William Katz: Alfred Hitchcock and the 2008 election
Bill Katz has set up shop by himself over at Urgent Agenda but continues to save some of his best stuff for us. Today he writes:
I'd been thinking of writing about Alfred Hitchcock, a great film director, and a man who understood more about people than any director I know, indeed any person I know. I kept putting it off but, today, remarkably, I got an e-mail from a reader who has a name close to that of a Hitchcock character -- Thornhill. (Name the film.) That was the omen I needed. So Hitch is on the menu. So is the 2008 election. There is a merger there.Alfred Hitchcock, known as the master of suspense, was born in England in 1899 and died in California in 1980. Since you are worldly Power Line readers, you probably know most of his great films - "Rear Window," "North by Northwest," "Strangers on a Train," "Vertigo," "The Man Who Knew too Much," "Psycho," "Dial M for Murder," "The Birds," and others. If you are young, and sinking in the muck of today's Hollywood, you can be spiritually saved by renting the DVDs.
Hitchcock's films were known for many things, including a glossy, elegant style. But it was his ability to play our feelings, to sense how the audience would react, that was the spearhead of his success. And it struck me that Hitchcock had quite a bit to teach political candidates, even 28 years after his death. Some political players know these things instinctively. Most do not. Consider what Hitchcock knew, and showed in his work.
LESSON ONE – People love to be scared. We don't like to admit it, but it's clearly true. Hitchcock's career was based, simply, on scaring the audience. He reminded us of our sense of vulnerability, of what he called the "watch out" factor in life. There's a world of difference between fearmongering and understanding what people fear. It's outrageous, for example, when critics accuse President Bush of fearmongering when he discusses terrorism, for it's something Americans legitimately fear. Fear, in many respects, is good. It's the reason we don't put our hand on a hot stove.
POLITICAL APPLICATION: The candidate who understands voters' fears, and who can provide solutions, will have a strong appeal. People want their fears addressed. They don't want them ridiculed or ignored. A parent who fears that her child will be beaten up in school is outraged if her fear is shrugged off as a "socio-economic problem." Both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, although sunny characters, understood how, with restraint, to use fear. Roosevelt told America, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," but forcefully described, and addressed, the economic despair gripping the nation. Reagan spoke of "morning in America," but visceral fear of crime, and of international defeat, was always on his agenda.
Understand fear.LESSON TWO – Elegance works. If people are so fascinated by "reality," they can walk down the street, look around at the masses, and save the price of a movie ticket. The people we like to see are those we'd like to be, those we feel are a few cuts above. Many of Hitchcock's characters had a sheen about them. They were well turned out, with style. We enjoyed their company, even if they were the bad guys. Cary Grant, in "North by Northwest," was the most elegant ad man imaginable. Doris Day, in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" was, in her time, a delightful dream.
POLITICAL APPLICATION: Don't fall for the myth that Americans want their president to be "just like them." They want the president to be a little bit better. Yes, warmth is needed, but it must be joined with a certain polish. (I think that's part of Obama's appeal.) Roosevelt could start his fireside chats with the words, "My friends..," but he was a patrician, with a patrician's accent. He pronounced "again" as "agane." People liked it. Harry Truman, who succeeded Roosevelt, was much more "like us," but suffered for it. He lacked his predecessor's finish and elegance. Jimmy Carter thought he could identify with us by carrying his own bags. We didn't care for the practice. We felt that a president shouldn't carry his own bags. Kennedy could get away with a great deal because he exuded class. Clinton didn't, and paid the price.
LESSON THREE – A certain distance, please. This is related to Lesson Two. Hitchcock, especially starting the 1950s, liked to use "cool blondes" in his films – Grace Kelly (later Princess Grace of Monaco), Kim Novak, the aforementioned Doris Day, Eva Marie Saint, Janet Leigh, Tippi Hedren. He explained that they were untouchable, and that the untouchable is fascinating.
POLITICAL APPLICATION: There must be an invisible barrier between public and presidential candidate. These little coffee klatches in New Hampshire or Iowa may have some appeal, but they pass quickly. I suspect many Americans, watching on television, think them demeaning. I once was sitting, with my wife and daughter, two rows behind Ronald and Nancy Reagan at a play in New York. (It was "Crazy for You.") Watching the former president interact with members of the audience at intermission was a pleasure. He was warm, and engaging, and yet there was a certain distance. He didn't fawn over people or slap backs. He was still "Mr. President," and he knew the style. Peggy Noonan has said of Reagan that he knew how to be president, and I certainly saw it that night. Be friendly, candidates, but know when that invisible curtain must fall.
LESSON FOUR – Get rid of problems at the start. In "Strangers on a Train," two men meet during a trip and fall into a casual conversation. Each reveals he has someone in his life he'd like to see dead. Eventually, one of them proposes an agreement – that they murder each other's enemies. No one could trace the crimes. The agreement is sealed, and the plot gets going. Now, it's quite a convenient coincidence that two men with exactly the same problem, requiring a murderous solution, should meet on a train. But Hitchcock, always the student of the audience, explained that people will accept a coincidence at the beginning of a movie, but never at the end.
POLITICAL APPLICATION: Get rid of problems as soon as possible. Voters will accept an embarrassing revelation about a candidate early in a campaign, but never late. There are some well-timed political leaks coming out claiming that Senator Obama has some baggage in Chicago, a town where political baggage is carried around routinely. If so, he'd be wise to get it out now, rather than wait for a bombshell just before a vote.
LESSON FIVE – The better the villain, the better the story. That's a line Alfred Hitchcock used all the time. Drama is about conflict, and you'd better have someone worth conflicting with. He put great stress on building his villains, even if you rarely saw them. In "Rear Window" we got only a glimpse of the villain, played by Raymond Burr. But Hitchcock had built him, in our eyes, into a menacing wife killer.
POLITICAL APPLICATION: Forget all this stuff about no negative campaigning. There's always negative campaigning. You must portray your opponent as someone unworthy of the office, someone to be battled. An election campaign is a story, with elements of mystery, and, often, a surprise ending. You don't have to tear down your opponent, you simply have to make clear all the things that make it noble and worthwhile to defeat him. The better the villain, the better your story.
There are more lessons from Alfred Hitchcock. I may take them up in a later post. He would have been a great political consultant, although, given what happened to some of the villains in his films, he might have carried things a bit far.
ADDENDUM: In the first paragraph I asked you to name the film in which the name "Thornhill" appears. The answer, of course, is "North by Northwest." The character is Roger Thornhill, played by Cary Grant.
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