You're listening to the West Wing Weekly Political Film Fest.

I'm Rishi K. Sherway.

And I'm Joshua Molina.

And today we're talking about the film, The Candidate.

It was written by Jeremy Larner.

It was directed by Michael Ritchie, and it was released on August 5th, 1972.

Michael Ritchie directed the original Fletch, the Chevy Chase movie, and he directed the sequel,

Fletch Lives, which was my first time on a movie set.

I was a production assistant on Fletch Lives in 1989, I think.

Did you have any interaction with Michael Ritchie?

Undoubtedly, I feel confident saying, although I don't have specific memories, that he was nice.

I feel like everyone was very nice to me, and I want to include Michael Ritchie. But it was a very

positive experience. I had a really good time on that. My dad's business partner, Bruce Bodner,

is, or was, probably still is,

Chevy Chase's manager. And so I nepo-babied my way into a job as a production assistant.

It is the way. It is certainly my way. And look, we've played six degrees of Josh Molina and

got to the answer very quickly. Already, exactly. Michael Ritchie and Robert Redford had worked together just a few years earlier on the ski film, Downhill Racer.

Yeah, and this was actually supposed to be the second in a trilogy that starts with Downhill Racer.

Downhill Racer, The Candidate, and another movie that never got made,

they were supposed to be part of a trilogy about winning, the obsession with winning.

Oh, I thought the connective tissue was that they're all movies.

So I was wondering, downhill racer in this one.

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