Samuel Goldwyn Theater
8949 Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA, 90211
Color, 96 minutes. Courtesy of Janus Films.
Directed by Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker. Produced by R.J. Cutler, Wendy Ettinger, Frazer Pennebaker.
25th Anniversary Screening and Conversation
With special guests including film subjects James Carville, Dee Dee Myers, directors Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker and producers R.J. Cutler and Wendy Ettinger. Moderated by Todd S. Purdum.
The War Room was the name for Bill Clinton’s campaign center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Though the press wasn’t usually permitted inside, filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus managed to secure partial access and shot nearly 35 hours of footage there. At the center of The War Room are the two men who guided Clinton’s campaign from the beginning: James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. Hegedus and Pennebaker’s camera follows these two masterminds as they organize and execute strategies for such events as the Democratic National Convention, the debates with George Bush and H. Ross Perot, and the final days leading up to the election itself. The War Room is a compelling and enlightening documentary about two remarkable men, and about the monumental determination and effort that is required to conduct and win a political campaign in the modern age.