The recent violence in Washington, DC, reminded the Curmudgeon of several movies with political themes; e.g., 鈥淎ll the President’s Men,鈥� 鈥淢r. Smith Goes to Washington,鈥� and, on a darker note, 鈥淪even Days in May鈥� and both versions of聽鈥淭he Manchurian Candidate.鈥�
Another film, based on Allen Drury’s novel, 鈥淎dvise and Consent,鈥� was based on the politics of the 1940s and ’50s, with whiffs of McCarthyism, remains relevant today. I wish the other five volumes in the series had been filmed; they seem highly prophetic of our times.聽The first sequel, 鈥淎 Shade of Difference,鈥� involved civil rights and the rise of independent nations in Africa and Asia; the next volume, 鈥淐apable of Honor鈥澛爄nvolved political conventions and the tensions between liberal and conservative factions within a party; the fourth book, 鈥淧reserve and Protect,鈥� was much darker, starting with a presidential assassination and growing violence in the cities. The ending of that book was ambiguous; another assassination left one candidate alive and the other dead, but the reader could not determine which was which; Drury then produced alternate sequels; the first 鈥淐ome Nineveh, Come Tyre鈥� described the presidency of the surviving candidate who turns out to be both popular and dangerously incompetent, unable to control the mobs out to destroy the Capital, the Supreme Court, and other pillars of democracy; he eventually leads America into chaos聽and occupation by a very a hostile Soviet Union.聽The final novel, 鈥淭he Promise of Joy,鈥澛燿escribes the survival of the other candidate; he is unpopular with a seriously divided electorate and also has to contend with violent mobs, a hostile media, and the threat of nuclear war between the Soviet Union and China. I always hoped Drury would produce more sequels, but he did not, instead to ancient Egypt for his inspiration.