You can’t say we weren’t warned. Nearly 60 years before the
disastrous 2016 presidential election, Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd warned of a big-mouthed, small-minded,
adoration-addicted TV personality who would catch the ears of middle and
Southern America with his off-the-cuff babble to ultimately help push a
conservative agenda.
The difference between real-life clown Trump and fictional
one Lonesome Rhodes is that Rhodes did not get his start as an utterly immoral
monster with a silver spoon in his mouth. In fact, he gets his start as a
penniless drifter happy to be left alone, take shelter in jail cells, and whack
his guitar and wail some pretty funky country-blues numbers. When the host of A Face in the Crowd—a radio show
spotlighting regular folk—discovers Rhodes at a county jail, she sees bigger opportunities
for his out-sized personality. His own radio show follows, and when he gets his own
TV program, his first act is to put an African American woman on screen—a
radical act in 1957 recognized by his show’s viewers—to solicit donations to
rebuild her burned home. Such flashes of benevolence melt as Rhodes metamorphoses
from popular media star to populist demagogue, his appeal is recognized as a
potential political tool, and his initially obnoxious behavior turns deplorable
in a way that should resonate intensely with viewers tuned into the political
environment of today.
