Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Front Runner Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 11, 2019

For Director Jason Reitman's (Up in the Air, Tully) The Front Runner, megastar Hugh Jackman transforms from hunky self healing hero to perfectly coiffed, calm, cool, and centrist candidate. And cheater. Jackman plays Gary Hart, a candidate for the 1988 presidential election (which was ultimately won by George Bush over Michael Dukakis), whose personal missteps cost him the nomination and very possibly the White House. Sex scandals are certainly nothing new to the political landscape, but Hart's was different. It was the first to be covered in the now-familiar media frenzy. The press would often look the other way (Kennedy-Monroe) but Hart's undoing came in a time of more intense media scrutiny in the post-Watergate era, even in the pre-Internet days, which was of course the point of release for the Clinton-Lewinski scandal that at once both made online journalism a power in the evolving media industry and a scandal that ultimately led to a president's impeachment, but not removal from office.

Facing his accusers.

Colorado Senator Gary Hart (Jackman) entered the 1984 Democratic Party primaries as a relative unknown, found his footing and his following, but ultimately lost the nomination to Minnesota’s Walter Mondale, who was pummeled in the general election by the popular incumbent Ronald Reagan. Three years later, with Reagan’s second term winding down and a fresh round of presidential primaries about to get underway, Hart returns to the campaign trail in search of the 1988 DNC nomination and, this time, finds himself in the position of the party’s frontrunner. The 10-year senator, at 46 years of age, seems to have the world at his fingertips and the Oval Office within his reach, but when an ambitious young reporter named A.J. Parker (Mamoudou Athie) begins to probe into Hart’s personal life -- including possible marital infidelities -- an angered Hart challenges journalists to tail him on his time off the trail; "you'll be very bored," Hart promises them. They do just that; when The Miami Herald reporter Tom Fielder (Steve Zissis) conducts a stakeout at Hart’s home, he gathers enough circumstantial evidence to run a story that Hart is secretly sleeping with a woman, Donna Rice (Sara Paxton), behind his wife Lee’s (Vera Farmiga) back. With the campaign playing defense and Hart’s personal life dominating the headlines, the candidate has no choice but to confront the allegations, his accusers, and his wife head-on in hopes of heading off personal and political disaster.

The Front Runner does not celebrate Hart's demise. It's a sobering tale of a gifted politician whose marital misstep would cost him his lead in the primary and shift his focus from policy debates to pleas for the media to take the foot off the pedal not for his sake but rather for the sake of future public servants who might sidestep an opportunity to run for office in fear of some skeleton being unceremoniously yanked out of their closet. In the film, Hart maneuvers through the media minefield in a familiar way, at first denying the allegations (including a middle-of-the-night confrontation with two reporters and a photographer in the alleyway behind his home) and ultimately fessing up to the truth. He is depicted as a man of sound judgment, dedicated to his ideals, and both affable and approachable. Despite all of this, the affair brought him down, unlike so many of his future peers who are said to be made of "teflon" for their ability to keep scandal, sex or otherwise, from "sticking." The film does a fine job of telling Hart's story, directly and succinctly, while refusing to judge one way or the other. It takes the time to explore the story from his point of view, his wife's, his campaign's, and the media's. Public opinion is shared through a series of figures sourced from polls on the matter (one can suppose the filmmakers did their due diligence and conveyed true historical data). It's a very even-keeled film and intimate in its exploration of Hart's demise, with focus on both the media scrum and his own evolution through the ordeal.

Some of the film’s best scenes are of the “fly on the wall” variety at campaign headquarters or newspaper offices where the audience is privy to candid back-and-forths where the people who are speaking are less important than what is being said, whether early in the film, where Hart’s character is largely established without hearing from or seeing him directly, and later in the film as staffers and campaign executives and reporters and editors huddle together to discuss the evolving sex scandal. The film is brilliantly performed from the top down; each actor intimately understands their role and contribution to the larger dynamic. Jackman’s character is, of course, the most demanding, tasking the actor with processing the information and dealing with it in his own way both inwardly and outwardly, to himself and in the public eye. One of the film’s best scenes involves his direct confrontation with the Herald's publisher (Kevin Pollak), in a public forum, where Hart essentially “owns” him and calls him out for his journalists' flimsy detective work that he then printed as gospel. It appears to be the out Hart so desperately needed, but of course the scandal would dog him to the point of removal from the race.

