The Campaign
Short description
The Campaign is a comedy set in a small congressional district in North Carolina, where two very different men end up running for the same seat in the United States House of Representatives. Cam Brady is the long-serving incumbent, confident of another term until a scandal leaves him vulnerable. Marty Huggins is a naive family man with no political experience, pushed into the race by wealthy backers who want a pliable candidate in Washington. What begins as an ordinary contest turns into a bitter, increasingly absurd fight, with each side trying to humiliate the other while their private lives suffer the consequences.
Jay Roach directed the film, the ninth of the fourteen features he has directed in chronological order, following Dinner for Schmucks and preceding Game Change. Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell wrote the screenplay, and Roach produced alongside Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Ferrell plays Cam Brady and Zach Galifianakis plays Marty Huggins, with Jason Sudeikis, Katherine LaNasa, Dylan McDermott and Sarah Baker in supporting roles. The production was large by comedy standards, and the worldwide gross of roughly 105 million dollars against a budget of about 95 million dollars indicates a modest return rather than a strong one.
Audience response has been mixed. On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.1 out of 10 from about 141,000 votes, while on TMDB it scores 5.8 out of 10 from a much smaller pool of under 2,000 votes. A critics' rating of 6 out of 10 from 201 reviews places it close to the audience scores, suggesting broad agreement about a comedy that lands somewhere in the middle.
What's left behind the scenes
- Although there is no definitive proof, the Moth brothers are likely based on the real-life Koch brothers. David H. Koch and Charles G. Koch are major supporters of conservative politics and advocacy groups in the United States.
- Zach Galifianakis has an uncle who was a congressman in North Carolina. The film's action unfolds there. Galifianakis himself was actually born there, in North Carolina.
- In a scene during the end credits, when Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis) mentions aliases used by Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott), one of the names he says is Dermot Mulroney. In real life, McDermott is sometimes mistaken for Mulroney due to the similarity of their names.
- At the very beginning of the film, the phrase (“War has rules. Fighting dirty has rules. Politics has no rules”) on the screen is attributed to Ross Perot as a 1988 presidential candidate. Perot ran for president twice: the first time in 1992, and then again in 1996, when he actually uttered the phrase used in the film.
- Despite a scene revealing that Brady is supported by a tobacco company – which was prominently featured in many trailers – during his appearance on "Piers Morgan Tonight" (2011), this scene was removed from the film.
- After Cam was arrested, a reporter approaches him and asks: “You have been charged with drunk driving. Is it true that your blood alcohol content was 1.4 per mille?” At that blood alcohol level, a fatal outcome is very likely, and Cam would have been hospitalized. Perhaps it was just a slip of the tongue and they meant 0.14, which is above the legal limit in all states and would be more plausible.
- The car parked in front of the Huggins’ house has a license plate reading GEN-0101. This is a reference to the first verse of the Bible (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”).
- Although Marty’s campaign managers suggest a chocolate Labrador and a golden retriever as American dogs, these breeds were developed in Canada and the United Kingdom respectively.
- The size of the American flag pinned to Cam Brady’s lapel changes. As he begins to stumble during the interview, the flag grows to be four or five times larger than it was originally.
- When Tim Watley talks to Marty, after being pulled away from spending time with his family and his children being sent to their room, we see Mitsy walking away from them down the hallway. However, in the next shot, she is back next to Marty.
- When Cam Brady tries to sleep with Mitsy Huggins, he sets up an iPhone to record it and then use it. If you look at the bottom icon on the screen, which opens the photos, there’s a miniature picture of Cam and Mitsy already sitting together. It’s likely from a failed take and ended up there because they forgot to delete the previous recording attempt.
- At the party where the election results were revealed, there is a flag on the table in front of Marty. It either lies perfectly flat, or a crease appears on it, and then it becomes flat again. Neither Marty nor his wife touched it during this time.
- When Cam Brady attempts to sleep with Mitsy Huggins, an image from an iPhone camera appears on screen at the 56-minute mark, with a timer showing 3:18. A few seconds later, the timer shows 2:25.
- Despite the film's poster depicting the two main characters facing off with the Capitol Building (Washington, D.C.) in the background, almost the entire film takes place in and around North Carolina, where the main characters live and campaign. There is only one scene in Congress, and even that comes after the credits.
- All the cigarettes smoked by the film's characters are Newport, produced by the Lorillard tobacco company in Greensboro, North Carolina.
- A scene was filmed with wrestler Mike Mizanin presenting Cam Brady (Will Ferrell), but it was cut shortly before the film's premiere. However, scenes remain where he can be seen in the background.
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