Themes: Work Ethics, Political Corruption, Crisis of Conscience
Main Cast: Alan Alda, Barbara Harris, Meryl Streep, Rip Torn, Melvyn Douglas
Release Year: 1979
Country: US
Run Time: 107 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Alan Alda wrote and starred in this tale about a big-time politician's struggles with his own morality and the corruption he finds surrounding him. He plays a U.S. Senator, Joe Tynan, who falls for a lovely lady attorney and has an affair that jeopardizes his marriage, and possibly, his career. ~ All Movie Guide
Review
Alan Alda starred in and wrote the script for this observant take on the rise of a liberal senator loosely based on the career of Ted Kennedy. While lacking the bite and wealth of detail of The Candidate (1972), it casts a similarly jaundiced eye on the world of politics, although it deals with life in Washington rather than on the campaign trail. Alda plays a character not too far from his good guy persona, and in the course of the politician's everyday, almost banal transactions, makes one see just how omnipresent and alluring are the temptations that spring up in the path of even the most well-intentioned person of power. When he slips into an affair with a coltish labor lawyer played by the young Meryl Streep, their scenes have a sense of playful eroticism rather than an air of guilt-ridden adultery, as Alda temporarily suspends judgment. But it's the larger perks of power and influence that the title addresses, and it is these which will test his mettle. While the shell games and horse-trading of politics are sharply noted, the motivations of Alda's character remain somewhat elusive, and the film's best and most revealing scene deals not with politics per se, but with Alda's marriage to a wife, played by Barbara Harris, who hates his profession. Among a stellar cast, Harris is by far the best as a woman with penetrating vision, but Streep, Rip Torn, and Melvyn Douglas, an actor who knew politics from the inside, are also superb. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Charles Kimbrough - Francis; Blanche Baker - Janet; Adam Ross - Paul Tynan; Carrie Nye - Aldena Kittner; Chris Arnold - Jerry; Maurice Copeland - Edward Anderson; Robert Christian - Arthur Briggs; Clarence Felder - Golf Pro; Merv Griffin - Himself; Marian Hailey - Sheila Lerner; Dan Hedaya - Alex Heller; Michael Higgins - Sen. Pardew; Ronald Hunter - TV News Director; Walter Klavun - Waldorf M.C.; Kaiulani Lee - Angela; Charles Levin - John Cairn; Bill Moor - Barry Traynor; Novella Nelson - Carla Willis; Stephen D. Newman - Congressman Wayne Tiler; Frederick Rolf - Harvard Professor; Peter Henry Schroeder - Ned (The Senator); Martha Sherrill - Woman at Golf Resort; Ben Slack - Man in T-Shirt; Leon B. Stevens - Senator Hamer; Suzanne Stone - Reporter; Maureen Anderman - Joe's Secretary; John Badila - Reporter on TV; Christopher McHale - Bert - Radio Aide; Don Plumley - Clerk at Golf Resort; William Shust
Credit
David Chapman - Art Director, Jo Ynocencio - Costume Designer, Ralph Singleton - First Assistant Director, Jerry Schatzberg - Director, Evan Lottman - Editor, Louis A. Stroller - Executive Producer, Bill Conti - Composer (Music Score), Adam Holender - Cinematographer, Martin Bregman - Producer, Louis A. Stroller - Producer, Alan Hicks - Set Designer, James J. Sabat - Sound/Sound Designer, Alan Alda - Screenwriter
The Seduction of Joe Tynan is a 1979 political film drama made by Universal Pictures, directed by Jerry Schatzberg and produced by Martin Bregman.[1] The screenplay was by Alan Alda, who also played the title role.[2]
