November 8, 2007

A Deal Worth Taking

This political film from Britain offers little political education about our former mother country, but it’s a terrific story little known to most Americans, Seth Arenstein writes.

Tube Stake | Programming Reviews by Seth Arenstein

Thursday, November 8
The Deal, 9 p.m., HBO.

Politics in Britain isn’t yet the money machine that it is on this side of the pond. 

Members of Parliament essentially are part-time workers, much like many local or state politicians in the U.S. still are. The conditions in which British Parliamentarians labor is brought home in this film from 1993, whose main story will be unknown, and captivating, to most Americans.

The plot centers on the rise to power of Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of Britain, and Gordon Brown, the man who now inhabits No. 10 Downing Street.

When they came up as young Labour members of Parliament, Blair and Brown shared a dingy office in Whitehall, barely large enough for one tenant. They answered their own phones, wrote their own letters and prepared their own speeches. Contrast Blair’s and Brown’s lot with a freshman member of the House of Representatives, and you can accept that the two men had to learn to get along. It couldn’t have been easy.

While not quite Felix and Oscar, Brown and Blair were nearly polar opposites in many regards. Brown was an intellectual from Scotland, brooding, often gruff and insular. Blair was pleasant, upbeat and sociable. What they had in common was their dedication to the party and a yearning for power. Unfortunately, the Tories at the time were in top form, first with Margaret Thatcher and later John Major.

During the course of Labour’s years in opposition, 18 to be exact, Brown and Blair became tepid friends as their careers blossomed. Each became more senior members of Labour, although the party was still flailing on Election Day. While the film could have dealt with the political reasons why Blair and Brown began amassing prominence in the party, it opts for the more visual route. As the two advance, they each get larger and considerably brighter offices. There’s even a secretary to answer the phone and type. 

At some point, the men agree during a casual conversation that Brown, the more brainy, aggressive and articulate of the two, would one day lead Labour out of the mud.

Eventually, the leading Labourites advance in age and decline in health, leaving an open lane for young bloods like Blair and Brown. As leader John Smith lies in a hospital after a second heart attack, Brown is so confident of his chances for the top spot, or so far above petty politics, that he refrains from lobbying his colleagues for their support. He’ll win on the merits, he believes.

Underdog Blair, on the other hand, publicly abstains from politicking during Smith’s health crisis, but privately is securing his base. Once Smith, played convincingly by Frank Kelly, dies in 1994, Blair’s ship has risen. Meanwhile Brown seems too overwhelmed by the shock of Smith’s death to do much of anything except write op eds praising the fallen leader. The two former officemates duel privately until Blair suggests that he and Brown, for the good of the party, agree to “the deal.”

While there’s much to recommend this film, you wish there was more meat on the plate. As mentioned above, there’s little depth about politics, despite the film’s plot. It’s far more a character study of two men, and a fine yarn. There may be a reason for this. The film is studded with historical footage showing Labour’s real leaders. British viewers, but relatively few Americans, will know why a shot of Michael Foot, who led from 1980-83, denotes what many viewed as an impractical leader for Labour and a member of the failed old guard. For the American viewer, these and other subtleties are lost.

Another drawback are some aspects of the performance of David Morrissey as Gordon Brown. While Mr. Morrissey won a Royal Television Society Award for Best Male Actor for his work in this film, his voice, at times, sounds like he’s spoofing Brown, much as Kevin Kline did when playing the overly imperious American president Bill Mitchell in the film Dave (1993). These and other drawbacks aren’t enough to derail this fine historical drama.

[Watch a preview of The Deal at: http://www.hbo.com/films/thedeal/index.html ]

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