The death of Ivan Reitman, at the age of 75, on 12 February, has not only robbed contemporary cinema of one of its kindest practitioners, but it also leaves an artistic legacy of almost unparalleled good cheer. From Ghostbusters to Twins, via the likes of Junior, Kindergarten Cop and No Strings Attached, Ivan Reitman’s name on a film usually guaranteed fun.
However, this did not mean that the fun had to be frivolous. While Reitman generally made special effects-heavy and high-concept films, he deviated from his usual cheerily weightless subjects in 1993 to make the Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver romantic comedy Dave.
Today, unmemorable title aside, it remains his best film. The tale of how an indisposed US president is replaced by the titular Dave, a hapless but increasingly adept lookalike, who seeks to improve the United States while falling in love with the First Lady, its mixture of pitch-perfect political satire, goofy farce and Capra-esque idealism holds up wonderfully well three decades on.
It hints at a different, perhaps richer, career that Reitman might have had if he’d eschewed eye-popping blockbusters for smaller films. From a political perspective, it was also timely in its rejection of the Reaganite ideals, as presented by the cold, corrupt President William Harrison and its embrace of the warmer, more compassionate Clinton era, as epitomised by the presidential doppelganger, the likeable and idealistic Dave Kovic. Three decades on, it works beautifully as both a savvy Washington-set comedy and a rare display of optimism as to what a kinder, gentler sort of politics could be like.
Its screenwriter Gary Ross had an excellent pedigree when it came to both politics and cinema. His father Arthur A Ross was also a screenwriter. His son said of him in a 1993 Los Angeles Times interview that, during the McCarthy era, Ross Snr was “dark-grey-listed because of his politics. He wasn’t a communist, but he was very involved in liberal causes”. This gave his son a keen awareness of how serious themes might be smuggled into mainstream cinema, as well as a lifelong interest in politics.
He worked on Ted Kennedy’s unsuccessful campaign to secure the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1980, before he sold the screenplay for what became the Tom Hanks vehicle Big to 20th Century Fox; he subsequently received an Oscar nomination for it.
Yet Ross continued to maintain his political interests, and acted as a consultant and speechwriter both for Michael Dukakis’s 1988 presidential campaign and for Bill Clinton’s subsequent, successful 1992 campaign, although he subsequently played this side of his career down. In one interview in 1993, he said: “When they need some jokes they call me… it’s not like I spend half my life writing political stuff. I’m a screenwriter.” He acknowledged, however, that his dual status as both super-connected insider and detached, witty commentator was “kinda cool”.
