The Contender
Short description
The Contender follows a political confrontation set in motion by the death of a vice president. President Jackson Evans must name a replacement, and he chooses Senator Laine Hanson, who would be the first woman to hold the office. Her nomination draws opposition from both parties, above all from Congressman Shelly Runyon, who has a candidate of his own in mind. He makes public a story about Hanson's conduct as a student, seeking to discredit her, and she must decide whether to answer the accusation or refuse to discuss it.
Rod Lurie wrote and directed the film, the first in the chronological list of his features, followed by Deterrence, The Last Castle and later work including Nothing But the Truth and The Outpost. Joan Allen plays Hanson, with Gary Oldman as Runyon, Jeff Bridges as the president, and Christian Slater, Sam Elliott and William Petersen in supporting roles; the credited cast runs to 52 names.
Made on a budget of about 20 million dollars, it took roughly 22 million dollars worldwide, a modest return. On IMDb it holds 6.9 out of 10 from around 26,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 out of 10 from 273 votes, while its critics' rating stands at 7.1 out of 10 from 131 reviews, slightly above what general audiences gave it.
What's left behind the scenes
- Gary Oldman and producer Douglas Urbanski complained after the film’s release that “DreamWorks Pictures” studio had altered the initially well-balanced script to conform to the liberal worldview of its leadership (Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen).
- During post-production, a storyline about the father of Senator Lane Henson was cut from the film. The character was named Oscar Billings, and was played by Philip Baker Hall. He was a former corrupt governor who used his connections to secure a place for his daughter in the U.S. Senate without her knowledge. This became known, and Hall committed suicide. Director and screenwriter Rod Lurie cut all of this from the film for runtime reasons and because he believed audiences wouldn't believe the senator could get away with accusations of nepotism so easily.
- According to Jeff Bridges, he deliberately made his character, President Jackson Evans, resemble his own father, Lloyd Bridges, who passed away in 1988.
- Jeff Bridges and Gary Oldman agreed to star in the film only after learning that Joan Allen would be playing the lead role.
- The idea for the film came to Rod Lurie when he was presenting Joan Allen with an award, and he jokingly said that he should write a script so she could win another award for working in it. Allen replied that if he ever actually wrote a script, she would definitely read it. Lurie only took a couple of weeks to write the screenplay.
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