The Front Runner Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Front Runner was shot on film. Reitman carefully recreates a period appearance for his picture, one that Sony's Blu-ray replicates fully and faithfully. The image is a textural powerhouse, defined by tight, precise details and complimented by a fine, filmic grain structure. Facial complexities are revealed with ease, 80s attire is sharp and revealing, and various offices and props, including era televisions, telephones, and typewriters, showcase exceptionally revelatory clarity. Colors are a strong point. The film does take on a fairly warm color temperature but expect to find well saturated hues within the picture's visual parameters, with strong pop and vitality in some of the more neutrally lit scenes. Black levels are critical to shaping the moods within various scenes, and Sony presents them with highly impressive depth, shadow detail, and stability. Skin tones are likewise full and healthy. The image reveals no source artifacts or compression issues. Slight wobble on a title card introducing the New York location at about the 76-minute mark is really the only "blemish" to be found, but that might be a small Reitman detail meant to suggest and reinforce the picture's period-recreative look and feel.

The Front Runner Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

In The Front Runner, it's not uncommon for characters to speak over and atop one another; various scenes can be a jumble of dialogue that Sony's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack produces as intended, which means a general absence of perfect prioritization and vocal distinction and clarity. Still, even in isolation, some vocals, particularly early in the film, struggle to elevate to a reasonable level, leaving the listener straining a bit to properly hear what needs to be heard. The track is otherwise in good shape, presenting reasonably wide and slightly immersive office din at newspapers and campaign offices. The track gains some steam in chapter four when music plays with a more prominent energy and clarity when Hart takes his first break from the campaign in Miami. Listeners will appreciate some fine musical distinction in chapter 10 while a scene in chapter 15 features a critical moment in a press conference that is interrupted by camera shutters clicking all over the stage. Indeed, the bustle of gathered press comes to define most of the film's key second half scenes, which juxtapose against Hart's more reserved responses in front of gaggles of journalists.

The Front Runner Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Front Runner contains a commentary track, a featurette, and deleted scenes. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase. A DVD is not. The release does not appear to ship with a slipcover.

• Audio Commentary: Co-Writer/Director Jason Reitman is joined by Producer Helen Estabrook, Production Designer Steve Saklad, Costume Designer Danny Glicker, and Cinematographer Eric Steelberg who combine to craft a compelling commentary that explores not just story and performances but also many technical details as well as the philosophical points covered in the film and how these filmmakers explored them in film.
• The Unmaking of a Candidate (1080p, 15:39): Cast and crew discuss the real Gary Hart and the story's relevancy today. The piece also includes discussions of cast camaraderie, Jason Reitman's work as director, the film's character and "intellectual" energy, the film's presentation style, sets and locations, cast and performances, the media landscape at the time of the campaign, how the scandal has altered the social, political, and media landscapes, and more. This is a terrific piece.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, Dolby Digital 2.0, 4:23 total runtime): Included are 1984 Alternate Opening, The One Thing You Won't Give, and What's Relevant?
• Previews (1080p): Additional Sony titles.

The Front Runner Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Front Runner is a well-paced and entertaining film but more importantly an intimate character portrait about a politician's fall from grace, if not the first then certainly the first most prominent victim of extreme media scrutiny or "tabloid politics" as Author/Screenwriter Matt Bai has called it in the book on which the film is based. Jackman is terrific in the role, parsing the part more inwardly than outwardly, commanding the screen as the darling but quickly discarded candidate. Sony's Blu-ray is, unsurprisingly, first rate, offering pristine 1080p film-sourced video, a high end 5.1 lossless soundtrack, and a few quality extras. Highly recommended.