his unapologetic vision of politics as war. It ends with a portrait of a cynic's deathbed search for meaning.
Leave your thoughts about Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story.
| New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisGenerous in spirit and nimble in technique, this riveting documentary about the Republican operative (who died of a brain tumor in 1991) reveals a scrappy genius rife with contradictions. |
| Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondA must for political junkies and anyone interested in the inner workings of the way we elect presidents. |
| VarietyRobert KoehlerDeeply influential, even to his enemies, Atwater's career is viewed here with fascination and some sympathy. |
| San Francisco ChronicleSteve WinnFor a film that depends so heavily on talking heads, it has both a dramatic arc and a sense of character development. |
| Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanIf you want to hear juicy inside tales of the scams devised by Lee Atwater, the right-wing visionary of media-age dirty tricks, you'll find loads of them in Boogie Man. |
| Chicago ReaderJ. R. JonesStricken with brain cancer in 1990, Atwater renounced his Machiavellian ways, but as Forbes points out, his legacy lives on in his eager proteges Karl Rove and George W. Bush. |
| Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertA fascinating portrait of an almost likable rogue. You'd rather spend time with him than a lot of more upstanding citizens. |
| Capital Times (Madison, WI)Rob ThomasA cinematic smear job against Atwater would be the easiest thing in the world, but Forbes is more interested in presenting a complex character study than a piece of liberal agitprop. |
| Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinA hugely entertaining, efficiently crafted documentary about a ruthless, if undeniably clever, American political force. |
| Chicago TribuneJessica ReavesBy the end of Forbes' brisk, economical portrait, Atwater has been revealed as a repugnant and pathetic soul--and a political visionary, among the first to fully understand and harness the raw power of voters’ fears. |