George Wallace
George Wallace
G | 24 August 1997 (USA)
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George Wallace is a 1997 television film starring Gary Sinise as George Wallace, the former Governor of Alabama. It was directed by John Frankenheimer, who won an Emmy award for it; Sinise and Mare Winningham also won Emmies for their performances. The film was based on the 1996 biography Wallace : The Classic Portrait of Alabama Governor George Wallace by Marshall Frady, who also co-wrote the teleplay. Frankenheimer's film was highly praised by critics: in addition to the Emmy awards, it received the Golden Globe for Best Miniseries/Motion Picture made for TV. Angelina Jolie also received a Golden Globe for her performance as Wallace's second wife, Cornelia.

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Reviews
Cubussoli

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

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WillSushyMedia

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

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ThrillMessage

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

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Livestonth

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

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bkoganbing

Gary Sinise delivers a superb performance in the biographical television film George Wallace. I well remember Wallace from back in the sixties and Sinise is so good in the part you think you're seeing home movies of Wallace, albeit a slightly skinnier version.No southern politician since Huey Long had the impact of Wallace on the national scene. He was a product of the white backlash to the Brown vs. Board of Education School integration decision of the Supreme Court. Wallace, previously a moderate who lost a gubernatorial primary in 1958, courted the die-hard segregationist vote in 1962 and won the first of several terms as Governor of Alabama. It was a platform that he used to rattle both the Democratic and Republican parties for several years.He unleashed a lot of dark and evil forces beyond even what he knew and maybe he never realized the full extent of them even after the attempted assassination of him at a presidential campaign rally in Laurel, Maryland in 1972. But he had to come to grips with pain and suffering as he never did before and maybe he caught a bit of empathy for those of the disenfranchised he'd demagogued against previously.It is a fact that the former poster boy for race segregation got a large amount of black support in his final race for Governor in 1986.Sinise is aided and abetted by good performances by Clarence Williams, III who serves as a kind of Greek Chorus, a fictional black servant at the Governor's mansion who is Wallace's sounding board as neither his two wives became. Mare Winningham who is the small town girl Lurleen who he married and who just wanted a normal home life. She became part of his ambitions when she was elected Governor herself in a ploy to get around Alabama's term limit law. Winningham is as I remember Lurleen Wallace and conceive of what she was like in her private life. Angelina Jolie in a break out role for her plays Wallace's second wife Cornelia who was the niece of former Governor Jim Folsom played her ably by Joe Don Baker. After Wallace was shot and paralyzed and lost the control of a number of lower body functions, she tries as best she can to adjust. A whole lot is against it though in both her's and his personalities.George Wallace is a much better than average made for TV product, it probably should have gotten a theatrical release. It's a portrait of some dark corners of America and shouldn't be missed.

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dtucker86

The late John Frankenheimer was one of our truly great directors. He cut his teeth in the early days of television, directing over 100 tv shows and then he went on the direct Birdman Of Alcatraz, Seven Days In May, The Train and his masterpiece The Manchurian Candidate. He had a long dry spell after that where Hollywood more or less forgot about him, but in the early 90s he was able to make an amazing comeback with a series of tv films like Against The Wall, The Burning Season, Andersonville and this film. This is a man who directed actors like Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Edmond O'Brien, and yet he said Gary Sinise was one of the finest actors he ever worked with. Sinise is probably best remembered for his role as Lieutenant Dan in the Forrest Gump movie (one of the most depressing films that I ever saw I HATED IT!!!). He did a wonderful job as Harry Truman and he equally rises to the occasion as George Wallace. George Wallace was one of the truly controversial figures of our time. In 1958, he ran for Alabma's governor as someone who favored cival rights and lost. According to friends he vowed that he would never be "out niggered" again (excuse my language I'm just quoting what he said) and he won. He voweed in his inagural address "segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever!" If ever a man symbolized the horrors of racism in the 1960's it was certainly George Wallace. Sinise brilliantly portrays Wallace's ruthless ambition and drive for power, but then there is the 1972 assassination attempt that left him paralyzed. There is a sad scene in the film where a doctor tells him that he will be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, that he will be impotent and not even able to control bladder or bowel and that he will never have another day without pain. It's maybe because of this that Wallace sought not power but forgiveness in the last years of his life. He apologized to those he had hurt like the Freedom Riders. Sinise is wonderful in his role as is Angelina Jolie as his wife Cornelia. Forget her tatooes and her eccentricities, she is a fine actress who always delivers. Joe Don Baker also gives as Jim Folsom, Wallace's protege. Actually, it was only thru luck that Wallace became governor in 1962. Jim Folsom was a very popular Alabama politican who had been elected Governor twice before (1947-51,1955,59). In 1962, he ran against Wallace and had a good chance at a third term until he appeared drunk on a tv show on the eve of the election. Folsom forgot the names of his children and gave an extended imitation of a cuckoo clock. The performance cost him the election and ended his career as an important politician in Alabama.

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Lupercali

As an Australian I was unfamiliar with many of the fine historical details depicted in the movie, so it was in part a history lesson for me. It also means I have little at stake politically, so my review ought to be fairly unbiased in that respect.George Wallace isn't an extraordinary film (especially considering it's from John (Manchurian Candidate) Frankenheimer), but it's thoroughly enjoyable, even if a little overlong for a single sitting. There are none of the elaborate directorial flourishes which you would get if this was an Oliver Stone job. Frankly, I was relieved.I said the movie, as a whole, wasn't extraordinary. But Gary Sinise is quite simply superb. Irrespective of anything else, Wallace is worth watching just for his remarkable performance.6.5/10 overall 10/10 for Sinise

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Robert D. Ruplenas

I had to order this movie online to see it, as it has disappeared from local video stores up here in the "progressive" Northeast. Since it was made only in 1997 and much older films are still readily accessible one wonders if perhaps the reason for its scarcity up here is its presentation of Wallace as something other than the standard, portrait of an ignorant, cardboard cutout racist, a conception which make the liberal New England chest swell with self-satisfied, holier-than-thou virtue. I remember seeing, years ago, video coverage on the evening news of Wallace's farewell speech as governor to the Alabama state house employees. As the cameras panned over the crowd - vastly minority - tears were streaming down as many black faces as white. I knew then that there was an untold story here. This, one of the brilliant John Frankenheimer's last productions, tells that story. The acting, pacing, dramatic line and production values are all first rate.One would have wished for a bit more time given to the apoplexy which Wallace's presidential drives in the 60's gave to the powers-that-be in both parties. We forget that Wallace's successes in the northeast as a candidate who articulated the disenfranchisement felt by the middle class, was a huge factor in the movement of the country away from LBJ liberalism and towards conservatism, culminating in the elections of Richard Nixon (himself no conservative, though he ran as one) and ultimately Ronald Reagan. An iconoclastic film which deserves all the awards it received. Just don't try to find in the video stores north of the Mason/Dixon line.

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