Primary Colors (1998)

"Funny and vibrant.  Time Magazine
"So funny it hurts!  Rolling Stone

Editor's Note In Mike Nichols's PRIMARY COLORS, America's topsy-turvy political process is viewed through the eyes of Henry Burton (Adrian Lester), an idealistic young man who is seduced into managing the presidential campaign of slick southern governor Jack Stanton (John Travolta). The mesmerized Burton immediately sets up campaign headquarters and meets his new political family: Susan Stanton (Emma Thompson), Jack's wife and partner; Richard Jemmons (Billy Bob Thornton), the sly, improbable political strategist who proudly describes himself as a redneck; Libby Holden (Kathy Bates), the fanatically loyal, overtly lesbian campaign troubleshooter who always has a big mouth and occasionally carries a big gun to match; and Daisy (Maura Tierney), the young, smart, and looking-for-love campaign media adviser. The film is based on the controversial best-selling novel by Anonymous (Joe Klein). Travolta's dead-on, thinly disguised Clinton impersonation alone is well worth seeing.

	Adrian Lester
	Billy Bob Thornton
	Kathy Bates
	Larry Hagman
	Maura Tierney
	Emma Thompson
	John Travolta
	Ann Roth - Costume Designer
	Mike Nichols - Director
	Michael Ballhaus - Director of Photography
	Arthur Schmidt - Editor
	Jonathan D. Krane - Executive Producer
	Neil Machlis - Executive Producer
	Ry Cooder - Musical Score
	Mike Nichols - Producer
	Elaine May - Screenplay

Rolling Stone
"...This provocative film touches a nerve. It's so funny it hurts..." 04/16/1998 p.87-8

Entertainment Weekly
"...Travolta is a wonderful Clinton/Stanton....[Bates is] a fierce, funny force of nature..." 09/04/1998 pp.86-7

New York Times
"...An array of vivid caricatures whose real-life role models aren't easy acts to follow..." 03/20/1998 p.E1

Los Angeles Times
"...For Tennessee-born Kathy Bates, this gleeful, high-energy part is a lifesaver, her best performance since winning an Oscar in MISERY and good enough to practically steal the entire picture..." 03/20/1998 p.C1

Chicago Sun-Times
"...It's a superb film -- funny, insightful and very wise about the realities of political life....The movie is endlessly inventive and involving..." 03/20/1998 p.41

Total Film
"...PRIMARY COLORS rewards where other political dramas merely bore..." 10/01/1999 p.104

Box Office Magazine 7 of 10
When Primary Colors sticks to [Joe] Klein's book, it sings... The acting, too is superb, from Emma Thompson's button-down version of Hilary to Billy Bob Thornton's deadpan riff on Clinton's Cajun troubleshooter James Carville. Kathy Bates also rises to the occasion as the bombastic, lunatic Stanton spin doctor Libby Holden. And Travolta as the petulant, irresponsible but genuinely caring and charming Jack Stanton isn't just in top form; he's the best p.r. Bill Clinton could ever hope for. - Shlomo Schwartzberg

Time Magazine 8 of 10
... Nichols and his once and current partner, screenwriter Elaine May... make a funny, knowing, ultimately judicious film... If you mix the primary colors red, yellow and blue, the result is black. But this is no black comedy. It is a wistful story, about honor (Nichols says) and (we say) about the joy and pain of an idealist's love. - Richard Corliss