I think the movie really got at the essence of the man, showed the complexity of politics and what it does to a family who cares enough about people to put themselves out there and try to make a difference. It showed the Big Dog as a man of larger than life appetites. Like so many great leaders, he's a flawed man and his flaws are necessarily bundled up with and inextricable from his greatest strengths.
The story at the time was that Clinton himself liked the movie. That may just be PR flack, but my read on the man is that he's such an inveterate optimist, he probably did enjoy the show even if it did portray him as having feet of clay. I read an interview Travolta gave where he described visiting Clinton in the White House as he was researching how he'd play the role. Travolta ended up falling a little bit in love with Bubba.
Haven't we all?
The presidential bio-movie has become a bit of an 8th year tradition in this country. Primary Colors was the first of those. Then Oliver Stone did his brilliant take on Dubya, W. Both of those movies I think tried to graple with the complex character of their subjects, avoiding being either screed or hagiography. I think it's telling that when it came time to make the Obama movie this year, all Hollywood could come up with was a love story about how he wooed Michelle. Southside With You was just a cute date movie. But how could you make a serious political movie about Obama? All of the villains would be cartoonish and implausible.
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