MovieChat Forums > Spinning Boris (2004) Discussion > Spinning Boris Truth Squad

Spinning Boris Truth Squad

posted 19 years ago by woodwardsfriend
7 replies | jump to latest

Enjoyed the film but like all based upon true story films, I took it with a certain grain of salt. However there is very little on-line about Gorton and Company's work on the Yeltsin campaign. Some articles claim these guys had little to do with Yeltsin's turn around but little to back that up, except that they kept a low profile in Russia and a few low-level Yeltsin cronies bashed the film. Hardly compelling. I mean they did do something, no one pays campaign consultants $250,000 to sit in a hotel room and twidle their thumbs and anyone with a brain knows there was a sea change in Yeltsin's campaign in the final four or five months. At the same time I've been around political consultants, Spinning Boris did paint a rather grandiose image of the protagonists. Anyone have a clue as to the real story?

[–] janeiz 19 years ago

According to some documentaries I've seen on TV here in Europe, Yeltsin won his campaign because of massive media backing in the last few months for which he paid with money lent to him by "new" entrepeneurs.
These new entrepreneurs asked for a guarantee before giving Yeltsin his campaign money. These guarantees were stocks in companies not yet privatized, the most valuable possesions of the Russian state: the oil and mining companies, some of the factories.
When Yeltsin was elected he paid back the money by basicly giving away these state-companies to his financers. Michael Hodokovsky, now in jail because he took on Putin, was one of them. It is not strange that people like him have no backing from the Russian people what so ever.
Question of who actually made these commercials seems rather trivial to me, not really important.

[–] woodwardsfriend 19 years ago

Well that does nothing to answer my question but thanks for the faux-Noan Chomsky rant. "Question of who actually made these commercials seems rather trivial to me, not really important." Political consultants of Gorton and Dresner's caliber don't "just make commercials. Look at our last three Presidents...none of them would have been elected without Lee Atwater, Jame Carville/Dick Morris, or Karl Rove.

My question is, again, did Gorton and Company have as much influence on the Yeltsin campaign message as Spinning Boris claims or were they, as some of Yeltsin's cronies have claimed, largely ignored.

[–] wildrose-1 19 years ago

Yes the American's did do it. Just look at the actual clips shown. Forget "Remember what we did in Iowa." and all the "Artistic Padding" necessary to make history palettable, Yeltsin went from 3+hr. speeches to smiling and dancing on the streets. That alone should tell you something.

[–] beat_man_rules 18 years ago

This movie is complete *beep* funny to watch it.Sorry but the ones who helped Yeltsen won the elections were so - called "New Russians" - Oligarhs.

[–] funkenstein3 16 years ago

Yeah, some post-Soviet political scholars really panned the portrayal of the Americans' role.

[–] StephAnneRainey 13 years ago

My father is friends with the 3 men portrayed in this movie. In fact, as a child growing up I would go with my father (also a political consultant) to many functions where Joe Shumate was working for the candidate. I considered him as an uncle. Despite that the movie showed a highly fictionalize account of their personal lives, my father has told me that the 3 of them actually did do quite a bit of work on the campaign. At the time, they were sworn to secrecy and could only tell their immediate family.
So while they may not have been the only reason Boris Yeltsin was re-elected, I am certain that their knowledge and insight was extremely helpful.

[–] lokshine 9 years ago

I remember that election very well. The oligarchs were desperate to get Yeltsin reelected at any cost. They were ready to pay big bucks to anyone with prior election campaign experience. Along with the Americans, they sought advice from Saatchi & Saatchi in London as well as consulted with some people from the 1995 Kwaśniewski campaign in Poland. It was speculated that a popular comedy film with the so-called "25th frame" (subliminal messaging) was shown on television before the election day. I would say that media manipulation and some election fraud on the local level did the trick.