Will Ferrell had a string of memorable comedies in the 2000s-2010s from the likes of Anchorman, Step Brothers and Talladega Nights. There are several other films you can probably list that he did in that time period that were filled with plenty of zingers and laugh out loud scenes. One film you probably won’t come up with his 2012’s The Campaign. The film was a rather weak one co-starring Zach Galifianakis. Despite two of the best comedy men side-by-side it just lacked the laughs. Ironically, though, the movie is also probably the most relevant one of the bunch when you look back on it. Unfortunately, it’s relevancy comes from reflecting on our current broken and ridiculous political nature.
The film follows Democratic House Congressman Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) in a safe North Carolina District as he campaigns in the 2012 election. Brady is a lousy public servant but a wonderful, silver-tongued politician and that allows him to skate to victory election after election until no political opponents end up trying. But he gets into a political scandal that finally puts his seat in jeopardy. This prompts the Motch brothers, two billionaires, to put big money behind Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), the son of a former political advisor. They hope to capture the North Carolina district and literally sell it to China, so they can sell Chinese goodies labeled as made in America.
As you can tell from that description, the satire in the film is about as subtle as a sledgehammer.
Overall, I could never really recommend the film as one to watch purely on its quality. It’s got a few good laughs here and there, but it’s a rather mediocre affair. Part of the reason for that is the on-the-nose criticisms of American politics, such as the amount of corporate money flooding into campaigns, the circus-like mentality that surrounds election cycles and the language of political discourse. Or, at least, it felt that way in 2012. In 2019, if anything, it feels tame.
I was out of the country during the 2012 election but followed it when I could. It was a decisive election, sure, but nothing all that out of the ordinary to what we usually experienced back then with American elections, for better or worse. The Campaign’s riffs on the various political aspects seemed outrageous at that time. A political scandal involving a premarital scandal almost brings down Brady, but he chooses to spin it as a positive with an ad that highlights how sexy his mistress is, which polls worse than any other ad in history with women, much to Brady’s surprise.
The best part of the film is the middle, when Brady and Huggins constantly one-up each other in their campaigns. Over-the-top pandering to religion that leads to one getting bite by a venomous snake, a snafu that results in a baby (and a puppy dog later) getting full-on punched in the face and accusations of being a terrorist due to facial hair. The nasty political tactics bleed over into their family life, making their relationships disintegrate, leading to even more extreme campaigning that includes a cuckolding campaign video that Will Ferrell plays hilariously, easily the highlight of the film, and one of the candidates getting shot on live TV and getting a bump in the polls. Real-life figures like Bill Maher and Wolf Blitzer show up commenting on the action, giving it a dash of authenticity.
It was all pretty ridiculous in 2012. In 2019, I imagine just about anyone reading the above could easily see any of these events being something you’d read from a real-life campaign of today. Hell, we had a 2017 special election in Montana where the GOP candidate body slammed a reporter, ran away and then won the seat. That could have easily being a skit in The Campaign. It’s also not too hard to imagine Trump calling Biden a cuckold or bragging about all the beautiful women he’s slept with during a live debate in what feels like the inevitable 2020 battle between the two.
In some ways, this somewhat eerie foreshadowing does the film little favor. Its humor is already pretty dull, especially by the end, but having it echo so much of today’s politics makes it feel far more depressing than funny. It almost makes you pine for a time when stuff like this all seemed crazy. A simpler time when bragging about cuckolding someone seemed like such a wild idea you’d never believe it could be a legitimate campaigning tactic, instead of being surprised that someone hasn’t done it yet.
If you’ve got a few free hours to burn, it’s hard to recommend The Campaign for its quality, but it might be worth watching if for no other reason to mull over a more innocent time when our politics weren’t so outrageous that we could maybe a laugh a little at crazy things that would, of course, never happen in a real campaign. Because sometimes all you can do is try and laugh.