“It is extremely difficult to make a good political or social film because the issues are complex and, to some extent, abstract, and have to be embodied in human anatagonists to make them come alive… In effect, the film maker is caught between the Scylla of depersonalization and the Charybdis of oversimplification… It is much easier to make a film with political overtones or social implications, … and not confront the problems head-on.“

In the winter 1982 issue of NEWS, Professor Sidney Wise ponders the treatment of the politician by Hollywood's film makers. Wise was prompted to write in response to a previous discussion of Robert Altman's Nashville by G. Alan Tarr, who argued that such a film is “above all a commentary on political life.”