Film

The Best Man

Name: The Best Man
Genre: Drama
Released: 1964
Cast: Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Edie Adams, Margaret Leighton, Shelley Berman

Other titles called The Best Man: the 1999 film, the 2023 film.

Political drama

A ruthless procedural about five men scrambling for the presidential nomination at a deadlocked convention. Gore Vidal's adaptation of his own play moves with nervous energy across backroom deals, blackmail threats, and the casual corruption of power. It's a masterclass in political gamesmanship that feels startlingly current—cynical without descending into despair.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy sharp, talky political drama where the power is in the dialogue, and a backroom deal feels as tense as a chase scene.

Skip it if you want a film that moves quickly or opens up outside its rooms, since this one stays almost entirely in hotel suites and convention corridors.

What it asks of you: It runs about an hour and forty minutes and rewards close listening, with long conversations where every line is a small move in a game.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

All the President's Men1976

Woodward and Bernstein chase the truth through Washington's maze. It has the same procedural momentum as The Best Man, the same sense that the system protects itself, but grounded in things that actually happened. Essential.

But Slower than it sounds; the payoff requires patience with conversations in parking garages and newspaper offices.

Advise & Consent1962

Otto Preminger's adaptation of Allen Drury's novel about Senate confirmation battles. The same world, same stakes, same catalogue of human weakness in high places. A companion piece made just before The Best Man.

But Over three hours and somewhat stiff in its formality; the politics matter more than personality.

The Manchurian Candidate1962

Frank Sinatra in a conspiracy thriller about a brainwashed assassin and the political machinery behind him. Paranoid, darkly funny, and it understands that ambition is the real enemy of the republic.

But It's interested in plots and twists first, character second. The tone is harder-edged than The Best Man.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Best Man

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Z1969

Both are about systems protecting themselves; both show that speaking truth is itself a dangerous act.

Costa-Gavras's masterpiece about a political assassination in an unnamed Mediterranean country. It has The Best Man's cynicism about power but transforms it into a thriller with genuine danger—these men could actually die. The same machinery, but with bullets.

But It's a French film with subtitles about a foreign coup that many viewers won't recognize. The allegories require some attention.

Fail Safe1964

Made the same year as The Best Man, it's about powerful men making decisions that could destroy the world. The dread is relentless; it shows you what happens when the system actually breaks under pressure.

But It's not interested in hope. The ending is one of cinema's bleakest moments.

The Apartment1960

Billy Wilder's comedy about climbing the corporate ladder by offering your apartment to executives for affairs. It's funny, then heartbreaking. Corruption here is intimate and human, not abstract.

But Wilder's tonal shifts don't work for everyone; some find the balance between comedy and sadness false.

Seven Days in May1964

A military coup thriller with Kirk Douglas. It shares The Best Man's belief that power corrupts the best-intentioned people. Lean, smart, enormously suspenseful.

But The paranoia is relentless and the film doesn't offer much breathing room. It can feel like a very long panic attack.

In the Heat of the Night1967

Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger in the South, investigating a murder. It's about systems that protect guilty men and the exhaustion of fighting them. Different subject, same rage at institutional corruption.

But Focused on race in ways that can feel uncomfortable; it doesn't soften the ugliness for comfort.

Anatomy of a Murder1959

Otto Preminger again, this time in a courtroom. James Stewart defending a man accused of murder. It's interested in how language, spin, and performance shape truth. Very much The Best Man's sibling.

But It's a lawyer's movie, deeply inside the mechanics of the law. If procedure bores you, so will this.

Man in the Wilderness1971

James Earl Jones as the first Black president in a thriller about succession and crisis. It engages with the same machinery as The Best Man but asks different questions about who gets to hold power.

But The script is sometimes didactic and the direction serviceable at best. It's notable more for what it represents than its execution.

Primary1960

Shot just before The Best Man, it captures the same convention-era machinery, but shows you what it actually looked like rather than dramatizing it.

Robert Drew's documentary following Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey through the 1960 Wisconsin primary. You're watching the real thing—the actual scramble for votes, the actual backroom conversations, unscripted and raw. It's The Best Man without the polish.

But It's grainy, sometimes dull, occasionally hard to follow. There's no narrative arc, just the texture of politics as it happens.

Network1976

Both films understand that the corruption isn't an exception—it's the system working as designed. Network just screams about it.

Paddy Chayefsky's acid prophecy about television and commerce destroying democracy. It shares The Best Man's contempt for systems that reward the worst impulses in us, but it's a satire so vicious it feels like prophecy. Madder, angrier, funnier.

But It's a cartoon with a point, not a naturalistic drama. Some viewers find its rage exhausting rather than cathartic.