Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who represented the Al Gore team during
the 2004 Florida recount, has denounced the HBO drama Recount, scheduled to
air on May 25. In an interview with today's (Thursday) New York Times, Christophe
r said that he had asked to see a script of the film before production began but
never received one. After reviewing a transcript provided by the Times, Christopher
said that he was stunned. "Much of what the author has written about me is pure f
iction," he said. "It contained events that never occurred, words I never spoke and
decisions attributed to me that I never made." Bill Daley, Gore's campaign chairman,
who said that the filmmakers agreed to make changes in the script about his role
in the recount, called the depiction of Christopher "absolute fantasy." Even James
Baker, the chief Republican adviser at the time, who is depicted in the film as outsmarting
Christopher at every turn, commented, "I don't think I was as ruthless as the movie
portrays me, and I know he was not as wimpish as it makes him appear." Screenwriter
Danny Strong, who interviewed the three men, acknowledged that he decided not to
send Christopher the script "because I didn't feel that he was being totally candid
in our interview." Meanwhile, the drama is getting some solid reviews. Syndicated
columnist Liz Smith called it "one of the most viscerally powerful, fast-moving,
literate, magnificently acted roller-coaster rides ever put on-screen."
15/05/2008
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