Review: ‘Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid’

At this year’s Hamptons International Film Festival, one of the hottest tickets was for the screening of “Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid.” It is about democratic consultant James Carville and was directed by Matt Tyrnauer. Both Carville and Tyrnauer attended the screening. After the film and the Q&A moderated by John Heilemann from the political show “The Circus,” Director Tyrnauer spoke with Hamptons.com, saying, “It is amazing to show the film with so few days left (before the election). This festival is just at the right time, and I think it’s the perfect audience for the film.” The October 10th screening preceded the World Premiere the next day in New York City. Mr. Tyrnauer called it a “pre-premiere.”

Judging by the audience’s reaction to the film as it played on the big screen at the East Hampton United Artist Theater, everyone was engaged. No matter what side of the aisle your political views lie, there can be no question that James Carville catches your attention. Matt Tyrnauer’s film crew catches Carville’s firebrand rhetoric that has probably energized both Republican and Democratic voters to cast their votes either for or against his candidates. However, there is a method to his madness, and the fact that this partisan Democrat operative married a top Republican operative (Mary Matalin Carville) and is still married some 31 years later says a lot about Carville, the man. In the documentary, she surprisingly opens up about their marriage, and what she says doesn’t always shine the brightest light on the marriage. Mr. Tyrnauer reflected on how it “… took a while before Mary warmed up to the project and agreed to speak on camera.”

This documentary crisscrossed Carville’s career but focused on the last two years of his day-to-day life. There are touching scenes of him at home with his wife, Mary, and thought-provoking scenes of how tough travel is for a political operative. The central theme was how, after the Trump-Biden debate, James Carville did all he could to convince stalwarts of the Democratic Party to talk President Joe Biden out of the race. The film takes one through the day-to-day process of phone calls and thinking, eventually leading to Vice-President Kamala Harris becoming the 2024 candidate. In the interview comments exclusively to Hamptons.com, Director Tyrnauer said,  “I have been with James for three weeks every day, and I receive texts multiple times a day with people asking what does James think (about the election) what is going to happen, and when you walk down the street with him he is bombarded with people asking him (who’s going to win) because everyone is on pins and needles right now and he can see around corners.” Afterwards in the Q&A with the film audience, Mr. Carville said he believes the election “will be very close” and made no prediction.

What was most informative were the vignettes with political legends who gave their insights and spoke of James Carville’s ability to have his finger on the nation’s political pulse. There were even some negative comments, especially by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who on film called Carville “A political hack.”  Mr. Carville seems able to politically calculate what the common man thinks, perhaps because this film takes the audience to the small town in Louisiana where Carville grew up. James Carville is the grandson of the then-town-only U.S. Postal clerk. The town was initially called “Island” but was changed to Carville after his grandfather. James Carville emerged from these humbling beginnings, and after a tour in the Marine Corps and a symbolic local political job back in Louisiana at age 38, things changed. He landed a job as an assistant to a professional political operative. At first, he had a string of humbling defeats. Still, eventually, after a big win (Bob Casey was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 1987), Carville became a very sought-after political consultant. Fatefully, in 1992, he decided to work to make Bill Clinton President, thus cementing his place in history. 

In the end, Tyrnauer said, “A full house and a big round of applause from a perfect Hamptons Audience, and a lot of love in the room for James.”