The movie revolves around the story of John McCain, the American politician who serving as the senior United States Senator from Arizona, and the Republican nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 election. But before this decent position, he had such a terrible hard life.
It's certainly an inspirational portrait; it's also a blatant exercise in legacy management... Still, For Whom is entirely convincing, even moving, in its intimation that McCain's passing will mark the alarming disappearance of the GOP's old guard.
HBO would like to offer you the following answer: "No, you shouldn't respect John McCain because he has stage IV brain cancer." It has a lot of other reasons why you should. And you'll agree or you won't.
The respect and admiration for the cancer-afflicted POW turned Arizona senator is non-partisan and clearly more than pro forma during this 1 hour, 45 minute film.
Keenly aware that he's nearing the end, McCain and director Peter Kunhardt have left a guide to a figure described, for good or ill, as being the most influential non-president of the last half-century.
First and foremost, this documentary is as a moving farewell to a flawed, but still admirable, man. But it also comes across as another type of good-bye, one to the basic civility Americans once were able to take for granted in the political realm.
The political myth-making around McCain has always been tough to take, and this movie is basically two hours of it. The myths aren't just about McCain, either, but also an effort to gloss over... how we got to the terrible place we're in today.
