Bill Mc Kay (Robert Redford) California Democratic candidate for U.S. Senator a man of integrity & ideals will now let the great American political machine manipulate him. Because now he's got to win. The Candidate directed by Michael Ritchie from an on-target Academy Award-winning Best Original Screenplay (1972) by Jeremy Larner is all about the packaging of today's office-seeker. Still timely after 25 years it's a sharp insider's view of how admen press agents pollsters & media czars converge on election campaigns. Peter Boyle Melvyn Douglas & Don Porter co-star in one of the wittiest political movies ever made.