A long-time Altman fan, I rented the video of Tanner 88 just in time for the final days of the 2000 election. In fact, on election night, I was flipping back and forth between Altman's clever take on presidential politics and the "real" thing, and I can tell you, Tanner 88 was much better television.
The mini-series of 10 half-hour episodes is available on three VHS tapes.
It was excellent, overall. Especially good was the way it punctured so many of the hot-air balloons and pretensions of American politics, but clearly sympathized with the people who want to believe in it. We see a liberal Democratic candidate, Jack Tanner, played skillfully by Michael Murphy, go through a campaign from the New Hampshire primary to the end of the convention. Typical of the series, Tanner is on the one hand shallow and full of empty rhetoric, while also sincere, idealistic and sometimes inspiring. Tanner's campaign manager, a woman, is also extremely smart, more than a little cynical, but capable of being inspired by her candidate whose weaknesses she knows very well. The first half of the series, which takes place in New Hampshire, is extremely funny, especially in showing how the citizens there have become inured to the hoopla of the candidates and the media. Also outstanding in this series is the way the working press is portrayed as part of the life of the campaign--these are real people, not just role players. The last two episodes, at the convention, lack the bite of the first five or or six, and could be skipped without losing much.
