KNIFE FIGHT GOES INSIDE THE SPIN TO AVOID THE MESSAGE
Knife Fight begins as if a documentary featuring past presidential candidates, including some whose sexual affairs were never reported by the press at a time when television had not become a universal household possession. Nowadays, many Americans vote for their favorite political party, so they do not have to pay attention to the issues at stake. Since some intelligence is required to compare candidates on issues, that leaves an easier choice for the uninformed, nonpartisan voter: Select on the basis of personal characteristics, as summed up by the question, “Can you trust this candidate?” The thesis of Knife Fight, directed by Bill Guttentag, is stated quite early by Paul Turner (played by Rob Lowe): Most successful politicians are as brilliant as they are flawed in some way. Translation: They like people so much, who are in turn attracted to them, that they engage in sexual misconduct. Solution: The campaign fixit adviser, as personified by Turner. In Knife Fight, Turner is handling advertising for an incumbent governor of Kentucky and an incumbent California Senator. The men are sexually active (to the chagrin of their wives), but Turner’s spin machine draws up ads and even plans a “spontaneous” admission on camera to counter blackmail from a shady attorney (played by Alan Dershowitz). But although Turner at first refuses to help a woman running for governor of California because she is an unknown, Turner’s assistant Kerstin (played by Jamie Chung) secretly pays a homeless man $100 to attack someone, giving the candidate an opportunity on camera to sweet talk the man into giving up the knife, thereby propelling her to prominence. Do the three candidates win? That is the anticlimax of Knife Fight. MH